Self-belief Does Not Necessarily Ensure Success, But

The Difficulty In Judging What Type Of Behavior Works Well Arises Not Only Because A Given Course Of Action Does Not Always Produce The Outcomes. Similar Outcomes Can Occur For Reasons Other Than The Person's Actions, Which Further Complicates Inferential Judgment. Effects That Arise Independently Of One's Actions Distort The Influence Of Similar Effects Produced By The Actions, But Only On Some Occasions. Given A Strong Cognitive Set To Perceive Regularities, Even Chance Joint Occurrences Of Events Can Be Easily Misjudged As Genuine Relationships Of Low Contingent Probability

People Are Much More Likely To Act On Their Self-percepts Of Efficacy Inferred From Many Sources Of Information Rather Than Rely Primarily On Visceral Cues. This Is Not Surprising Because Self Knowledge Based On Information About One's Coping Skills, Past Accomplishments, And Social Comparison Is Considerably More Indicative Of Capability Than The Indefinite Stirrings Of The Viscera

People Behave Agentically, But They Produce Theories That Afford People Very Little Agency.

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

Persons Who Have A Strong Sense Of Efficacy Deploy Their Attention And Effort To The Demands Of The Situation And Are Spurred By Obstacles To Greater Effort.