SELF-EFFICACY AS A MODERATOR OF PERCEIVED CONTROL EFFECTS ON CARDIOVASCULAR REACTIVITY - IS ENHANCED CONTROL ALWAYS BENEFICIAL

We have found that enhanced control has an attenuating effect on cardi ovascular reactivity when effort of responding is maintained constant; however, not all individuals will react to increased control in the s ame manner. In the present study, 40 subjects engaged in a mental arit hmetic task under high control (self-paced) and low control (externall y paced) conditions. Subjects' self-efficacy concerning this task was assessed. As expected, significant main effects were found for control condition, with high control producing smaller blood pressure and hea rt rate changes than low control (11.4 vs. 20.4 mm Hg (systolic blood pressure), 4.4 vs. 11.4 mm Hg (diastolic blood pressure), and 6.2 vs. 7.9 beats per minute (heart rate)). No main effects were found for sel f-efficacy. However, the interaction between control and self-efficacy was significant for systolic blood pressure and heart rate and margin ally significant for diastolic blood pressure; post hoc tests showed t hat this was due to the effect of self-efficacy classification under h igh control conditions; subjects with low self-efficacy for the mental arithmetic task evidenced cardiovascular changes that were significan tly greater than those of the high self-efficacy group (8.0 vs. 14.8 m m Hg (systolic blood pressure), 2.7 vs. 6.1 mm Hg (diastolic blood pre ssure), and 5.2 vs. 7.1 beats per minute (heart rate). The data sugges t that the reactivity observed during active coping is due in part to the effort of responding and in part to the match between the demands of the task and certain mastery-related attributes of the individual.