Agemates provide the most informative points of reference for comparative efficacy appraisal and verification. Children are, therefore, especially sensitive to their relative standing among the peers with whom they affiliate in activities that determine prestige and popularity

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.

People who hold a low view of themselves [will credit] their achievements to external factors, rather than to their own capabilities.

We are more heavily invested in the theories of failure than we are in the theories of success.

Judgments of adequacy involve social comparison processes

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