In Common Light

In college, my cognitive psychology class almost felt like a history class. Seemingly more so than psychological concepts, I learned about people – Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, Edward Thorndike. In this way, I learned about the evolution of the field — how it ebbed and flowed with disproven theories and expanded ideas. I found this strange – I expected these classes to be taught almost like a math class, presenting us with the black and white knowledge that we at this moment in time knew to be “true”, and nothing more. 

My Surprise Comes from Over-Reliance

Why did I find this strange? Where did my expectation of plainly presented facts come from anyway? Why did I catch myself feeling surprised at learning about the people who contributed to the field rather than the mere information?

My surprise comes from an over-reliance on authority figures and institutions. Though I knew that the field of psychology of course needed people to contribute to it, it struck me as weird that knowledge itself — what we consider to be true — is not always the same throughout history. Just like old psychological theories that came to be disproven, sometimes what institutions or society at large tells us is not true.

From learning about people and their contributions, I learned that psychology is not static. Knowledge itself is not granted or innate, it is not sitting waiting to be discovered – it is sought out. From these classes, I gained a powerful understanding that we are all active agents in our own reality. We all have the power to co-create our world.

Life Conditions are Created

We not only actively shape our knowledge base, we also actively shape our life’s conditions. The freedoms that we have now were worked for by those who came before us. The eight-hour workday, women’s right to vote, racial integration, and marriage equality did not emerge naturally from society; rather, they resulted from years of organized action by ordinary people. This is what happens when people take personal agency and work together to shape society.

Self-Efficacy 

To be an active agent in your life, self-efficacy is important. Self-efficacy is an “individual’s belief in his or her capacity to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific performance attainments,” (American Psychological Association, 2009). Self-efficacy is a large contributor to mental health (Battista, 2025).

Some of us may experience blocks to self-efficacy. Sometimes, we do not believe in ourselves, and actually would rather our own potential go to waste than try in order to not fail. For example, self-handicapping is the tendency to self-sabotage in order to not to fail by providing an external reason for our shortcomings (Cherry, 2026). This is especially true when our behavior or achievements feel like an extension of our self-worth. For example, someone may feel that their academic achievements provide a basis for their self-worth. Instead of admitting that they did poorly on a test, they may purposely not study for a test, attributing this as the reason for their poor performance. As you can guess, self-handicapping sabotages success. The remedy for this is to realize that your self-worth is not contingent on achievements — it is granted to you simply by being a human.

Reality is a Perception

We can change our realities with self-efficacy and by changing our perception of reality through mindset shifts. Some ways to change your reality include practicing gratitude and manifestation meditations. We have way more power and resilience than we think we do. We can get through so much more than we think we can.

What I have learned is that the challenge does not lie in getting through difficult things. The challenge is starting. The challenge is declaring that you want better for yourself. This is a challenge because of prior mental programming, mainly, fear. Fear is not something to cure, but to feel through. And to do things despite it.

Changing Our Own Reality Through Declaring More

If reality is a perception, that means that we can change our reality. This requires declaring more. We really can live amazing, beautiful lives and cultivate more positive emotions by declaring more for ourselves.

Takeaway

We are not idle or passive in our lives, but active agents. We can shape our understanding of our own reality for the better.

References

Battista, S. (2025, September 8). Self-efficacy and Mental Health Strategies. Greenhouse Psychotherapy. https://www.greenhousepsych.com/post/boosting-mental-health-through-self-efficacy

Carey, M., & Forsyth, A. (2009). Teaching Tip Sheet: Self-Efficacy. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/pi/aids/resources/education/self-efficacy

Cherry, K. (2026, April 23). How self-handicapping can sabotage your chances of success. VeryWellMind. https://www.verywellmind.com/self-handicapping-protecting-the-ego-at-a-cost-4125125

What is 3 before me?. TeachThought. (2025, November 14). https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy-posts/3-before-me/