A large part of Bandura's research has been focused on documenting how people, by regulating their own motivations and activities, produce the experiences that play a major role in their well-being. People who believe they have the power to exercise some measure of control over their lives are healthier, more effective and more successful than those who lack faith in their ability to effect changes in their lives. Another way to build people's sense of personal efficacy is to provide them with successful models who transmit knowledge, skills and inspiration. Bandura has helped develop clinical treatment programs using this approach, but more recently, he became an adviser to Click Health, a company that markets computer games that try to increase people's efficacy in dealing with health problems. A game for children with diabetes, for example, features two diabetic elephant characters who go on a treasure hunt and survive in a jungle by picking the right foods, regularly checking their blood glucose level and taking insulin shots.
Negative warnings are a more common approach to health issues.
Bandura illustrates this with the example of stress, which is routinely portrayed in journals and the popular press as bad for one's health. Among other things, stress is said to undermine a person's immune system. But in research with others, Bandura found that stress aroused while people were actively acquiring the ability to cope with and master new situations enhanced components of their immune systems. Neglecting the positive side of people's emotional lives has other implications, Bandura said. Books and articles, for example, often frame women's recent entry into the workplace as a social problem that undermines families.