It influences your coping efforts. If success is achieved, you have had a corrective experience. Those who cease their efforts prematurely will retain their self-debilitating expectations. Expectation is not the sole determinant but it does influence how long an individual will sustain effort in dealing with stressful situations. Performance desensitization produces better outcomes in treating phobias.
Real encounters are better than imagined encounters.
Longer and more involved encounters are better. Successful performance is the primary vehicle for change. Faulty appraisals of the circumstances under which success was achieved, will lead to crediting success to external factors rather than to one s own capabilities. Social learning theories developed in the laboratory rather than in clinical practice. Consider limitations noted at the end of the chapter - especially the issue of education and training.