Manipulating self-efficacy in the exercise environment in women: Influences on affective responses

Self-efficacy was experimentally manipulated in an exercise context, and it s effect on affective responses was examined. College women (N = 46) were r andomly assigned to a high- or low-efficacy condition, and efficacy expecta tions were manipulated by means of bogus feedback and graphs depicting cont rived normative data. The manipulation successfully influenced affective re sponses, with participants in the high-efficacy group reporting more positi ve and less negative affect than did the low-efficacy group. Efficacy was s ignificantly related to feeling-state responses during and after activity b ut only in the high-efficacy condition. The results suggest that self-effic acy can be manipulated and that these changes are related to the affective experience associated with exercise. Such findings may have important impli cations for the roles played by self-efficacy and affect in exercise adhere nce.