General self-efficacy is the belief in one's competence to cope with a broad range of stressful or challenging demands, whereas specific self-efficacy is constrained to a particular task at hand. Relations between general self-efficacy and social cognitive variables (intention, implementation intentions, outcome expectancies, and self-regulation), behavior-specific self-efficacy, health behaviors, well-being, and coping strategies were examined among 1,933 respondents in 3 countries: Germany (n = 633), Poland (n = 359), and South Korea (n = 941). Participants were between 16 and 86 years old, and some were dealing with stressful situations such as recovery from myocardial events or tumor surgery. Perceived self-efficacy was measured by means of the General Self-Efficacy Scale (R. Schwarzer & M. Jerusalem, 1995). Meta-analysis was used to determine population effect sizes for four sets of variables. Across countries and samples, there is consistent evidence for associations between perceived self-efficacy and the variables under study confirming the validity of the psychometric scale. General self-efficacy appears to be a universal construct that yields meaningful relations with other psychological constructs.

The theoretical developments and research evidence for the self-regulation framework explain the cognitive mechanisms of behavior change and adherence to treatment in the rehabilitation setting.

Based on social-cognitive theory (Bandura, 1997), this paper examined whether perceived self-efficacy is a universal psychological construct that accounts for variance within various domains of human functioning. Perceived self-efficacy is not only of a task-specific nature, but it can also be identified at a more general level of functioning. General self-efficacy (GSE) is the belief in one's competence to tackle novel tasks and to cope with adversity in a broad range of stressful or challenging encounters, as opposed to specific self-efficacy, which is constrained to a particular task at hand. The study aimed at exploring the relations between GSE and a variety of other psychological constructs across several countries. Relations between general self-efficacy and personality, well-being, stress appraisals, social relations, and achievements were examined among 8796 participants from Costa Rica, Germany, Poland, Turkey, and the USA. Across countries, the findings provide evidence for associations between perceived general self-efficacy and the selected variables. The highest positive associations were with optimism, self-regulation, and self-esteem, whereas the highest negative associations emerged with depression and anxiety. Academic performance is also associated with self-efficacy as hypothesized. The replication across languages or cultures adds significance to these findings. The relations between self-efficacy and other personality measures remained stable across cultures and samples. Thus, perceived general self-efficacy appears to be a universal construct that yields meaningful relations with other psychological constructs.S e basant sur la théorie sociale-cognitive (Bandura, 1997), l'efficacité de soi perçue fut examinée comme un construit psychologique universel contribuant à la variance dans divers domaines du fonctionnement humain. L'efficacité de soi perçue n'est pas seulement reliée à une tâ che de nature spécifique, mais elle peut aussi être identifiée comme un niveau de fonctionnement plus général. L'efficacité de soi générale est la croyance qu'une personne possède la compétence pour faire face aux tâ ches nouvelles et pour gérer l'adversité dans un large éventail d'événements représentant un stress ou un défi, à l'opposé de l'efficacité de soi spécifique qui est restreinte à une tâ che particulière. Cette étude visait à explorer les relations entre l'efficacité de soi générale et une variété d'autres construits psychologiques à travers les pays. Les relations entre l'efficacité de soi générale et la personnalité, le bien-être, l'évaluation du stress, les relations sociales et les accomplissements furent examinées parmi 8,796 participants du Costa Rica, de l'Allemagne, de la Pologne, de la Turquie et des É tats-Unis. À travers ces pays, les résultats fournissent des évidences d'associations entre l'efficacité de soi générale et les variables sélectionnées. Les plus fortes associations positives furent avec l'optimisme, l'autorégulation et l'estime de soi, tandis que les plus fortes association...

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the literature on two planning intervention techniques in health behaviour research, implementation intentions and action planning, and to develop evidence-based recommendations for effective future interventions and highlight priority areas for future research. We focused our review on four key areas: (1) definition and conceptualisation; (2) format and measurement; (3) mechanisms and processes; and (4) design issues. Overall, evidence supports the effectiveness of planning interventions in health behaviour with advantages including low cost and response burden. There is, however, considerable heterogeneity in the effects across studies and relatively few registered randomised trials that include objective behavioural measures. Optimally-effective planning interventions should adopt 'if-then' plans, account for salient and relevant cues, include examples of cues, be guided rather than user-defined, and include boosters. Future studies should adopt randomised controlled designs, report study protocols, include fidelity checks and relevant comparison groups, and adopt long-term behavioural follow-up measures. Priority areas for future research include the identification of the moderators and mediators of planning intervention effects. Future research also needs to adopt 'best practice' components of planning interventions more consistently to elucidate the mechanisms and processes involved.