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

People not only gain understanding through reflection, they evaluate and alter their own thinking.

The human condition is better improved by altering detrimental circumstances and personal perspectives than by trying to alter personal outlooks, while ignoring the very circumstances that serve to nourish them

Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action.

People with high assurance in their capabilities approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered rather than as threats to be avoided.

The satisfactions people derive from what they do are determined to a large degree by their self-evaluative standards

Forceful actions arising from erroneous beliefs often create social effects that confirm the misbeliefs