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There’s a reason I avoid the dance floor.
Humans don’t like failing. Let’s be honest, we’re more likely to engage in an activity when we know we have a good chance of being successful.
We do a little mental calculation before deciding to take part in something, and we weigh the odds of failure based on how we perceive our capabilities in that specific situation.
Exercise settings can be intimidating to newcomers, who often don’t know what to expect from a new workout. Doubt, anxiety, and reluctance start to creep up, and the individual is left sapped of energy and excitement before the workout has even begun.
How can we, the teachers, trainers, and coaches, avoid situations like these and convince new exercisers that they are in fact capable of being successful?
Self-Efficacy Theory
Self-efficacy, a term coined by psychologist Albert Bandura, can be defined as a situation specific form of self-confidence.
In other words, self-efficacy is an individual’s belief that they will be successful in specific situations based on their perceived abilities. Someone may be confident in their ability to run a certain distance on a treadmill, but may not have the same confidence to run outdoors.
Research has shown that self-efficacy can predict and influence behavior, especially health-related behavior change.
One common application is with physical activity, especially with people who are unfamiliar or new to exercise.
Self-efficacy has been shown to influence outcome expectations of exercise, which include affective (emotions), cognitive (thoughts), and physiological outcomes.
These expectations can affect a person’s willingness to engage in physical activity, as well as the degree to which they exert themselves (low self-efficacy = low effort).
Someone with high self-efficacy toward a task is likely to stick around long enough to see progress, whereas someone with low self-efficacy is likely to abandon the activity or approach it with a lack of enthusiasm and energy (remember my feeling about dance floors?).
Likewise, higher self-efficacy will lead to more positive outcomes following a workout. Positive mood, elevated energy levels, and an increased sense of accomplishment are just some of the few positive exercise-induced outcomes.
It is important to note that self-efficacy is an effective indicator of engagement for novel and challenging activities only. This makes it a perfect consideration for any type of teacher/trainer/coach who is working with new students/athletes/clients.
Self-Efficacy Model
Now, just because we know what self-efficacy is, does not necessarily mean that we know how to foster it in our learning environments.
There are specific teaching practices that we can use that will help create environments where new exercisers have opportunities to develop their self-efficacy, and these things are much easier to do than one might think.
Bandura states that there are 4 main sources of self-efficacy:
- Past Performances
- Vicarious Experiences
- Social Persuasion
- Psychological/Affective States
These sources are listed in descending order of impact, meaning that the first source is more powerful than the second, and so on.
Below is a concept map that shows the influence of the four sources on self-efficacy, as well as the relationship between self-efficacy and behavior, cognition, and affect (outcome expectations of exercise).
Notice that there is a double-arrow between self-efficacy and outcome expectations. This is a bi-directional relationship, meaning that self-efficacy affects outcome expectations, but is also affected by outcome expectations.
Sources of Self-Efficacy
Now that we know more about self-efficacy and what makes up the model, let’s look at each of the sources of self-efficacy a bit more in depth.
1 – Past Performances
Past performances are activities that a person has previously engaged in with some degree of success. The more similar the past performance is to the current activity, the stronger the self-efficacy will be.
This is the most influential of the four sources of self-efficacy, and so it is crucial to include as part of an introductory protocol for new students/clients/patients/athletes. Knowing what an individual has experience with will help in selecting appropriate exercises for their training, as well as give insight for motivating the individual during the activity.
Exercise history can be a very helpful tool for assessing what type of exercise will cause discomfort, and how that could possibly influence the individual’s behavior, cognitions, and affect (feelings) related to exercise.
In a sense, you are reminding the exerciser about what they’ve done in the past and how those successes can be transferred into the present.
2 – Vicarious Experiences (Modeling)
The second source of self-efficacy, vicarious experiences, has many applications.
Modeling is one of these applications. This is where a subject observes the behavior of another person (the model) before trying to replicate that behavior.
The simplest example of modeling and self-efficacy is where a new exerciser watches a more experienced exerciser perform an activity. The more similar the model is to the individual, the stronger the effect of the modeling will be on the individual’s self-efficacy.
As a basic example, a group of senior-aged women learning barbell training might benefit more from having a 65-year-old female instructor demonstrate the exercise, rather than a 25-year-old male instructor.
Likewise, celebrities and athletes can be very influential models. Elementary school aged athletes may feel more confident about their ability to eat a balanced breakfast if an NFL player talks to them about how much time he spends preparing his food for a healthy start to the day.
Lastly, modeling of this kind also works without using actual people. Pictures, videos, and avatars are all alternative ways of modeling behavior in exercise settings.
3 – Social Persuasion
The third source of self-efficacy, social persuasion, consists of both verbal and non-verbal ways to encourage and increase an individual’s self-efficacy.
Basic verbal feedback from instructors and peers can be powerful confidence builders. Feedback that is specific, constructive, immediate, and positive is most effective at increasing self-efficacy.
Non-verbal persuasion focuses more so on social forces that encourage behavior. This oftentimes appears in the form of support from a spouse, family, friends, or peers.
Social norms also have an effect on self-efficacy. Humans are products of their environments, and important lifestyle habits, such as diet and exercise, can be heavily influenced by one’s social network.
4 – Physiological/Affective States
The last source of self-efficacy is a group of moods and feelings that an individual may experience before, during, or after exercise.
This can be something like butterflies in your stomach before a game or a competition, or happiness and pride for accomplishing a new personal best in the weight room.
However, the physiological part of exercise includes soreness, fatigue, and sometimes injury. Having a new client train beyond their comfort zone may leave them sore for days, not excited to come back for another workout.
The goal is to stimulate, not annihilate. It is important to give new exercisers workouts that are appropriate for them, and it is also important to educate beginners about what type of physiological states to expect (ie. soreness and fatigue vs injury).
(5) – Imaginative Experiences
James Maddux added a fifth source of self-efficacy, which he named Imaginative Experiences. Although imagery would normally be included with vicarious experiences in Bandura’s model, Maddux makes it a category of its own.
The emphasis here is on visualizing success in the future, in an attempt to boost self-efficacy before actually getting into those scenarios.
Because this is the last source of self-efficacy, it should also (in theory) be the least influential. However, visualization could be a valuable tool for developing self-efficacy when combined with some of the other sources listed above.
In Closing…
Take some time to consider self-efficacy if you work with individuals new to exercise, or if you are working with special populations where physical activity may be used differently, such as in rehabilitation environments.
A little bit of extra thought in your teaching practice can go a long way, and creating environments that foster learner’s self-efficacy will benefit you (the teacher) and the students over time.
Sources
Lox, C. L., Martin Ginis, K. A., & Petruzzello, S. J. (2014). The psychology of exercise: Integrating theory and practice (4rd edition). Scottsdale, AZ: Holcomb Hathaway Publishers.
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