Gaining insight into one's underlying motives, it seems, is more like a belief conversion than a self-discovery process

Discrepancies between self-efficacy judgment and performance will arise when either the tasks or the circumstances under which they are performed are ambiguous

People who are insecure about themselves will avoid social comparisons that are potentially threatening to their self-esteem

Accurate processing of information about outcomes is no simple task under the variable conditions of everyday life . . . usually, many factors enter into determining what effects, if any, given actions will have, Actions, therefore, produce outcomes probabilistically rather than certainly. Depending on the particular conjunction of factors, the same course of action may produce given outcomes regularly, occasionally, or only infrequently

Stringent standards of self-evaluation [can] make otherwise objective successes seem to be personal failures

How children learn to use diverse sources of efficacy information in developing a stable and accurate sense of personal efficacy is a matter of considerable interest

Even noteworthy performance attainments do not necessarily boost perceived self-efficacy