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

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

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

In any given instance, behavior can be predicted best by considering both self-efficacy and outcome beliefs . . . different patterns of self-efficacy and outcome beliefs are likely to produce different psychological effects

When experience contradicts firmly held judgments of self-efficacy, people may not change their beliefs about themselves if the conditions of performance are such as to lead them to discount the import of the experience

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

[Children] receive direct instruction from time to time about the appropriateness of various social comparisons