Maslow felt everyone acted to win approval, recognition, and a sense of achievement, but these were difficult to attain if basic human needs like food and clothing were not met. Once people satisfied these physiological and safety needs, they could consider realizing psychological needs of self-esteem and love. Self-efficacy is a person's perception of his or her own effectiveness or confidence in his or her ability to perform a particular test. It is part of the self-actualizing needs, the need to fulfill individual potential, which constitute the peak of Maslow's needs. In striving to attain these goals, people often act in ways which influence other people's perceptions.
Attribution theory considers such actions self-serving.
Expectancy relates to a person's expectations based on prior experience. A stimulus is anything which causes chemical, electrical and mechanical activity in sense receptors. The initial electrical activity caused by sensory stimulation is a sensation. His ideas influenced those who proposed the Virginia Plan in the opening discussion of the Philadelphia Convention, held in 1787 to revise the Articles of Confederation. Delegates to the convention modified the Virginia Plan, merged it with the New Jersey Plan proposed later, defined the three branches, and outlined their responsibilities and limitations of power in the U.S. Constitution.