Persons Who Have A Strong Sense Of

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.

Reasonably Accurate Appraisal Of One's Own Capabilities Is, Therefore, Of Considerable Value In Successful Functioning. Large Misjudgments Of Personal Efficacy In Either Direction Have Consequences. People Who Grossly Overestimate Their Capabilities Undertake Activities That Are Clearly Beyond Their Reach. As A Result, They Get Themselves Into Considerable Difficulties, Undermine Their Credibility, And Suffer Needless Failures. Some Of The Missteps, Of Course, Can Produce Serious, Irreparable Harm

As A General Rule, Moderate Levels Of Arousal Facilitate Deployment Of Skills, Whereas High Arousal Disrupts It. This Is Especially True Of Complex Activities Requiring Intricate Organization Of Behavior

Self-percepts Foster Actions That Generate Information, As Well As Serve As A Filtering Mechanism For Self-referent Information In The Self-maintaining Process

People Who Regard Themselves As Highly Efficacious Act, Think, And Feel Differently From Those Who Perceive Themselves As Inefficacious. They Produce Their Own Future, Rather Than Simply Foretell It.