Coping with the demands of everyday life would be exceedingly trying if one could arrive at solutions to problems only by actually performing possible options and suffering the consequences.

Self-efficacy is the belief in one's capabilities to organize and execute the sources of action required to manage prospective situations.

Most of the images of reality on which we base our actions are really based on vicarious experience.

In social cognitive theory, perceived self-efficacy results from diverse sources of information conveyed vicariously and through social evaluation, as well as through direct experience

Accomplishment is socially judged by ill defined criteria so that one has to rely on others to find out how one is doing.

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

The presence of many interacting influences, including the attainments of others, create further leeway in how one's performances and outcomes are cognitively appraised