| Chapter 1: | Study One: Introduction / Overview of Study Goals |
Furthermore, they provide a basis for understanding human behavior. The cognitive and personal factors element of SCT refers to the personal characteristics of individuals. An overarching element of SCT that can be associated with personal characteristics is Bandura’s notion of human agency (Bandura, 2001). There are four features of human agency: intentionality, forethought, self-reactivity, and self-reflection. Intentionality is an active effort to engage in some form of activity; that is, events happen by choice, because we make them happen. Forethought entails planning to achieve certain outcomes. Self-reactivity refers to self-regulatory capabilities such as motivation and goal setting. Finally, self-reflection is our ability to examine and evaluate our thoughts and actions. A key component of self-reflection is self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is an individual’s belief that s/he is capable of successfully completing a task. Bandura refers to self-efficacy as the foundation of human agency (Bandura, 2001, 2002b). Self-efficacy is especially important in the health information arena in that people with high self-efficacy toward their health goals can succeed with little intervention; however, those with low self-efficacy will require more guidance (Bandura, 2002a).
Turning to the second element in the triadic relationship, it is part of human nature to seek to understand our environment. In order to facilitate this need we often turn to a variety of communication channels including interpersonal and mediated channels. The Internet is a tempting tool to satisfy our informational needs, especially as they relate to health information. Similarly, SCT can be helpful in understanding the connection between learning and hypermedia use.
Finally, for the last element in the triadic relationship, the behavior of interest in this study is learning. Learning can be viewed as a process in which individuals receive information and then store it for later retrieval. An important strategy that may influence the learning process is elaboration, which encourages in-depth processing of encountered information.