Most of the images of reality on which we base our actions are really based on vicarious experience.
What people think, believe, and feel affects how they behave. The natural and extrinsic effects of their actions, in turn, partly determine their thought patterns and affective reactions.
If self-efficacy is lacking, people tend to behave ineffectually, even though they know what to do.
Self-belief does not necessarily ensure success, but self-disbelief assuredly spawns failure.
Humans are producers of their life circumstance not just products of them.
The content of most textbooks is perishable, but the tools of self-directedness serve one well over time.
The adequacy of performance attainments depends upon the personal standards against which they are judged.
People who regard themselves as highly efficacious act, think, and feel differently from those who perceive themselves as inefficacious. They produce their own future, rather than simply foretell it.
A theory that denies that thoughts can regulate actions does not lend itself readily to the explanation of complex human behavior.
People who are insecure about themselves will avoid social comparisons that are potentially threatening to their self-esteem.
Psychology cannot tell people how they ought to live their lives. It can however, provide them with the means for effecting personal and social change.
Self-appraisals are influenced by evaluative reactions of others.
The evaluative habits developed in sibling interactions undoubtedly affect the salience and choice of comparative referents in self-ability evaluations in later life.
Self-efficacy is the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the sources of action required to manage prospective situations.
Judgments of adequacy involve social comparison processes.
By sticking it out through tough times, people emerge from adversity with a stronger sense of efficacy.
The presence of many interacting influences, including the attainments of others, create further leeway in how one’s performances and outcomes are cognitively appraised.
Success and failure are largely self-defined in terms of personal standards. The higher the self-standards, the more likely will given attainments be viewed as failures, regardless of what others might think.
Because of such conjointedness, behavior that exerts no effect whatsoever on outcomes is developed and consistently performed.
If there is any characteristic that is distinctly human, it is the capability for reflective self-consciousness.