Matthias Jerusalem

Self-efficacy in Changing Societies: Self-efficacy in stressful life transitions

During the revolutionary events in East Germany in 1989, more than 300,000 citizens left that country and moved to West Germany. As a result of this exodus, more than 50,000 migrants settled in West Berlin. Some came via the West German embassies in Warsaw, Prague, or Budapest, or fled the country under other dubious and dangerous conditions. A larger number crossed the border after the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. The aim of our program of research was to investigate psychoemotional and health-related adaptation processes within a subgroup of these migrants, that is, young adults. The focus centers on two research issues, both of which concern the contribution of perceived self-efficacy to adaptation processes. The first issue is concerned with whether general self-efficacy beliefs are affected by this stressful life transition. The stressors include the environmental constraints in the new country, unemployment, and lack of social support. The second issue examined the extent to which interindividual differences in stress appraisals, emotional states, and health can be predicted by general beliefs in personal efficacy, employment status, and partnership status as an indicator of access to social support. In this context, self-efficacy is conceived of not as a domain-specific or situation-specific cognition but as a traitlike general sense of confidence in ones own capabilities to master different types of environmental demands.

Adaptation and validation of an estonian version of the general self-efficacy scale (ESES)

Abstract General self-efficacy pertains to the subjective confidence of being able to master stressful demands by means of adaptive action. A strong sense of personal efficacy is related to better health, higher achievement, and more social integration. General self-efficacy is measured with a ten-item scale by Schwarzer and Jerusalem (1995) which has been proven reliable and valid in various field studies. The aim of the present study was to develop an Estonian version of this instrument. A total of 670 participants (378 women and 292 men) consisting of three subgroups (290 healthy individuals, 228 mentally ill and 152 physically ill patients) filled in a questionnaire containing the ten-item Estonian Self-Efficacy Scale (ESES), and further items assessing related psychoemotional variables such as depression, anxiety, stress, affectivity, self-control and irrational beliefs. The psychometric properties of the ESES turned out to be satisfactory, and reliability and validity indices were mostly in line wit...

Optimistic Self-Beliefs as a Resource Factor in Coping with Stress

When people face adversity they can appraise the encounter as being challenging, threatening, or harmful before turning to coping strategies to alleviate the stress (Hobfoll, 1988, 1989; Jerusalem & Schwarzer, 1992; Lazarus, 1991). Cognitive appraisal and coping represent two critical stages in the stress process. One’s resources come into play at both stages. Resources can be material, social, health or personal assets that may be of use in the confrontation of difficult problems. But these resources represent only a potential. To be of service they have to be perceived by the individual. One has to identify the appropriate resources and to make use of them. For example, it is not enough to have a close social network one also has to mobilize it to receive actual social support in times of need. Believing in one’s resources makes a difference initially when it comes to appraising the stressful encounter and it does so again later on when one copes with adversity. In the present chapter, we deal exclusively with a personality disposition that can buffer stress appraisal, coping, and stress experience. We focus on optimistic self-beliefs as an important personal resource factor. For this purpose, we will first discuss the theoretical status of three kinds of optimistic self-beliefs: explanatory style, generalized outcome expectancies, and perceived self-efficacy. We believe that the last one represents the most promising construct because of its theoretical foundation and overwhelming empirical evidence. In the subsequent section, we will present data from a longitudinal study on stressful life transitions experienced by Fast Germans who left their country in the wake of the breakdown of the communist system in order to support our theoretical treatise.

Anxiety and self-concept as antecedents of stress and coping: A longitudinal study with German and Turkish adolescents

Abstract Two ways of coping with stress have been discussed frequently in the literature: problem-focused (instrumental) coping and emotion-focused coping. They are conceived of here as situation-specific and moderately stable coping preferences. The present study investigates to what extent these subjective coping preferences can be predicted by individual and cultural differences in coping resources and coping vulnerabilities. Self-concept is considered as such a personal resource whereas anxiety is considered as a vulnerability factor. Within a longitudinal design German and Turkish apprentices served as subjects. By analysis of variance and by covariance structure analysis (LISREL) it could be demonstrated that emotion-focused coping is mainly influenced by anxiety whereas self-concept turned out to be beneficial for problem-focused coping in the German subsample.

Internetsucht: Jugendliche gefangen im Netz

Das Internet als Suchtmaschine — Immer haufiger finden sich in den internationalen Medien alarmierende Fallbeispiele einer neuen Sucht. Dargestellt werden meist jugendliche, mannliche Internetnutzer, die scheinbar vom Internet abhangig geworden sind, wie andere Menschen von Drogen, Alkohol, Zigaretten oder dem Glucksspiel. Selbst die geschilderten sozialen Konsequenzen sind vergleichbar: Misserfolge und Leistungsbeeintrachtigungen in der Schule oder im Beruf bis zum Verlust des Arbeitsplatzes oder dauerhafte Trennung von Freunden oder dem Lebenspartner. Hilferufe von selbstettiketierten Betroffenen in einschlagigen Onlineforen und Bucher ehemaliger Betroffener, die zu Bestsellern avancierten (Farke 1998; 1999), komplettieren das mediale Bild. Ist Internetsucht eine Erfindung der Medien, die Internetnutzern die Moglichkeit bietet, schwer fassbare personliche Probleme zu benennen, oder ist Internetsucht ein reales psychologisches Phanomen, dessen sich Psychologen, Padagogen und Suchttherapeuten annehmen sollten (vgl. Hunerfauth 2000)?

Negative affect in east german migrants: Longitudinal effects of unemployment and social support

Abstract Migrants have to deal with a number of stressors, among them tenacious job search and the constitution of a new social network. Prolonged unemployment and lack of social support can result in enduring negative affect. A sample of 235 East Germans was investigated three times during two years following their transition to West Berlin in 1989, after the breakdown of the communist system. Their anxiety and depression levels were initially high but declined over time. The majority found a job during this time span and succeeded to adapt psychosocially. Those, however, who remained unemployed were worse off in terms of well-being. The stress-affect relationship was moderated, however, by social support. Within the group of migrants who suffered from long-term joblessness, social support exerted a longitudinal buffer effect. At Wave 3, most anxiety and depression was reported by migrants who neither held a job nor received support. In a longitudinal causal model, the employment status affected mainly n...

Temporal patterns of stress appraisals for high- and low-anxious individuals

Abstract According to the cognitive-relational theory of stress, emotions, and coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984, 1987), cognitive appraisals are seen as mediating processes that refer to the stakes a person has in a stressful encounter and to the coping options. They result in either challenge, threat, or harm/loss. It is undetermined, however, how these appraisals are interrelated over time and whether they can occur simultaneously. An idealized motivation model has been established to stimulate research on this issue. The present experiment has been set up to assess the dynamic pattern of cognitive appraisals at nine points in time under stress, defined as continuous failure at demanding academic tasks. Trait anxiety is considered to represent a personal vulnerability component among other antecedents of appraisals. Therefore, anxiety was used as a between-groups factor. Very different patterns of appraisals emerged for low- and high-anxious subjects, indicating that low trait anxiety buffers the experie...

Individual and Community Stress: Integration of Approaches at Different Levels

The last two decades have witnessed a dramatic increase of theoretical and empirical efforts aimed at understanding the nature of the human stress process. The contemporary literature includes many theoretical propositions, integrative models, and research findings that have advanced our ability to predict and explain people’s responses to stressful life circumstances (e.g., Ensel & Lin, 1991; Goldberger & Breznitz, 1993; Hobfoll, 1988; Jerusalem, 1993; Jerusalem & Schwarzer, 1989; Lazarus, 1991; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Moos, 1986; Pearlin, 1989). However, the vast majority of this literature has focused on the analysis of the stress process at the level of the individual. We know a great deal about how a single person in the context of his or her own personal resources, stress appraisals, coping efforts and environmental constraints confronts a variety of stressful circumstances. In contrast, community stress processes, that pertain to the issue of what happens when an entire community is affected by a common stressor, have been examined less frequently. Are there parallels between the essentials of individual stress processes and the dynamics of stress at the community level? Is it possible to conceptually differentiate between both stress processes and to integrate them into a common theoretical framework? Certainly, there are no readily available answers to these challenging questions.

Reference Group, Learning Environment and Self-Evaluations: A Dynamic Multi-Level Analysis with Latent Variables

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a dynamic multilevel analysis of reference group, learning environment, and self-evaluations. The development and change of self-related cognitions and self-concept can be conceptualized within the framework of a transitional stress model. Self-related cognitions refer to subjective competences, that have been acquired by learning experiences and determine the appraisal process of a situation as being stressful or not. Stresses are experienced when the situation demands tax or exceeds subjective competences. Slight discrepancies present challenges, whereas larger discrepancies are experienced as threatening or even loss of control going together with a decrease in self-esteem. A transactional model makes it necessary to analyze the relationship between self-related cognitions and self-concept in more detail. There are interindividual differences in self-related cognitions concerning their influence, kind, and process, which are not only determined by situational differences, but there are also dispositional differences to take into account. The study presented in the chapter also helps to make conclusion that subjectively different socialization conditions in secondary school have a strong impact on the stability of childrens academic self-concepts.

Predicting adolescent health complaints by personality and Behaviors

Abstract In a sample of 97 male adolescents, individual differences in health complaints were predicted by personality traits and by self-reported health/risk behaviors. Anxiety and loneliness were measured at Times 1 and 2, and health locus of control, various behaviors and health complaints were assessed at the end of the two-year study. A causal model was specified, employing anxiety and loneliness as distal predictors, health locus of control and behaviors as proximal predictors of health complaints. It turned out that anxiety was the most powerful single predictor, and that loneliness exerted a direct effect on health locus of control and behaviors and an indirect effect on health complaints. Risk behavior as well as health behavior were related to complaints. Social integration facilitated not only health behavior but also risk behavior.