Cognitive causal mechanisms in human agency: etic and emic considerations

The debate over the contribution of cognitive processes in understanding human endeavor rages on in psychology despite decades of conceptual and empirical scrutiny from researchers. Recently, the construct of self efficacy has stimulated a renewal of this debate. We discuss the significance of this cognitive construct from the perspective of cross-cultural behavior. We examine the empirical evidence from a number of cross-cultural studies, and we argue that the etic quality of this construct provides strong evidence for its significance in understanding universal aspects of behavior.