about possessing the requisite cognitive and behavioral processes (or means)
to achieve desired environmental outcomes (or ends). A primary index of per-
sonal agency is a belief in one’s self-efficacy to learn or perform at certain des-
ignated levels (Bandura, 1986; Pajares, 1996). Self-efficacy beliefs are distinc-
tive because they refer to the process of learning rather than outcomes of it.
The distinction between process and outcome beliefs is central to a social cog-
nitive perspective on learning and motivation, a topic we address next. Subse-
quently, we consider students’ intellectual self-regulation from a triadic per-
spective, key self-regulatory processes and self-motivational beliefs, a
developmental perspective on how process goals become linked to outcome
goals, and how proactive process learners differ from reactive outcome learn-
ers in their cycles of self-regulation and their sense of personal agency.
Finally, we consider challenges to students’ use of self-regulatory processes,
such as counterproductive outcomes.
SELF-EFFICACY AND THE MEANS–END
DISTINCTION
Unlike information processing and metacognitive theories that view intellec-
tual functioning in terms of acquiring and applying systems of knowledge,
social cognitive researchers see it in broader triadic terms—namely, personal,
behavioral, and environmental interacting influences (Zimmerman, 1995).
To optimally self-regulate their intellectual functioning, students must not
only select cognitive strategies and metacognitively monitor their use, these
students need to feel self-efficacious about succeeding, set effective goals for
themselves, choose or create advantageous environments, optimize covert af-
fective states, and systematically self-evaluate their behavioral effectiveness.
A triadic formulation also seeks to explain the academic failures of meta-
cognitively capable students based on underestimates of personal efficacy,
setting ineffective goals, choice of adverse social environments, uncontrolled
emotions, and unsystematic self-evaluation. As we discuss in the following,
the highest level of intellectual functioning is achieved when students can self-
regulate all triadic sources of influence.
Historically, social cognitive researchers (Bandura, 1969) emphasized the
importance of personal expectations regarding performance outcomes, such
as receiving monetary or occupational rewards following successful task
completion, as a major source of motivation. In 1977, Bandura hypothesized
the presence of a second related motive, which he termed self-efficacy. Unlike
outcome expectations, which refer to personal beliefs about the effectiveness
of a behavior in achieving an outcome, self-efficacy expectations refer to per-
sonal beliefs about one’s capability or competence to perform a particular be-
havior. For example, a student’s beliefs about being able to solve a math
324 ZIMMERMAN AND SCHUNK