Not only do such civic education approaches address this particular generation of
young people’s needs, they correspond to findings on enhancing efficacy and promoting
behavioral change. One substantial barrier to processing persuasive messages is a lack of
efficacy. According to Bandura (1986), individuals’ perceptions of competence – or the
ability to successfully perform a task – affects whether they will be willing to attempt a
particular activity. Research on political efficacy distinguishes between internal political
efficacy, which measures an individual’s perception that political acts will have an effect,
and external political efficacy, which measures an individual’s perception that political
institutions reflect the concerns of people like them. In either case, the factor most likely
to impact an individual’s sense of efficacy is a personal accomplishment because such
experiences most vividly demonstrate mastery (Bandura 1986, 1977).
Yet programs that offer the opportunity for direct experience, while offering the
potential for dramatic impact on participants’ political efficacy attitudes and future
behavior, require ample financial resources and time commitments. In addition, if
participation is voluntary, they are more likely to attract atypical young people who are
interested in learning about the political process. If similar types of lessons could be
learned by developing a more traditional civic education curriculum for the college
and/or high school classroom, far more members of younger generations could be
exposed to an intervention. Alternative sources of learning that enhance self efficacy
include both verbal persuasion and vicarious learning (Bandura 1977) Communication
research suggests combinations of vicarious learning opportunities such a modeling and
Convention