People who underestimate their capabilities also bear costs, although, as already noted, these are more likely to take self-limiting rather than aversive forms. By failing to cultivate personal potentialities and constricting their activities, such persons cut themselves off from many rewarding experiences. Should they attempt tasks having evaluative significance, they create internal obstacles to effective performance by approaching them with unnerving self-doubts

People not only gain understanding through reflection, they evaluate and alter their own thinking.

It is widely assumed that beliefs in personal determination of outcomes create a sense of efficacy and power, whereas beliefs that outcomes occur regardless of what one does result in apathy

It is no more informative to speak of self-efficacy in global terms than to speak of nonspecific social behavior

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.

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.