CHANGING MOTIVATION 181because they believe they will eventually succeed. By contrast, low SE undermines
striving. High SE also minimizes stress (because of favourable secondary appraisals, see
Chapter 3), which enhances skilled performance (Bandura, 1997). Moreover, high
SE facilitates concentration on the task rather than concerns about personal deficien-
cies or exaggeration of task demands (Wood and Bandura, 1989) thereby minim-
izing anxiety during performance. Thus SE affects how people conceptualize a task,
how confident they feel during performance, how persistent they are in the face of
setbacks, how much effort they invest and how they feel about themselves during
performance.
Self-efficacy and health
As well as affecting performance, SE levels affect health directly by moderating the
impact of potential stressors on physiological systems. Low SE generates stress, which
elicits a variety of physiological responses (see Chapter 2). These include the release
of catecholamines into the bloodstream, such as adrenaline and cortisol, from the
adrenal gland. This, in turn, increases heart rate, blood pressure, sugar levels and blood
flow to large muscle groups. SE changes have been found to be associated with
catecholamine activation (Bandura, 1997) providing a plausible mechanism by which
SE levels alter the physiological impact of environmental demands on the body. It is
unsurprising, therefore, that high SE is associated with less down-regulation of the
immune system in response to stressors (Wiedenfeld et al., 1990). It has also been argued
that intermittent (as opposed to chronic) stress responses may ‘toughen’ physiological
systems by dampening down stress responses over time (Dienstbier, 1989), i.e. periodic
increases in sympathetic nervous system arousal train the body to respond less extremely
to subsequent stressors. However, this effect depends on these intermittent stressors
being perceived as challenges (rather than threats), which, in turn, depends on high
SE in relation to actions required by such stressors.
Identify three television advertisements that illustrate application of evidence-based
principles of persuasion.ACTIVITY 8.3Enhancing self-efficacy
Bandura (1997, 1999) argues that there are four main approaches to enhancing self-
efficacy:
1 mastery experiences;
2 vicarious experience;
3 verbal persuasion; and
4 perception of physiological and affective states.