Enhancing Self-efficacy in High-avoidance Motor Tasks: A Comparison of Modeling Techniques

This study investigated the effectiveness of participant, live, and videotape modeling on the learning of a high-avoidance springboard-diving task (back dive). The effectiveness of each form of modeling upon the strength of self-efficacy also was investigated. In accord with Bandura's (1977) self-efficacy theory, it was hypothesized that the participant-modeling group would perform more correct back dives and would show stronger efficacy expectations compared to the live-modeling group which in turn would perform better on these measures than the videotape group. Results indicated that the participant-modeling treatment produced more successful dives and stronger expectations of personal efficacy than either the live-modeling or videotaped-modeling treatments. The hypothesis that students in the live-modeling condition would perform better behaviorally and show stronger efficacy expectations than students in the videotape condition was not supported.