Comparative appraisals of efficacy require not only evaluation of one;s own performances but also knowledge of how others do, cognizance of nonability determinants of their performances, and some understanding that it is others, like oneself, who provide the most informative social criterion for comparison

Dualistic doctrines that regard mind and body as separate entities do not provide much enlightenment on the nature of the disembodied mental state or on how an immaterial mind and bodily events act on each other

The content of most textbooks is perishable, but the tools of self-directedness serve one well over time.

In the self-appraisal of efficacy, there are many sources of information that must be processed and weighed through self-referent thought

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

A problem of future research is to clarify how young children learn what type of social comparative information is most useful for efficacy evaluation

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