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

The performances of others are often selected as standards for self-improvement of abilities

People’s beliefs about their abilities have a profound effect on those abilities.

In any given instance, behavior can be predicted best by considering both self-efficacy and outcome beliefs . . . different patterns of self-efficacy and outcome beliefs are likely to produce different psychological effects

To grant thought causal efficacy is not to invoke a disembodied mental state

Perceived self-efficacy and beliefs about the locus of outcome causality must be distinguished

People are much more likely to act on their self-percepts of efficacy inferred from many sources of information rather than rely primarily on visceral cues. This is not surprising because self knowledge based on information about one's coping skills, past accomplishments, and social comparison is considerably more indicative of capability than the indefinite stirrings of the viscera