Development of Self-Handicapping Tendencies

Abstract

This study was undertaken to determine when U.S. children begin to self-handicap, that is, to reduce preparation effort before evaluations rather than applying themselves to do their best. The personal variables examined for their impact on practice behavior were gender, grade level, and self-esteem. The situational variables were time of the self-esteem test (before or after the evaluation task) and importance of the evaluation task. The results showed that (a) the 6th-grade boys were more likely than the 6th-grade girls to self-handicap, (b) the 3rd-grade children were not as affected as the 6th-grade children by the self-evaluation implications of performance evaluations, (c) self-handicapping by low-self-esteem and high-self-esteem 6th graders depended on recent experiences, and (d) the self-affirming experience of a self-esteem test reduced the motivation to self-handicap among high-self-esteem 6th-grade boys.

Investigating the Relationship between Self-Handicapping Tendencies, Self-Esteem and Cognitive Distortions

“…Previous research reported differences between females and males in terms of self-handicapping (e.g., Kimble et al, 1998;Rhodewalt & Davison, 1986). Therefore, preliminary analysis was conducted for gender on the SHS scores.…”

“…It was concluded that female students had higher self-handicapping scores when compared to male students. The literature on self-handicapping includes many studies that find men resorting to self-handicapping strategies more often than women (e.g., Kimble et al, 1998;Rhodewalt & Davison, 1986). Some other authors have reported that self-handicapping does not differ depending on gender (e. g., Leondari & Gonida, 2007).…”

“…In their study, Rhodewalt et al (1991) found that individuals regardless of what level of self-esteem they have blamed other factors for failure, whereas only individuals with a high level of self-esteem attributed success to themselves (as cited in Abacı & Akın, 2011). In their study on sixth graders, Kimble, Kimble, and Croy (1998) found that individuals resorted to self-handicapping strategies regardless of how high their self-esteem was. To sum up, self-handicapping protects and enhances self-esteem.…”

Self-Handicapping Prior to Academic-Oriented Tasks in Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Medication Effects and Comparisons with Controls

“…This was a picturematching task that has been used in past research on selfhandicapping in children (Kimble et al, 1998). Each problem on the picture-matching task consisted of a series of four abstract figures, followed by a blank space.…”

“…Theoretically, then, self-handicapping helps guard against the potentially harmful effects of failure on self-esteem. Research supports self-handicapping theory for both adults (e.g., McCrae & Hirt, 2001) and children (Kimble, Kimble, & Croy, 1998;Ryska, 2002).…”