Self Efficacious Children Tend To Attribute Their

Agemates Provide The Most Informative Points Of Reference For Comparative Efficacy Appraisal And Verification. Children Are, Therefore, Especially Sensitive To Their Relative Standing Among The Peers With Whom They Affiliate In Activities That Determine Prestige And Popularity

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.

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

In Social Cognitive Theory, Perceived Self-efficacy Results From Diverse Sources Of Information Conveyed Vicariously And Through Social Evaluation, As Well As Through Direct Experience

The Adequacy Of Performance Attainments Depends Upon The Personal Standards Against Which They Are Judged