tions that give humans the capability to predict the outcomes of their behavior, before the behavior is performed. In addition, the SCT posits that most behaviors are learned vicariously (Brown, 1997).In an attempt to try to assess the SCT many studies have been conducted. Wulfert and Wan performed one study in 1993. In this study a survey was distributed amongst college students about condom use, self-efficacy, outcome expectancies, sexual attitudes, peer group influences, AIDS knowledge, and their perception of their vulnerability to aids. They used SCT as a structural model with self-efficacy as the central mediator. In the study they found that the model was able to explain only 46% of the variance in condom use from judgments of self-efficacy. Wulfert and Wan concluded that sexual attitudes, AIDS knowledge, and perceived vulnerability does not predict condom use. There also was another study done in September of 2001 by Ann O'Leary. In this particular study, The National Institute of Mental Health Multisite provided an intervention to reduce sexual HIV risk behaviors among 3,706 at-risk men and women. The intervention was based on social cognitive theory and it was designed to influence behavior change by improving expected outcomes of condom use and increasing knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy to execute safer sex behaviors. It was effective relative to a control condition in reducing sexual risk behavior. O'Leary found that among these potential mediators (i.e. knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy), scores were higher in the intervention than in the control conditions. O'Leary concluded that although the intervention on sexual risk behavior was significantly reduced when the variables were controlled statistically, it supported the hypothesis that mediation of the intervention effect, which remained mostly unexplained, indicated the influence of unmeasured factors on outcome.As mentioned, there are many other theor...
