This paper reviews research on the relative utility of self-efficacy expectancy, outcome expectancy, and outcome value in explaining and predicting therapeutic behavior change. It proposes that these three cognitive mediators are basic factors in psychological and behavioral problems and in psychotherapy process, that they are logically…

Two hypotheses derived from the theory of action identification, which predicts that people are more likely to adopt a novel course of action if they concentrate on the "how" rather than the "why" aspects of their behavior, were tested with 95 undergraduate students. Hypotheses examined how the level of action identification…

Maintains that, for a cognitive construct to be accepted as explanatory, it must specify target behaviors, posit antecedent variables, and indicate how the antecedent variables can be measured independently of behavioral changes. Discusses epistemological tools that can be used in similar fashion. (CFR)

Interpersonal power has been defined as the ability of an agent to alter the behavior of a target through means-control, attractiveness, and credibility. To identify and delineate situations of influence in personal relationships, undergraduate students either wrote influence descriptions (N=96), made similarity judgments on the original 96…

Briefly reviews the research literature concerning the overjustification effect. The effect describes the situation where positive reinforcement reduces one's intrinsic motivation for a behavior, thereby decreasing the probability that the behavior will be repeated. Notes the limitations of this explanation and recommends a broader representation…