Social Learning Theory and the Health Belief Model

Irwin M. Rosenstock, PhD

Victor J. Strecher, PhD, MPH
Marshall H. Becker, PhD, MPH

The Health Belief Model, social learning theory (recently relabelled social cognitive
theory), self-efficacy, and locus of control have all been applied with varying success
to problems of explaining, predicting, and influencing behavior. Yet, there is conceptual confusion among researchers and practitioners about the interrelationships of
these theories and variables. This article attempts to show how these explanatory factors may be related, and in so doing, posits a revised explanatory model which incorporates self-efficacy into the Health Belief Model. Specifically, self-efficacy is proposed as a separate independent variable along with the traditional health belief variables of perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, and barriers. Incentive to behave
(health motivation) is also a component of the model. Locus of control is not included
explicitly because it is believed to be incorporated within other elements of the model.
It is predicted that the new formulation will more fully account for health-related
behavior than did earlier formulations, and will suggest more effective behavioral
interventions than have hitherto been available to health educators.

INTRODUCTION
In recent years there has been

gradual development

of models to

explain

and

modify behavior. These models reflect a confluence of learning theories derived from
two major sources: &dquo;Stimulus Response&dquo; (SR) theory-3 and &dquo;Cognitive Theory&dquo;.4-9
SR theory itself represents a marriage of classical conditioninglo and instrumental

conditioning

theories.
simplest terms, the SR theorists believe that learning results from events (termed
&dquo;reinforcements&dquo;) which reduce physiological drives that activate behavior. In the
case of pu.nislunents, behavior that avoids punishment is learned because it reduces the
tension set up by the punishment. The concept of drive reduction, however, is not
In

Irwin M. Rosenstock is FHP Endowed Professor and Director, Center for Health
and Behavior Studies, California State University, Long Beach.
Victor J. Strecher is Assistant Professor, Department of Health Education, Univer-

sity of North Carolina.

Marshall H. Becker is Professor, Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, The University of Michigan.
Address reprint requests to Irwin M. Rosenstock, PhD, Center for Health and Behavior Studies, School of Applied Arts and Sciences, California State University, Long
Beach, 1250 Bellflower Boulevard, Long Beach, CA 90840.
175-1

176

theory. Skinner 1 formulated the widely accepted hypothesis that the

a
is determined by its consequences (i.e., reinforcements). For
of
behavior
frequency
Skinner, the mere temporal association between a behavior and an immediately-following reward is sufficient to increase the probability that the behavior will be repeated.
Such behaviors are termed operants; they operate on the environment to bring about
changes resulting in reward or reinforcement. In this view, no mentalistic concepts
such as &dquo;reasoning&dquo; or &dquo;thinking&dquo; are required to explain behavior. While Skinner
does not deny the existence of the mind, he believes that behavioral response can be
fully explained by reinforcement contingencies alone.
Cognitive theorists emphasize the role of subjective hypotheses or expectations held
by the subject. Behavior, in this perspective, is a function of the subjective value of
an outcome and of the subjective probability (or &dquo;expectation&dquo;) that a particular
action will achieve that outcome. Such formulations are generally termed &dquo;valueexpectancy&dquo; theories. Reinforcements, or consequences of behavior, are believed to
necessary to the

operate by influencing expectations

(or hypotheses) regarding the situation.

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

The social learning theories of Rotter and Bandura 3-1reflect and are derived
from these views. Banduras social learning theory (SLT), which he has recently
relabelled social cognitive theory (SCT),&dquo; holds that behavior is determined by
expectancies and incentives:

(1) Expectancies

For heuristic purposes these may be divided into three types:

about environmental cues (that is, beliefs about how events
are connected- about what leads to what).
(b) Expectancies about the consequences of ones own actions (that is, opinions about how individual behavior is likely to influence outcomes). This
is termed outcome expectation.
(c) Expectancies about ones own competence to perform the behavior
needed to influence outcomes. This is termed efficacy expectation (i.e.,

(a) Expectancies

(2)

self-efficacy).

Incentives
Incentive (or reinforcement) is defined as the value of a particular object or
outcome. The outcome may be health status, physical appearance, approval of
others, economic gain, or other consequences. Behavior is regulated by its
consequences (reinforcements), but only as those consequences are interpreted
and understood by the individual.

Thus, for example, individuals who value the perceived effects of changed lifestyles (incentives) will attempt to change if they believe that (a) their current lifestyles

pose threats to any personally valued outcomes, such as health or appearance (environmental cues); (b) that particular behavioral changes will reduce the threats (outcome
expectations); and (c) that they are personally capable of adopting the new behaviors
(efficacy expectations).

177

THE HEALTH BELIEF MODEL

The Health Belief Model (HBM)I-18 hypothesizes that health-related action depends upon the simultaneous occurrence of three classes of factors:

(1)

(2)

(3)

The existence of sufficient motivation (or health concern) to make health

issues salient or relevant.
The belief that one is susceptible (vulnerable) to a serious health problem or to
the sequelae of that illness or condition. This is often termed perceived threat.
The belief that following a particular health recommendation would be beneficial in reducing the perceived threat, and at a subjectively-acceptable cost.
Cost refers to perceived barriers that must be overcome in order to follow the
health recommendation; it includes, but is not restricted to, financial outlays.

THE HBM AND SCT

label of social cognitive theory (SCT) in
It has been noted by a number of authors&dquo;.*20
that the HBM is closely related to SCT. This is hardly surprising because much of the
development of &dquo;value-expectancy&dquo; theory (of which the Health Belief Model is an
example) as well as social learning (or cognitive) theory builds upon the seminal work
of Tolman and Kurt Lewin.-9 Accordingly, considerable overlap should be exWe will hereafter

use

Banduras

preferred

comparing his concepts with the HBM.

pected.

The similarity of the HBM and Banduras social

ted in the following diagram:

cognitive concepts may be illustra-

CONCEPTS
Social Cognitive Theory

Health

Belief Model

Expectancies about environmental cues

Perceived susceptibility to and severity

of illness or its sequelae (threat)

Expectations about outcomes (Social

Cognitive Theory does not explicitly
include costs or barriers)

Perceived benefits of taking a particular action minus perceived costs or

barriers to action

Expectations about self-efficacy

(Not explicitly included in Health Belief Model though implied in &dquo;perceived barriers&dquo;)

Incentive

Health motive: value of reduction of

perceived threats

Social cognitive theory has made at least two contributions to explanations of

health-related behavior that were not included in the HBM. The first is the emphasis
on the several sources of information for acquiring expectations,13 , particularly on

178

the informative and motivational role of reinforcement and on the role of observational learning through modeling (imitating) the behavior of others. The delineation of
sources of expectations suggests a number of potentially-effective strategies for altering behavior through modifying expectations.
A second major contribution is the introduction of the concept of self-efficacy
(efficacy expectation) as distinct from outcome expectation.13-15,21 Outcome expectation (defined as a persons estimate that a given behavior will lead to certain outcomes) is quite similar to the HBM concept of &dquo;perceived benefits.&dquo; Efficacy expectation is defmed as the conviction that one can successfully execute the behavior required to produce the outcomes. The distinction between outcome and efficacy
expectations is important because both are required for behavior. The following
diagram from Bandura13 shows the relationship:

a woman (PERSON) to quit smoking (BEHAVIOR) for health

(OUTCOME), she must believe both that cessation will benefit her health
(OUTCOME EXPECTATION) and also that she is capable of quitting (EFFICACY
EXPECTATION)..

In order, say, for

reasons

LOCUS OF CONTROL AND SELF-EFFICACY

Bandura, 14 locus of control22 is not the same as self-efficacy, since the former
generalized concept about the self, while the latter is believed to be siutationspecific-focused on beliefs about ones personal abilities in specific settings. Moreover, locus of control may relate more to outcome expectations than to efficacy
expectations. In this view, internality reflects the opinion that personal behavior
would influence outcomes, but disregards the question of whether one feels capable of
performing that behavior.4 As Bandura puts it. &dquo;convictions that outcomes are
determined by ones own actions can have any number of effects on self-efficacy and
behavior. People who regard outcomes as personally determined but who lack the
requisite skills would experience low self-efficacy and view activities with a sense of
futility&dquo; (p. 204).
One may consider how different combinations of internality-externality and selfefficacy might influence compliance with a medical regimen (assuming optimal levels
of incentive and perceived threat). In the 2 x2 classification presented in Figure 1,
persons in cell A would be most likely to follow professional advice, while persons in
cell D would be least likely to comply. Those in cell B believe themselves capable of
undertaking the recommended behavior but will not do so because they are not
convinced that the behavior will achieve some desired effect. People in cell C are those
described in the quotation from Bandura-they believe outcomes are personally deterFor

is

mined, but that they lack the skills

to execute the action.

reveals
that
both
internal
locus of control (outcome expectation) and
analysis
efficacy expectation are necessary for a given behavior to occur. When we turn from
this overly simplified model of dichotomous expectations to the more realistic world

This

179

Figure

1.

Combinations of

Self-efficacy

and Locus of Control

continuously distributed expectations, the joint effects of the two dimensions bevery complex indeed, and it is therefore not surprising that the multitude of
studies on locus of control which disregard incentive, self-efficacy, and perceived
threat have yielded inconsistent findings.
of

come

CONTRIBUTION OF SELF-EFFICACY TO HBM

The HBM has ignored efficacy expectations (in the Bandura definition) and thus
may have failed to account for as much variance in behavior as it might. It is not difficult to see why self-efficacy was never explicitly incorporated into the HBM. The
behavioral focus of the early Model was on circumscribed preventive actions, such as
accepting immunizations, which generally were simple behaviors to perform except by
those few persons with near-pathological fears of injections. Since it is likely that most
prospective members of target groups for those programs had adequate self-efficacy
for performing the recommended behavior, that dimension was never even recognized.
The situation is vastly different, however, in working with chronic illnesses, particularly those requiring long-term changes. The problems involved in modifying lifelong
habits of eating, drinking, exercising, and smoking are obviously far more difficult to
surmount than are those for accepting a one-time immunization or screening test. It
requires a good deal of confidence that one can in fact alter such lifestyles before
successful intervention is possible. Thus, for behavioral change to succeed, people
must (as the HBM theorizes) have an incentive to take action, feel threatened by their
current behavioral patterns and believe that change of a specific kind will be beneficial
by resulting in a valued outcome at acceptable cost, but they must also feel themselves
competent (self-efficacious) to implement that change. A growing body of literature
supports the importance of self-efficacy in helping to account for initiation and maintenance of behavioral change,-15,23 although only a few published studies have
specifically addressed health-related lifestyle practices (see Strecher et al.21 for a
review of these).
In a recent review documenting widespread empirical support for the HBM, Janz
and Becker24 incorporate self-efficacy into the &dquo;barriers&dquo; component of the Model.
While this represents a consistent use of the concept of &dquo;barriers,&dquo; it may be a move
in the wrong direction. &dquo;Perceived barriers&dquo; has always had something of a catch-all
quality, including such disparate items as financial costs, phobic reactions, physical
barriers, side-effects, accessibility factors, and even personality characteristics. Greater
advances in explanation, prediction, and control will probably result from reducing,
not increasing, the range of dimensions included in this concept. Making self-efficacy
explicit in the HBM has two values: it delimits the barriers dimension; and, more
importantly, suggests new and more-productive lines for research and practice.

180

CONTRIBUTION OF HBM TO SELF-EFFICACY THEORY

self-efficacy in earlier research on the HBM was cerit

tainly
important omission, is also an error to stake as much on self-efficacy as
social
many
learning theorists have recently attempted. Banduras discussion, seems
to assume that the client who desires change possesses adequate incentives to change,
feels sufficiently threatened by some potential or actual environmental event, fully
believes outcomes can be influenced by behavior, and does not face major barriers to
action. These are clearly important omissions. A number of reviews 6- a.2a-26 report
findings from many studies that document peoples failure to comply with medical
advice or to take health-protective actions because they fail to exhibit much motivation (incentive) about health, because they do not think it particularly likely they will
contract an ill-health condition or its sequelae, because they do not believe the occurrence of the condition would seriously upset their lives, because they do not believe
prevention or control of the condition is likely through personal intervention, or because they feel that the required effort on their part to avoid the problem exceeds
the possible gain. These facts support the need to include the traditional components
of the HBM in any comprehensive effort to under-stand and influence behavior. Selfefficacy theory, while representing an important step forward in our search for knowledge, can not replace the work that has preceded it. What began as a way of understanding and dealing with snake phobias must not be allowed to become snake oila patent medicine to cure all ills.
In a recent paper Strecher et aI.21 argue that outcome expectations and selfefficacy are both important determinants of health behavior; which is more important
in a given case may depend on features of the situation such as the perceived difficulty
of the behavior or the perceived certainty of its benefit. The interested reader should
consult Strecher et aI. 21 for a more complete discussion of this point.
While the failure to

measure

an

ENHANCING SELF-EFFICACY

or

Bandural argues that self-efficacy information derives from four sources: enactive.
performance attainments; vicarious experience; verbal persuasion; and physiological

state.

Performance accomplishments are the most influential sources of efficacy informathey are based on personal mastery experience. Vicarious experience
obtained through observation of successful or unsuccessful performance of others is
next most potent and, indeed, may account for a major part of leaining throughout
life. Verbal persuasion (or exhortation) is frequently used in health education; while
it is less powerful than performance accomplishments or vicarious experience, it can
still be a useful adjunct to more-powerful influences. Of course, verbal persuasion may
also influence outcome expectation or incentives. Finally, physiological states, particularly anxiety, may inform the individual, correctly or not, that he or she is not caption because

able of performing or maintaining a given action-or success in eliminating negative

affect may enhance ones self-efficacy.
Bandura, provides an example of how each of these sources of self-efficacy information can be employed by physicians to rehabilitate post-coronary patients. Performance information is provided through vigorous treadmill or other exercises. Vicari-

181
ous efficacy information can be provided by enlisting former patients to serve as models of active lives. The physician also uses persuasive efforts to increase patients
convictions about their physical capabilities. Finally, physiological efficacy information is provided to ensure that patients do not misinterpret their physical status (e.g.,
incorrectly interpreting increased heart rates as foreshadowing another heart attack).
If Bandura is right, the success of cardiac or other rehabilitation programs may depend
as much on increasing self-efficacy to perform as on increasing physical ability to perform.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS
In planning programs, many health educators have found it useful to assess educational needs partly in terms of the beliefs described in the Health Belief Model. Thus,
they seek to ascertain how many and which members of the target population are
interested in health matters, feel susceptible to a serious health problem (or believe
they currently have the problem), and believe that the threat could be reduced by
some action on their part, at an acceptable cost. The assessment of such educational
needs can be used to strengthen program planning and we encourage educators to
continue to make such needs assessments. What we suggest in addition is that an
important new piece of information be obtained-the extent to which patients or
clients feel competent to carry out the prescribed action(s), sometimes over long periods of time and the strength of their conviction in their competence.
The collection of data on health beliefs, including self-efficacy, along with other
data pertinent to the group or community setting permits the planning of more
effective programs than would otherwise be possible. Interventions can then be targeted to the specific needs identified by such an assessment. For example, if we find
that most people accept their susceptibility to cancer and fear the consequences of
the disease while also believing that there are few cures for cancer, we can tailor
interventions to increase perceived benefits (outcome expectations).
In the realm of chronic diseases, much more emphasis is likely to be needed on skill
training to enhance self-efficacy. For example, behaviors that need to be acquired may
be arranged in a series of steps of increasing difficulty, so that earlier tasks are more
easily mastered than are later ones. With enhanced self-efficacy due to initial performance attainments, the person is more ready to take on tasks of greater complexity.
Self-efficacy may thus be increased by setting short-term rather than long-term goals
for some desired achievement.2 .2$
Patient-provider contracting may reflect a highly effective approach for enhancing
self-efficacy. In the contingency contract,29 the patient and provider discuss and come
to agree on a treatment goal. however modest; they agree on a time limit for its accomplishment ; and both partners sign a document specifying the agreements. This technique is effective when properly used because the patient and provider are in a true
therapeutic alliance, with both involved in choosing goals that the patient feels personally capable of achieving within the time limit. When the patient does accomplish the
goal. the sense of self-efficacy in enhanced and the patient is ready to contract for a
new, more-difficult goal. Whether or not the contract calls for a material reward seems
of smaller consequence than the sense of pride and self-efficacy that accompanies

achievement.

182

The preceding examples are all in the realm of performance accomplishments, but
health educators are also encouraged to use any of the other three sources of efficacy
enhancement that may apply. Role models (vicarious experience) may be used to
encourage imitation, exhortation may spur people on to initiate action or to reinforce their tentative first steps. Physiological and emotional effects such as smoking
withdrawal symptoms may be anticipated, and methods sought to cope with them.
A strong emphasis on efficacy enhancement is not always required. As indicated
earlier, where a health practice is inherently easy to accomplish (e.g., swallowing a
tablet), no major concentration on efficacy is needed. But, where complex behavior
patterns are required to maintain or restore health, enhancement of self-efficacy will
usually be required. This would certainly appear to be the case in the acquisition or
modification of complex lifestyle practices, including those related to smoking,
alcohol and substance abuse, physical activity, and dietary habits.

CONCLUSIONS
In the history of attempts to explain, predict, and influence health-related behavior,
the Health Belief Model has generated more research than any other theoretical
approach. Its use has frequently yielded significant results, though the proportion of
variance it explains, while variable across studies, is often lower than expected. This
variability may be due to the failure to incorporate the self-efficacy concept into the
Model. A comparison of Banduras social learning theory (or &dquo;social cognitive theory&dquo;
as he has recently relabeled it) with the HBM shows that the two theories have much
in common-a not surprising finding, since both represent applications of valueexpectancy theories. Locus of control would appear to reflect outcome expectations
or perception of benefits of taking particular courses of action.
Researchers and practitioners are urged to continue to use the Health Belief Model,
but to incorporate self-efficacy both as an explanatory variable and as one that may
be manipulated to good effect. Each of the sources of efficacy expectations provide
points for potentially-effective interventions directed at behavioral modifications. In
such attempts, however, one should not undervalue the importance of perceived

benefits (outcome

expectations).

We suggest that an expanded Health Belief Model which incorporates perceived selfefficacy will provide a more powerful approach to understanding and influencing
health-related behavior than has been available to date.

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