A Theory That Denies That Thoughts Can

If You Look At Our Theories Of Social Pathology And Then At The Dismal Conditions In Which Children Grow Up In Our Ghettos, You Would Predict That All Of Them Would Be On Drugs Or Psychological Basket Cases. Yet If You Use Criteria Like Gainful Employment, Forming Partnerships And Life Without Crime, You Will Find That Most Of Those Kids Make It.

People With High Assurance In Their Capabilities Approach Difficult Tasks As Challenges To Be Mastered Rather Than As Threats To Be Avoided.

Self-belief Does Not Necessarily Ensure Success, But Self-disbelief Assuredly Spawns Failure.

Misbeliefs In One's Inefficacy May Retard Development Of The Very Subskills Upon Which More Complex Performances Depend

Accurate Processing Of Information About Outcomes Is No Simple Task Under The Variable Conditions Of Everyday Life . . . Usually, Many Factors Enter Into Determining What Effects, If Any, Given Actions Will Have, Actions, Therefore, Produce Outcomes Probabilistically Rather Than Certainly. Depending On The Particular Conjunction Of Factors, The Same Course Of Action May Produce Given Outcomes Regularly, Occasionally, Or Only Infrequently