title: Costs and benefits of self-efficacy: Differences of the stress response and clinical implications.
abstract: Encounters with stressors induce diverse idiosyncratic neuroendocrine, behavioral and psychological reactions across people. Perceived self-efficacy can alter autonomic responses and their effects on mental health. The beneficial effects of self-efficacy in buffering physiological arousal, enhancing performance, and diminishing psychopathological symptoms have been observed in diverse contexts. We show that the role of self-efficacy is not uniformly beneficial, and that higher levels of self-efficacy can sometimes lead to increases in neuroendocrine and psychological stress responses and decreases in performance, a phenomenon that has been widely neglected. We discuss specific conditions under which self-efficacy effects do not uniformly ameliorate or prevent the consequences of stress. These conditions suggest that therapeutic interventions need not always promote self-efficacy in principal. Simultaneously, they to do suggest that keeping self-efficacy high might be disadvantageous or detrimental.
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. Electronic address: pia.schoenfeld@rub.de.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schönfeld
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Preusser
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Margraf
mesh_terms: D001341:Autonomic Nervous System; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D006801:Humans; D008603:Mental Health; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013315:Stress, Psychological
keywords: Autonomic arousal; Mental health; Negative effects; Performance; Self-efficacy; Stress; Stress response