Self-Efficacy, Anxiety, and Phobic Disorders

Abstract

Anxiety and phobic disorders are among the most prevalent, distressing, and disabling of psychosocial problems. They are problems that have long fascinated psychological theorists, and were the first phenomena to which self-efficacy theory was applied (Bandura, 1977; Bandura & Adams, 1977; Bandura, Adams, & Beyer, 1977). Since that initial work, considerable additional research has addressed how people's views of their own coping abilities bear on diverse adjustment problems (Maddux, 1991). This chapter reviews the status of self-efficacy perceptions as causes of anxiety and phobia, and whether self-efficacy theory is heuristic in developing improved treatments. The focus is on current causation rather than historical etiology. The aim is not to systematically address every constellation of responses that might be labeled an anxiety disorder*, but to examine the influence of self-efficacy perceptions on the functional impairment, scary thoughts and feelings, and physiological arousal that characterize anxiety-related problems.