Relations between Female Students' Personality Traits and Reported Handicaps to Rhythmic Gymnastics Performance

Abstract

The present study evaluated the relative contributions of Self-esteem, Trait anxiety, and Public Self-consciousness to self-handicapping on a sex-typed task, within a specific academic sport context. Prior to the competitive examination used to recruit French Physical Education Teachers, female sport students (N = 74) were asked to list and rate on a 7-point scale handicaps which could be disruptive to their Rhythmic Gymnastics performance. Self-esteem did not account for significant variance in any category of handicaps. Trait Anxiety was negatively related to handicaps related to Rhythmic Gymnastics and to Social and Work Commitments. Public Self-consciousness was significantly related to endorsement of Friends and Family Commitments handicaps. These results were discussed in relation to the literature.

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

“…Indeed, while in the low ego-threatening condition, high self-handicappers claimed more handicaps than low self-handicappers, and low self-esteem athletes claimed more handicaps than high self-esteem athletes; in the high ego-threatening condition this difference disappeared. This finding is consistent with several studies in which the effects of self-handicapping tendency (Rhodewalt, Saltzman, & Wittmer, 1984) and selfesteem (Ferrand et al, 2005) on the amount of handicaps reported by participants in a high ego-threatening situation was not significant. This finding is also consistent with the position of Kimble and Hirt (2005) that there are many situations in which a situational factor overrides individual differences in self-handicapping tendency and that it is necessary to use an interactionist approach to understand the conditions of emergence of self-handicapping strategies.…”

“…In most experiments on claimed self-handicapping participants were placed in high ego-threatening situations; athletes completed competitions or physical tests (Carron et al, 1994;Ferrand et al, 2005;Greenlees et al, 2006) and students completed exams or intelligence tests (Feick & Rhodewalt, 1997;Hirt et al, 1991;Strube, 1986). These studies have shown that claimed self-handicapping strategies are particularly likely to emerge during high ego-threatening situations.…”

“…First, it remains unclear whether athletes use claimed self-handicapping in low ego-threatening conditions. The literature clearly indicates that athletes engage in this strategy in high ego-threatening situations such as competitions or physical tests (e.g., Ferrand, Champely, & Brunel, 2005;Kuczka & Treasure, 2005). However, to our knowledge, no research addresses whether athletes also use this strategy during low ego-threatening situations (e.g., conditioning training exercises or techniques training exercises without any salient evaluative components) 1 .…”

Self-esteem, self-confidence, anxiety and claimed self-handicapping: A mediational analysis

“…Much has been written about the role of ability uncertainty (e.g., and threat to self-esteem as predictors of self-handicapping (Snyder & Smith, 1982). In sport contexts, for instance, trait competitive anxiety (Martens, Vealey, & Burton, 1990) was found to positively relate to situational manifestations of claimed self-handicapping (Ferrand, Champely, & Brunel, 2005) and state competitive anxiety was found to positively relate to trait measures of self-handicapping Prapavessis, Grove, Maddison, & Zillmann, 2003). Furthermore, Ryska, Yin, and Cooley (1998) showed that athletes' reports of performancedebilitating obstacles prior to competition were positively correlated with their states of cognitive anxiety (negative concerns about performance) and somatic anxiety (perceived bodily symptoms of competitive anxiety), and negatively correlated with their state of self-confidence.…”

Disordered Eating and Eating Disorders in Aquatic Sports

“…The pressure that comes with the perception held by many top swim coaches that lower body weight and body fat improves swimming times (Thompson & Sherman, 2010) increases the risk for restricted eating behavior and for developing DE/EDs (Torstveit & Sundgot-Borgen, 2013). A negative self-image regarding appearance and perception of how others evaluate their physique have been reported among adolescent competitive synchronized swimmers compared with athletes in sports with no emphasis on leanness and nonathletic control subjects (Ferrand et al, 2005a). There is also evidence that swimmers often feel pressure to lose weight and that they may be especially vulnerable to DE because of the display of their bodies in tight and revealing swim suits (Benson et al, 1990).…”