Through Their Capacity To Manipulate Symbols And

For Many Activities, People Cannot Rely Solely On Themselves In Evaluating Their Ability Level Because Such Judgments Require Inferences From Probabilistic Indicants Of Talent About Which They May Have Limited Knowledge. Self-appraisals Are, Therefore, Partly Based On The Opinions Of Others Who Presumably Possess Evaluative Competence

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.

The Satisfactions People Derive From What They Do Are Determined To A Large Degree By Their Self-evaluative Standards

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