Self-handicapping

Abstract: This study tested the hypothesis that individual differences in the tendency to engage in self-handicapping were related to beliefs about the mutability of ability attributes and the pursuit of different achievement goals. Correlational data indicated that high self-handicappers as defined by the Self-handicapping Scale (Jones & Rhodewalt, 1982) believed that ability traits were more innately determined. They were mote likely to endorse performance goals (demonstration of ability) than were low self-handicappers. Low self-handicappers, in contrast, held a more incremental view of ability traits and pursued learning goals (increasing competence). Results are discussed in terms of the cognitive underpinnings of self-protective behavior.

Abstract: We tested the hypothesis that socially anxious or shy individuals use their anxiety symptoms as a strategy to control attributions made about their performances in social-evaluative settings (i.e., self-handicapping strategies). Specifically, we predicted that trait-socially anxious or shy persons would report more symptoms of social anxiety in an evaluative setting in which anxiety or shyness could serve as an excuse for poor performance than would individuals in (a) an evaluative setting in which shyness was precluded as an excuse or (b) a nonevaluative setting. Furthermore, we predicted that this self-protective pattern of symptom reporting would not occur for individuals who were not trait-socially anxious because these persons would not commonly use such symptoms as a self-handicapping strategy. Results supported these predictions for male subjects, but not for female subjects. Sex differences in the strategic use of shyness are discussed in relation to other research on sex differences in the etiology and correlates of social anxiety.