Self-Change Processes, Self-Efficacy and Self-Concept in Relapse and Maintenance of Cessation of Smoking

The study compared 38 maintainers and 24 relapsers who had quit smoking on their own. The results suggest that successful self-changers relied more on inner-directed, experiential processes of change, while the relapsers relied more on environmental change processes. Successful changers experienced markedly higher levels of self-efficacy, while relapsers reported least confidence in coping with situations that evoke negative emotions. The maintainers experience high congruence between their basic self-concepts and their concepts of self as non-smokers. The relapsers see themselves as more anxious, dependent, and helpless in their role as smokers. The results are discussed in terms of how greater reliance on experiential processes of self-change can lead to more successful attempts at cessation of smoking than reliance on environmental processes of change.