Incongruities between self-efficacy and action may stem from misperceptions of task demands, as well as from faulty self-knowledge

People who regard themselves as highly efficacious act, think, and feel differently from those who perceive themselves as inefficacious. They produce their own future, rather than simply foretell it.

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

People 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

Moral justification is a powerful disengagement mechanism. Destructive conduct is made personally and socially acceptable by portraying it in the service of moral ends. This is why most appeals against violent means usually fall on deaf ears.

Misbeliefs in one's inefficacy may retard development of the very subskills upon which more complex performances depend

Through their capacity to manipulate symbols and to engage in reflective thought, people can generate novel ideas and innovative actions that transcend their past experiences