Reducing the tendency to self-handicap: The effect of self-affirmation

Siegel, Phyllis A.; Scillitoe, Joanne L.; Parks-Yancy, Rochelle

doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2004.11.004

Cited by 37 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…To prevent self-handicapping, coaches, psychologists and teachers can use different techniques (see e.g., Kuczka & Treasure, 2005;Siegel, Scillitoe, & Parks-Yancy, 2005). For example, they can change the motivational climate of their group, focus athletes' attention away from the implication of performance, promote athletes' self-esteem or alter the specific responses athletes use to protect their self.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Athletes Claim Handicaps in Low Ego-Threatening Conditions? Re-Examining the Effect of Ego-Threat on Claimed Self-Handicapping

Finez

Berjot

Rosnet

et al. 2011

The Sport Psychologist

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One hundred and three athletes participated in a motor task that was ostensibly designed to detect their physical ability (high ego-threatening condition) or provide pretesting data for an upcoming study (low ego-threatening condition) and were then given the opportunity to claim handicaps that could impair their performance on this task. Extending previous findings that high self-handicappers (i.e., athletes who scored high on the self-handicapping scale) and low self-esteem athletes engage in claimed self-handicapping in high ego-threatening conditions, the results reveal that they may also engage in this strategy in low ego-threatening conditions. In the low ego-threatening condition, athletes’ self-esteem and self-handicapping tendency explained together 33% of the handicaps they claimed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Athletes Claim Handicaps in Low Ego-Threatening Conditions? Re-Examining the Effect of Ego-Threat on Claimed Self-Handicapping

Finez

Berjot

Rosnet

et al. 2011

The Sport Psychologist

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“…For example, as a result of self-affirmation, participants have been found to report decreased distancing strategies in close relationships (Jaremka, Bunyan, Collins & Sherman, 2011), reduced risk of self-control failure (Schmeichel & Vohs, 2009) and decreased self-handicapping tendencies (Siegel, Scillitoe & Parks-Yancy, 2005).…”

Section: Applications Of Satmentioning

confidence: 99%

The moderating impact of self‐esteem on self‐affirmation effects

Düring

Jessop

2014

British J Health Psychol

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Objectives This study explored whether self‐esteem would moderate the effectiveness of a self‐affirmation manipulation at increasing openness to personally relevant health‐risk information. Design The study employed a prospective experimental design. Method Participants (N = 328) completed either a self‐affirmation manipulation or a control task, prior to reading information detailing the health‐related consequences of taking insufficient exercise. They then completed a series of measures assessing their cognitions towards exercise and their derogation of the information. Exercise behaviour was assessed at 1‐week follow‐up. Results Self‐esteem moderated the impact of self‐affirmation on the majority of outcomes. For participants with low self‐esteem, the self‐affirmation manipulation resulted in more positive attitudes and intentions towards exercise, together with lower levels of derogation of the health‐risk information. By contrast, there was no effect of the self‐affirmation manipulation on outcomes for participants with high self‐esteem. Conclusion Findings suggest that self‐affirmation manipulations might be of particular benefit for those with low self‐esteem in terms of promoting openness towards health‐risk information. This is promising from a health promotion perspective, as individuals with low self‐esteem often represent those most in need of intervention. What is already known on this subject? Self‐affirmation has been shown to result in more open processing of personally relevant health‐risk information. Individuals low in self‐esteem tend to process such information more defensively than those high in self‐esteem. What does this study add? It explores whether self‐esteem moderates the impact of self‐affirmation on responses to health‐risk information. Findings suggest that individuals with low self‐esteem benefit most from the self‐affirmation manipulation. This has important applied implications, as individuals with low self‐esteem may be most in need of intervention.

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“…Drawing on this research, we reason that the opportunity to self-affirm might also diminish the tendency to self-handicap. Support for this hypothesis has already been found in two studies (McCrea & Hirt, 2011;Siegel et al, 2005). However, yet available findings are limited in several ways.…”

Section: Using Self-affirmation To Reduce Self-handicappingmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…In contrast, focusing on an aspect related to the source of self-esteem threat may increase the perception of threat because it refers to the violated standard. These findings imply that self-affirmation is successful in decreasing self-handicapping, but only if individuals focus on aspects of the self which are unrelated to the source of threat (McCrea & Hirt, 2011;Siegel et al, 2005).…”

Section: Contextual Moderatorsmentioning

confidence: 91%

Self-Affirmation Buffers Claimed Self-Handicapping? A Test of Contextual and Individual Moderators

Tandler¹,

Schwinger²,

Kaminski³

et al. 2014

PSYCH

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Researchers have argued that the strategies individuals use for self-esteem regulation are interchangeable. In the present study, we examined whether previous self-affirmation reduces the amount of subsequent claimed self-handicapping. More importantly, we tested potential moderators of these effects. Following negative feedback on an intelligence test, 56 female college students were given the opportunity to affirm themselves either within the threatened intelligence domain or within a domain unrelated to the source of threat (e.g., musicality). Results revealed that subjects handicapped less when they had previously affirmed themselves in a domain which was unrelated to the threatening domain (contextual moderator). However, these effects were moderated by dispositional self-esteem (individual moderator). High self-esteem participants claimed fewer handicaps the more they felt self-affirmed whereas claimed self-handicapping among low self-esteem participants was not affected by previous self-affirmation. Altogether, our findings suggest certain limitations on the substitutability of self-protection processes.

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Reducing the tendency to self-handicap: The effect of self-affirmation

Cited by 37 publications

References 31 publications

Do Athletes Claim Handicaps in Low Ego-Threatening Conditions? Re-Examining the Effect of Ego-Threat on Claimed Self-Handicapping

Do Athletes Claim Handicaps in Low Ego-Threatening Conditions? Re-Examining the Effect of Ego-Threat on Claimed Self-Handicapping

The moderating impact of self‐esteem on self‐affirmation effects

Self-Affirmation Buffers Claimed Self-Handicapping? A Test of Contextual and Individual Moderators

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