Randy's substandard academic performance is both a result and a cause of his feelings of academic inferiority. This best illustrates the importance of

A) self-serving bias.
B) the Barnum effect.
C) reciprocal determinism.
D) the false consensus effect.

The concept of reciprocal determinism suggests that behavior is influenced by both personal factors and the environment. Randy's academic performance and his feelings of academic inferiority affect each other in a reciprocal manner. Therefore, C is the best answer. Self-serving bias (A) refers to the tendency to take credit for success and blame external factors for failures. The Barnum effect (B) refers to the tendency to accept vague and general descriptions as accurate personal evaluations. The false consensus effect (D) refers to the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors. While all these concepts may be relevant to psychology, they are not specifically applicable to the situation described in the question stem.