The Role of Ability Judgments in Self-Handicapping

By Sean M. McCrea, E. Hirt. 2001

113 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This research investigated whether self-handicapping preserves specific conceptions of ability in a particular domain despite poor performance. Reports of preparatory behaviors and stress among introductory psychology students were measured prior to an exam and subsequent performance, attributions for the performance, and measures of global self-esteem and specific self-conceptions were measured after the exam. Results indicated that high self-handicappers reported reduced effort and more stress prior to the exam, performed worse on the exam, and made different attributions following the exam than did low self-handicappers. Although reported self-handicapping was detrimental to performance, male HSH individuals maintained positive conceptions of specific ability in psychology in spite of poorer performance. Moreover, the results of path analyses indicated that it was these changes in specific ability beliefs that mediated changes in global self-esteem. These findings suggest that the primary motivation underlying self-handicapping may be to protect conceptions of ability in a specific domain, which thereby serves to protect global self-esteem.

Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/812d135c7336f068e49eca87f85db5866accf490

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

1. A. Elliot
2. F. Cury
3. D. da Fonseca
4. Constantine Sedikides
5. A. Gregg
6. Ista Zahn
7. Kou Murayama
8. Andrew J. Howell

In Social Psychology

1. Constantine Sedikides
2. A. Elliot
3. F. Cury
4. D. da Fonseca
5. A. Gregg
6. Ista Zahn
7. Robert J. Vallerand
8. Kou Murayama

In Sociology and Political Science

1. Constantine Sedikides
2. A. Gregg
3. A. Elliot
4. D. da Fonseca
5. F. Cury
6. T. Wildschut
7. Jeffrey D. Green
8. L. Gaertner

Citations in the corpus

• Implicit theories and IQ test performance: A sequential mediational analysis ☆ (2008, background): “Although forgoing practice may indeed protect the self from an internal attribution for failure (McCrea & Hirt, 2001), it is also likely to have negative implications for performance attainment.”
• Self-Enhancement: Food for Thought (2008, background): “Self-handicappers do manage to maintain positive self-views (McCrea & Hirt, 2001) but only at the cost of impairing objective performance (Zuckerman & Tsai, 2005).”