One Cannot Afford To Be A Realist.

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.

From The Social Cognitive Perspective, It Is Mainly Perceived Inefficacy To Cope With Potentially Aversive Events That Makes Them Fearsome. To The Extent That People Believe They Can Prevent, Terminate, Or Lessen The Severity Of Aversive Events, They Have Little Reason To Be Perturbed By Them. But If They Believe They Are Unable To Manage Threats Safely, They Have Much Cause For Apprehension.

People Who Are Burdened By Acute Misgivings About Their Coping Capabilities Suffer Much Distress And Expend Much Effort In Defensive Action... They Cannot Get Themselves To Do Things They Find Subjectively Threatening Even Though They Are Objectively Safe. They May Even Shun Easily Manageable Activities Because They See Them As Leading To More Threatening Events Over Which They Will Be Unable To Exercise Adequate Control.

Gaining Insight Into One's Underlying Motives, It Seems, Is More Like A Belief Conversion Than A Self-discovery Process

The Effects Of Outcome Expectancies On Performance Motivation Are Partly Governed By Self-beliefs Of Efficacy