People behave agentically, but they produce theories that afford people very little agency.
Albert BanduraSelf-belief does not necessarily ensure success, but self-disbelief assuredly spawns failure.
Albert BanduraPeople infer high self-efficacy from successes achieved through minimal effort on difficult tasks, but they infer low self-efficacy if they had to work hard under favorable conditions to master relatively easy tasks
Albert BanduraFreedom [should not be] conceived negatively as exemption from social influences or situational constraints. Rather...positively as the exercise of self-influence to bring about desired results.
Albert BanduraSocial cognitive theory rejects the dichotomous conception of self as agent and self as object. Acting on the environment and acting on oneself entail shifting the perspective of the same agent rather than reifying different selves regulating each other or transforming the self from agent to object
Albert Bandura