Self-belief Does Not Necessarily Ensure Success, But

One Cannot Afford To Be A Realist.

People's Conceptions About Themselves And The Nature Of Things Are Developed And Verified Through Four Different Processes: Direct Experience Of The Effects Produced By Their Actions, Vicarious Experience Of The Effects Produced By Somebody Else's Actions, Judgments Voiced By Others, And Derivation Of Further Knowledge From What They Already Know By Using Rules Of Inference

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

Even Noteworthy Performance Attainments Do Not Necessarily Boost Perceived Self-efficacy

Perceived Self-efficacy Also Shapes Causal Thinking. In Seeking Solutions To Difficult Problems, Those Who Perceived Themselves As Highly Efficacious Are Inclined To Attribute Their Failures To Insufficient Effort, Whereas Those Of Comparable Skills But Lower Perceived Self-efficacy Ascribe Their Failures To Deficient Ability