Health Promotion by Social Cognitive Means
Bandura / Health Promotion 10.1177/1090198104263660 ARTICLE
Health Education & Behavior31 April 2 (April 2004)
Health Promotion by Social Cognitive Means
Albert Bandura, PhD
This article examines health promotion and disease prevention from the perspective of social cognitive theory. This theory posits a multifaceted causal structure in which self-efficacy beliefs operate together with goals, outcome expectations, and perceived environmental impediments and facilitators in the regulation of human motivation, behavior, and well-being. Belief in one’s efficacy to exercise control is a common pathway through which psychosocial influences affect health functioning. This core belief affects each of the basic processes of personal change—whether people even consider changing their health habits, whether they mobilize the motivation and perseverance needed to succeed should they do so, their ability to recover from setbacks and relapses, and how well they maintain the habit changes they have achieved. Human health is a social matter, not just an individual one. A comprehensive approach to health promotion also requires changing the practices of social systems that have widespread effects on human health. Keywords: social cognitive theory; self-efficacy; self-regulation; collective efficacy; self-management model
I am deeply honored to be a recipient of the Healthtrac Award. It is a special honor to be recognized by a foundation that promotes the betterment of human health in the ways I value highly. In comparing myself to the figure Larry so generously described, I feel like a Swiss yodeler following Pavarotti. The field of health is changing from a disease model to a health model. It is just as meaningful to speak of levels of vitality and healthfulness as of degrees of impairment and debility. Health promotion should begin with goals, not means.1 If health is the goal, biomedical interventions are not the only means to it. A broadened perspective expands the
Health Education & Behavior31 April 2 (April 2004)
Health Promotion by Social Cognitive Means
Albert Bandura, PhD
This article examines health promotion and disease prevention from the perspective of social cognitive theory. This theory posits a multifaceted causal structure in which self-efficacy beliefs operate together with goals, outcome expectations, and perceived environmental impediments and facilitators in the regulation of human motivation, behavior, and well-being. Belief in one’s efficacy to exercise control is a common pathway through which psychosocial influences affect health functioning. This core belief affects each of the basic processes of personal change—whether people even consider changing their health habits, whether they mobilize the motivation and perseverance needed to succeed should they do so, their ability to recover from setbacks and relapses, and how well they maintain the habit changes they have achieved. Human health is a social matter, not just an individual one. A comprehensive approach to health promotion also requires changing the practices of social systems that have widespread effects on human health. Keywords: social cognitive theory; self-efficacy; self-regulation; collective efficacy; self-management model
I am deeply honored to be a recipient of the Healthtrac Award. It is a special honor to be recognized by a foundation that promotes the betterment of human health in the ways I value highly. In comparing myself to the figure Larry so generously described, I feel like a Swiss yodeler following Pavarotti. The field of health is changing from a disease model to a health model. It is just as meaningful to speak of levels of vitality and healthfulness as of degrees of impairment and debility. Health promotion should begin with goals, not means.1 If health is the goal, biomedical interventions are not the only means to it. A broadened perspective expands the
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