Public Self-Focus and Sex Differences in Behavioral Self-Handicapping: Does Increasing Self-Threat Still Make it “Just a Man’s Game?”

Hirt, Edward R.; McCrea, Sean M.; Kimble, Charles E.

doi:10.1177/01461672002611009

Cited by 55 publications

(113 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Based on past findings that women are more critical of individuals that withdraw effort and that women do not behaviorally handicap even when the evaluative threat of the performance is increased (Hirt et al, 2000), we proposed that gender differences in behavioral self-handicapping could be due to women placing more value on putting forth effort. Our goal in the present research was to develop and examine measures of effort beliefs that could be used to test this explanation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evidence supporting the role of effort beliefs in gender differences in self-handicapping Earlier work on the gender difference in behavioral self-handicapping largely focused on the idea that men experience more evaluative threat and thus have greater motivation to self-handicap. For example, based on the finding that self-handicapping is at least partly motivated by impression management concerns (Kolditz & Arkin, 1982), Hirt et al (2000) examined whether increasing the evaluative threat of a performance via public self-focus would increase behavioral self-handicapping among men and women. Although men responded to public self-focus with increased behavioral self-handicapping, women did not.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The worker scale: Developing a measure to explain gender differences in behavioral self-handicapping

McCrea

Hirt

Hendrix

et al. 2008

Journal of Research in Personality

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Research has consistently found that men engage in more behavioral self-handicapping than do women. We first review evidence suggesting that these gender differences result from women placing more importance on displaying effort than do men. We then present the results of two studies seeking to develop measures of beliefs about effort that might explain these gender differences in behavioral self-handicapping. Women, across a wide range of measures, placed more importance on effort than did men. However, only a new measure of more personalized effort beliefs, dubbed the Worker scale, uniquely explained gender differences in dispositional tendency to behaviorally self-handicap. The Worker scale also predicted academic performance, consistent with the notion that these effort beliefs would predict engagement in actual behavioral selfhandicaps that undermine performance.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The worker scale: Developing a measure to explain gender differences in behavioral self-handicapping

McCrea

Hirt

Hendrix

et al. 2008

Journal of Research in Personality

Self Cite

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“…Hirt et al, 1991Hirt et al, , 2000. Participants were also told that the researchers were interested in examining the effect of practice on the exam, and so they were asking participants to either complete a set amount of practice problems or to not practice at all.…”

Section: Materials and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The two measures were highly correlated (r ϭ .91). Consistent with past work (see Hirt et al, 1991Hirt et al, , 2000, these measures were standardized and summed (␣ ϭ .95 [reversed], proud, competence, resourceful, capable) were also combined into a single measure (␣ ϭ .70). Initial analyses revealed no significant effects of gender, and so this variable was dropped from further consideration.…”

Section: Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-handicapping, excuse making, and counterfactual thinking: Consequences for self-esteem and future motivation.

McCrea

2008

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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Researchers interested in counterfactual thinking have often found that upward counterfactual thoughts lead to increased motivation to improve in the future, although at the cost of increased negative affect. The present studies suggest that because upward counterfactual thoughts indicate reasons for a poor performance, they can also serve as excuses. In this case, upward counterfactual thoughts should result in more positive self-esteem and reduced future motivation. Five studies demonstrated these effects in the context of self-handicapping. First, upward counterfactual thinking was increased in the presence of a self-handicap. Second, upward counterfactual thoughts indicating the presence of a self-handicap protected self-esteem following failure. Finally, upward counterfactual thoughts that protect self-esteem reduced preparation for a subsequent performance as well as performance itself. These findings suggest that the consequences of upward counterfactuals for affect and motivation are moderated by the goals of the individual as well as the content of the thoughts.

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“…This is evidenced in the consistent observation that self-handicapping is especially likely to occur in response to non-contingent success feedback Arkin & Baumgartner, 1985;Mayerson & Rhodewalt, 1988;Hirt, Deppe, & Gordon, 1991). Research conducted by Hirt, McCrea, and Kimble (2000) has shown that this relationship is mediated by feelings of concern for failure.…”

Section: Uncertainty Choice and Controlmentioning

confidence: 94%

Free Will Belief as a Predictor of Self-Handicapping

Jettinghoff¹

2018

Preprint

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The present research explores free will belief as a causal antecedent to self-handicapping. The overarching goal of this work is to increase our understanding of why some individuals faced with a threatening assessment in an important ability domain will increase effort to ensure success, whereas others will engage in self-handicapping. Previous work has established that uncertainty aroused by non-contingent success feedback encourages the use of self-handicapping. We theorize that when faced with uncertainty and potential failure, those with weaker free will beliefs will be more likely to resort to self-handicapping. In other words, that self-handicapping necessitates that an individual feels a lack of free will and control over future performance and outcomes. Thus, we predicted that stronger belief in free will would be negatively associated with self-handicapping. Study 1 (N = 137) used a correlational design and measured trait self-handicapping, belief in free will, and perceptions of control, among other relevant dispositional variables, in an MTurk sample. The results indicated that belief in free will was negatively correlated with trait self-handicapping. Study 2 (N = 132) replicated this same pattern using a correlational design with a college student sample. Study 3 (N = 98) used an experimental design and manipulated belief in free will using an autobiographical memory task in which participants were asked to recall a time in which they experienced control and freedom of choice, or a lack thereof. We predicted that experimentally inducing a weaker free will belief would increase claimed self-handicapping. Results showed that the memory task did not produce differences in belief in free will, making us unable to test our causal hypothesis. However, we did replicate the correlations found in Studies 1 and 2. The free will manipulation and the implications of the correlational data are discussed.

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Public Self-Focus and Sex Differences in Behavioral Self-Handicapping: Does Increasing Self-Threat Still Make it “Just a Man’s Game?”

Abstract: The pres ent study exam ined the effects of pub lic self-focus and par tic i pants

Cited by 55 publications

References 34 publications

The worker scale: Developing a measure to explain gender differences in behavioral self-handicapping

The worker scale: Developing a measure to explain gender differences in behavioral self-handicapping

Self-handicapping, excuse making, and counterfactual thinking: Consequences for self-esteem and future motivation.

Free Will Belief as a Predictor of Self-Handicapping

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