Waldemar Mittag

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.

Interaction of employment status and self-efficacy on alcohol consumption: A two-wave study on stressful life transitions

Abstract Stress-related alcohol consumption was examined in a sample of 270 migrants and refugees who left East Germany before or immediately after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. Many of them experienced unemployment as a very stressful life circumstance. At two points in time, alcohol consumption, employment status, and perceived self-efficacy were measured. It was expected that positive self-beliefs would be associated with less risk behavior and that these beliefs would moderate the relationship between stress and coping. This was found, however, for men (n=165) only. Their alcohol consumption was not only higher than that of women (n= 105), it also was interactively related to employment status and perceived self-efficacy. Confidence in ones coping competence turned out to be a buffer of stress-induced alcohol consumption.

Förderung sozialer Kompetenzen im Unterricht

Zusammenfassung: Im Rahmen des Projekts “Forderung von Selbstwirksamkeit und Selbstbestimmung im Unterricht (FoSS)” wurden 97 Lehrerinnen und Lehrer mit kooperativen Lernstrategien vertraut gemacht, die sie zur Starkung sozialer Kompetenzen von Schulerinnen und Schulern und des Klassenklimas im Unterricht einsetzen sollten. Uber den Interventionszeitraum von einem Schuljahr zeigten sich bei einem globalen Vergleich von 421 Schulerinnen und Schulern aus Interventionsklassen mit 353 Schulerinnen und Schulern aus Kontrollklassen zunachst keine unterschiedlichen Posttestwerte der Kriterien soziale Selbstwirksamkeitserwartung, Fahigkeit zur Perspektivenubernahme und erlebte Hilfsbereitschaft in der Klasse. Innerhalb der Interventionsgruppen konnten aber unterschiedliche Effekte in Abhangigkeit vom Implementationsausmas festgestellt werden. So sind in Schulen, deren Lehrkrafte uber eine deutlich zunehmende Nutzung kooperativer Strategien berichteten, die sozialen Kompetenzen und die erlebte Hilfsbereitschaft de...

Gesundheitsförderung und Prävention im Kindes- und Jugendalter

ZusammenfassungDas Kindes- und Jugendalter sind sensible Perioden für die Entstehung und Stabilisierung gesundheitlichen Risikoverhaltens. Kinder und Jugendliche sind daher wichtige Zielgruppen von Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung. Vor dem Hintergrund epidemiologischer Befunde werden zunächst generelle Zielsetzungen und Strategien der Gesundheitsförderung dargestellt. Mit dem Fokus auf schulischer Gesundheitsförderung geht es anschließend um den theoretischen Hintergrund und die Wirkungen psychosozialer Ansätze (Standfestigkeits- und Lebenskompetenztrainings). Dabei wird insbesondere die entwicklungspsychologische Bedeutung von Lebenskompetenzen für die Manifestation von Risikoverhalten veranschaulicht. Abschließend werden Perspektiven für die zukünftige Forschung zur Gesundheitsförderung und Prävention im Kindes- und Jugendalter aufgezeigt.AbstractChildhood and adolescence are sensitive periods for the onset and manifestation of health-risky behaviours. Thus, both age groups are important targets of prevention and health-promotion measures. First, referring to epidemiological data general aims and strategies of health promotion are presented. Then, focusing on health promotion at school, the theoretical background and outcomes of psychosocial approaches (resistance skills trainings and life skills trainings) are explained in more detail. In this context the developmental psychological importance of life skills for the manifestation of risk behaviour is illustrated. Finally, perspectives for future research on health promotion and prevention in childhood and adolescence are discussed.

Determinanten des Rauchverhaltens bei Jugendlichen und Transfereffekte eines schulischen Gesundheitsprogrammes

Zusammenfassung. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht Transfereffekte eines schulischen Gesundheitsprogramms zur Pravention von Alkohol- und Medikamentenkonsum auf den Bereich der Rauchpravention. Zur...

Self-Concept and Information-Processing: Methodological Problems and Theoretical Implications

Recent research on the self has come to view the self-concept as a dynamic and multidimensional structure. Depending on the theoretical position of the researcher, the self-system—or the self-structure—is conceived of as a set of different kinds of selfconceptions and self-representations (e.g., schemata, images, prototypes, theories, standards, etc.). Different models of the self have been suggested concerning the nature of these cognitive representations and the cognitive structure of the self-system. For instance, some theorists have proposed seeing the self as a node in an associative memory network with self-conceptions stored as propositions (Bower & Gilligan, 1979). Others have conceptualized the self-concept as a hierarchical category structure (e.g., Carver & Scheier, 1981; Kihlstrom & Cantor, 1984; Rogers, 1981) or as a multidimensional meaning space (e.g., Greenwald & Pratkanis, 1984). Still another view of the self has been put forward by Markus and colleagues (Markus, 1983; Markus & Sentis, 1982; Markus & Smith, 1981; Markus & Wurf, 1987). Following the schema-theoretical approach of cognitive psychology (e.g., Neisser, 1976; Rumelhart, 1984), the self can be conceptualized as a system of cognitive self-schemata (cf. Oosterwegel & Oppenheimer, 1993; Oppenheimer, this volume).