Ironically, it is the talented who have high aspirations, which are possible but exceedingly difficult to realize, who are especially vulnerable to self-dissatisfaction despite notable achievements.

Students judge how well they might do in a chemistry course from knowing how peers, who performed comparably to them in physics, fared in chemistry

Self-doubt creates the impetus for learning but hinders adept use of previously established skills

Self efficacious children tend to attribute their successes to ability, but ability attributions affect performance indirectly through perceived self-efficacy

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

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

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