If there is any characteristic that is distinctly human, it is the capability for reflective self-consciousness.

Self-appraisals of efficacy are reasonably accurate, but they diverge from action because people do not know fully what they will have to do, lack information for regulating their effort, or are hindered by external factors from doing what they can

Perceived self-efficacy in coping with potential threats leads people to approach such situations anxiously, and experience of disruptive arousal may further lower their sense of efficacy that they will be able to perform skillfully

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

People who are burdened by acute misgivings about their coping capabilities suffer much distress and expend much effort in defensive action... they cannot get themselves to do things they find subjectively threatening even though they are objectively safe. They may even shun easily manageable activities because they see them as leading to more threatening events over which they will be unable to exercise adequate control.

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

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