Extensive evidence linking exercise with stress reduction has prompted many organisations to implement exercise stress management interventions in order to combat employee stress. These interventions however, have generally yielded low levels of effectiveness. Determining factors that can enhance the effectiveness of exercise stress management interventions is important for organisations implementing such interventions. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the role that outcome expectancy has in the relationship between exercise and stress. Stress perceptions and exercise behaviours were assessed in 54 university students over the 4 weeks leading up to final examinations. Outcome expectancy was assessed once during this period. Heart rate was also assessed in 20 students on two occasions, including the exam. In contrast to the majority of research linking exercise with lower stress, individuals who exercised more than their own average during the study period had higher levels of exam stress over time, whilst variance in exercise levels from the group average was not significantly related to exam stress over time. Conversely, there was a significant difference in physiological exam stress (heart rate) between high and low exercise groups overtime for the overall heart rate average, but not the sleep or exam period heart rate averages. More specifically, it was found that the low exercise group had a stronger negative physiological reaction to the exam overall. No significant moderation effects of outcome expectancy on the relationship between exercise and stress were found. The results indicate that exercise is related to both self-reported and physiological indicators of stress, and that exercise at different levels (within-person and between-person) have differing effects on exam stress.

<p>Bandura definierar (1997) outcome expectancy som individens skattning av sannolikheten att ett beteende ska leda till ett specifikt utfall. Utöver individens skattning av sitt eget beteendes följder (individual outcome expectancy), är hennes bedömning av sin grupps möjlighet att nå ett specifikt utfall (collective outcome expectancy) en del av begreppet (Riggs & Knight, 1994). Studien syftar till att undersöka huruvida arbetsrelaterad- self efficacy, locus of control och collective efficacy predicerar outcome expectancy. En enkätundersökning genomfördes med 102 deltagare från olika yrkesgrupper. Resultatet visade att arbetsrelaterad- self efficacy och locus of control samvarierade med individual outcome expectancy och att collective efficacy predicerade collective outcome expectancy. Dock var gruppstorleken av betydelse för prediktionen. Studiens hypoteser bekräftades av tidigare forskning.</p>

Bandura definierar (1997) outcome expectancy som individens skattning av sannolikheten att ett beteende ska leda till ett specifikt utfall. Utöver individens skattning av sitt eget beteendes följder (individual outcome expectancy), är hennes bedömning av sin grupps möjlighet att nå ett specifikt utfall (collective outcome expectancy) en del av begreppet (Riggs &amp; Knight, 1994). Studien syftar till att undersöka huruvida arbetsrelaterad- self efficacy, locus of control och collective efficacy predicerar outcome expectancy. En enkätundersökning genomfördes med 102 deltagare från olika yrkesgrupper. Resultatet visade att arbetsrelaterad- self efficacy och locus of control samvarierade med individual outcome expectancy och att collective efficacy predicerade collective outcome expectancy. Dock var gruppstorleken av betydelse för prediktionen. Studiens hypoteser bekräftades av tidigare forskning.

In this study, we integrate the theories of self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, and social capital to identify individual and contextual factors that may exert effect on professional teachers' knowledge sharing behaviors in an Internet-based knowledge community. Data collected from 441 members of this community reveal that knowledge sharing self-efficacy has significant influence on knowledge sharing outcome expectancy, anxiety, and knowledge sharing behaviors. In addition, relational identity, i.e., the degree of social capital among members, is found to have positive effects on knowledge sharing self-efficacy and knowledge sharing behaviors. The implication of this study is that both the individual perceptions toward knowledge sharing and the interpersonal relational development are important predictors of ongoing knowledge sharing activities. The organizers of Internet-based knowledge communities should therefore focus on the development of members' resilient self-efficacy, favorable outcome expectancy, and strong relational identity if they wish knowledge sharing to be effective.

This study analyzes the preservice elementary mathematics teachers&rsquo / self efficacy beliefs and outcome expectancies about using manipulatives and investigates whether, or not, university and gender differences have any significant effect on their self efficacy and outcome expectancies. In mathematics education, students&rsquo / conceptions about abstract mathematical ideas and being able to convert them into concrete ideas are very important. For this reason, it is very beneficial to use manipulative materials in the mathematics lessons. However, most of the preservice mathematics teachers in Turkey lack knowledge about using manipulatives. The sample of present study consisted of 77 senior undergraduate students studying in Elementary Mathematics Teacher Education programs at 2 different universities located in Ankara and Izmir. Data were collected in spring term of 2006-2007 academic years. The survey items were adopted from previously developed teacher efficacy instrument, which partly ensures the items to be parallel with the existing theory about the construct. The survey consisted of three parts / demographic information, knowledge about the manipulatives, and &lsquo / The Instrument of Preservice Mathematics Teachers&rsquo / Efficacy Beliefs about Using Manipulatives&rsquo / (EBMU). The present study demonstrated that the gender differences did not effect preservice elementary mathematics teachers&rsquo / personal manipulative use teaching efficacy whereas the university differences had a significant effect on their personal manipulative use teaching efficacy. In addition, the gender and university attended produced statistically significant main effect on preservice elementary mathematics teachers&rsquo / outcome expectancies.

Smoking related conditions kill approximately 5,000,000 people every year. There is evidence that smoking behaviour varies for men and women. Yet, determinants of smoking remain poorly understood, especially by gender. This Ph.D. thesis remediates this important gap in the literature, adopting a novel, transdisciplinary approach. The thesis was an epidemiological investigation of the joint and separate utility of sociodemographic factors, mental health and Social Cognitive Theory constructs as predictors of smoking for men and women. Participants were 3,502 residents of Queensland, Australia, taking part in a larger statewide population-based study investigating cancer risk knowledge and behaviours. The study consisted of a CATI telephone interview and a subsequent battery of self-report questionnaires. The thesis entailed four empirical studies. Study 1 (Chapter Two) investigated the utility of sociodemographic factors as predictors of smoking status by gender and by area by gender. Results revealed that sociodemographic variables were poor predictors of smoking status and that predictors of smoking differed by gender when analyses were conducted separately. Younger men and men involved in a relationship were more likely to be smokers, while younger women and women who were well educated were more likely to be smokers. Gender differences were also present when analyses were conducted by area by gender. In addition, smoking status for urban women was not significantly predicted by any of the employed sociodemographic variables. These results indicated that additional determinants of smoking, such as mental health, should be investigated. Study 2 (Chapter Three) was a psychometric evaluation of a tool utilized in the thesis to measure symptoms of anxiety and depression, the Kessler Scale of Non-Specific Psychological Distress, also known as the K-10. Results revealed that the K-10 is a psychometrically sound scale, ideal for measuring symptoms of anxiety and depression in the general population. It was also concluded that the K-10 is multidimensional, and that the best model for its factor structure is a first-order model composed by four first-order factors: nervousness, restlessness, negative affect and fatigue. Study 3 (Chapter Four) evaluated the discriminant utility of mental health variables measured with the K-10, separately and jointly with sociodemographic variables, in predicting group membership. The study investigated whether these variables could discriminate between ever-smokers and neversmokers, and among ever-smokers, between current smokers and former smokers by gender. This was intended to provide a glimpse into smoking initiation and smoking persistence. Analyses classified only a small percentage of smokers correctly. Nevertheless, results showed that psychological distress examined alone predicted smoking uptake among women. In contrast, smoking initiation for men was vi predicted by sociodemographic variables. In addition, persistent smoking for men was predicted by psychological distress while that for women it was predicted by sociodemographic factors. Study 4 (Chapter Five) investigated the utility of Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) constructs as determinants of smoking. This last empirical study investigated whether the addition of self-efficacy and outcome expectancies to mental health and sociodemographic variables improved prediction of smoking behaviour. Study 4 examined the utility of three models as determinants of measures of smoking among current smokers (smokers who have never attempted to quit and those who attempted to quit and failed). Nicotine dependence, age of smoking initiation, number of cigarettes smoked per day and past quit attempt, as well as intention to quit were the measures of smoking investigated. Results indicated that the full social cognitive model (containing both self-efficacy and outcome expectancy) was the most robust model, although neither self-efficacy nor outcome expectancies as constructs were particularly strong predictors. Nevertheless, self-efficacy was generally better than outcome expectancies. Both self-efficacy and outcome expectancies predicted measures of smoking for men, while only self-efficacy predicted the same measures of smoking for women. None of the models predicted a quit attempt in the last year among males. For women, only decreased fatigue predicted a quit attempt in the last 12 months: In addition, analyses conducted to classify which smokers intended to quit smoking in the near future correctly classified only a small percentage of those who did intend to quit in the near future, but correctly classified most smokers who did not. Analyses investigating which quitting method was most popular among smokers revealed that “going cold turkey” was still the preferred quitting method of more than half of smokers who had attempted to quit in the past 12 months but failed. Less than 15% of those who “went cold turkey” had also employed a cessation aid. The thesis supports the hypothesis that determinants of smoking differ by gender. The role of psychological distress in smoking uptake among women and in smoking persistence among men warrant further investigation. Future research should also examine the effect of other types of selfefficacy upon smoking behaviour. Smoking prevention and/or cessation programs might be more effective if conducted for men and women separately, addressing the particular determinants of smoking for each gender.

Despite evidence supporting a robust relation between common factors- aspects of the therapeutic setting that are common across all types of treatment- and treatment response, little is known about the mechanisms by which these common factors effect change. Two of the most well-researched common factors include the client’s expectations about the effectiveness of treatment (termed outcome expectancy), and the quality of the therapeutic relationship (termed working alliance). Using archival data, the present study tests the hypothesis that the relation between outcome expectancy and symptom reduction is mediated by the alliance following treatment for social anxiety disorder. Data were collected in a sample of 65 individuals who received cognitive behavioral therapy for social phobia with public speaking fears. Mediation analyses were conducted using Andrew Hayes’ Process Macro (Hayes, 2013). None of the mediation analyses were significant. These findings suggest that the mechanisms of common factor variables may vary by disorder.

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STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education is becoming an integral part of modern agricultural education. If the integration of STEM into agricultural education is to succeed, it is vital that educators feel confident in their ability to teach such material. This study examines Tennessee and Mississippi agricultural educators’ personal teaching efficacy and outcome expectancy levels towards STEM subjects and identifies factors that may play a role in the development of STEM teaching efficacy. Analysis indicated that educators felt most confident in their ability to teach science, followed by technology, mathematics and then engineering. Factors that influenced STEM personal teaching efficacy included the number of postsecondary STEM courses taken, gender, and CASE course completion. Regarding outcome expectancy, teachers felt similarly across the four STEM fields. The one factor found to influence STEM outcome expectancy included the number of postsecondary STEM courses taken. Recommendations for future research include exploring agricultural educators’ perceptions of engineering and its place in the agriculture industry, recognizing how engineering is taught at both the secondary and postsecondary level, understanding the experience of minorities in STEM, and identifying ways in which agricultural educators use technology in their classrooms. Recommendations for practice include offering preservice agricultural educators more engineering and technology courses, specifically highlighting how STEM concepts are used in the modern agricultural industry, and improving agricultural educator outcome expectancy levels.

The primary aim of this research was the development of a typology of respondents based on their "control identity"– i.e., perceived sense of control over themselves, their environment, and aspects of their health, including perceived vulnerability to disease and perceived value of health promotion. Testicular cancer and testicular self examination (TSE) were selected as the disease focus, with the realization that, if successful, the typology could be applied across a variety of diseases. The constructs of "realistic vs. unrealistic control" and "internal vs. external locus of control" provided the theoretical foundation to initially define the control-identity types that were then verified through cluster/segmentation analyses. Testicular cancer rates are rising among 15-54 year old men with the majority of those cases affecting males under the age of 35. Regular screening techniques for the disease, most notably testicular self-examination, are rarely performed among surveyed males. If testicular cancer is caught in its early stages, the survival rate is approximately 95%; however, if diagnosed in later stages, survival rates drop below 50%. The lack of published psychosocial behavioral research in this area has contributed to a general misunderstanding by men of the disease and its preventative/screening measures. If continued, this lack of screening for testicular cancer can only lead to increasing incidence and mortality rates. This exploratory study developed a Control Identity Survey, a 41-item questionnaire soliciting information on perceived vulnerability, value of health promotion, health control beliefs, and intention to perform testicular self-examination (TSE). The survey was administered via in-person and internet data collection methods to 300 men between the ages of 18-35. A principal components factor analysis of the survey’s key control variables (realistic vs. unrealistic illusory control constructs and internal v. external locus of control) defined the underlying structure of the data. The resulting factors were then used to create indices for use in the cluster analysis process. From this cluster analysis, control-identity groups were identified and profiled. Given the control-identity types, perceptual mapping techniques were then applied to model how each type of respondent perceives their vulnerability to testicular cancer, the value of testicular self-examination, and overall health control beliefs. This study equated perceptions with an individuals’ ‘outcome expectancy’, or attitude. The findings confirmed the following: •The hypothesized four-group control-identity typology was verified among men based on the variables of health control beliefs, perceived vulnerability, and perceived value of health promotion. The groups were labeled: 1) Realistic Externals, 2) Realistic Internals, 3) Unrealistic Internals, 4) Unrealistic Externals. •Unrealistic Externals perceive the value of TSE to be significantly lower than other types. •Unrealistic Externals perceived their control over health outcomes to be lower than all other types. •Each control-identity type structures perceptions of health control beliefs, vulnerability, and the value of health promotion similarly in a 3-dimensional perceptual mapping space, but the location of “self” within the concept set differs by control-identity type. •Realistic Internals scored the highest among types on value of health promotion, but not significantly so compared to the other groups, with the exception of the Unrealistic Externals, who least value health promotion. •The two “Realistic” types (Internal & External) scored significantly higher on perceived Vulnerability than did the two "Unrealistic" types (Internal & External), with the "Internals" v. "Externals" not differing significantly. •Unrealistic Internals scored highest on perceived self-efficacy (I-Control), but not significantly higher than Realistic Internals, which appears consistent with the fact that "internals" have a higher sense of health-related self-efficacy than do "externals". •Implications for social marketing and for the development of future behavioral intervention strategies are suggested. The methods used in this research could have wide application across the cancer continuum from primary prevention and screening to treatment and end-of-life decisions. From this research, it is clear that men differ significantly in their “control identity”-- the extent to which they perceive themselves as having an internal v. external and/or realistic vs. unrealistic sense of control over their health. Consistently, the control-types differed on perceptions of their own vulnerability to disease, their perceived value of health promotion, and their individual health control beliefs. The resulting typology appears to have exceptional potential for future research across a variety of health related behaviors and diseases. As well, the typology holds promise as a cost-effective way to tailor evidence-based decision aids for each of the control-identities. Since there is little reported success in promoting sustainable TSE among males, it is suggested that building on the control-identity approach will aid testicular cancer and TSE researchers in developing more effective, tailored messages for their study designs. / Public Health