Self-Handicapping in Students
In 1978 Berglass and Jones introduced the term self-handicapping to describe a cognitive strategy when people avoid putting effort into a task in hope that failure will not hurt self-esteem. Humans can rationalize failure in the impending task as being due to lack of effort. One way self-handicapping has been studied is in the academic environment. Self-handicapping can be seen in educational settings and is often preceded by procrastination (Urdan & Midgley, 2001). Self-handicapping is never more apparent than in the classroom when students receive an assignment that often creates anxiety. They choose to push this assignment as far out as possible to reduce anxiety and make it seem distant. However, when the time comes to face the task students may feel hesitant and lack …show more content…
Ommundsen investigated implicit theory of ability, or how an individual believed they would perform, and the amount of self-handicapping in physical education classes. Physical education classes were used since students cannot mask self-handicapping in such classroom. The author hypothesized that low perceived confidence would inversely correlate with self-handicapping rates. Likewise, lower implicit theory of ability would be inversely correlated with higher self-handicapping rates.
The study used fifteen to sixteen year olds in 9th grade from six different junior high schools in Norway. A total of 343 students were surveyed with 155 boys and 177 girls. All the participants were asked to complete both an intrinsic motivation scale (Ryan, 1982), used to asses perceived competency, and a self-handicapping scale (Midgley, Arunkumar, & Urdan, 1996; Midgley & Urdan, 1995; Urdan, Midgley, & Anderman, 1998). The participants responded to a questionnaire about theories of ability, perceived competencies and self-handicapping in physical education
In 1978 Berglass and Jones introduced the term self-handicapping to describe a cognitive strategy when people avoid putting effort into a task in hope that failure will not hurt self-esteem. Humans can rationalize failure in the impending task as being due to lack of effort. One way self-handicapping has been studied is in the academic environment. Self-handicapping can be seen in educational settings and is often preceded by procrastination (Urdan & Midgley, 2001). Self-handicapping is never more apparent than in the classroom when students receive an assignment that often creates anxiety. They choose to push this assignment as far out as possible to reduce anxiety and make it seem distant. However, when the time comes to face the task students may feel hesitant and lack …show more content…
Ommundsen investigated implicit theory of ability, or how an individual believed they would perform, and the amount of self-handicapping in physical education classes. Physical education classes were used since students cannot mask self-handicapping in such classroom. The author hypothesized that low perceived confidence would inversely correlate with self-handicapping rates. Likewise, lower implicit theory of ability would be inversely correlated with higher self-handicapping rates.
The study used fifteen to sixteen year olds in 9th grade from six different junior high schools in Norway. A total of 343 students were surveyed with 155 boys and 177 girls. All the participants were asked to complete both an intrinsic motivation scale (Ryan, 1982), used to asses perceived competency, and a self-handicapping scale (Midgley, Arunkumar, & Urdan, 1996; Midgley & Urdan, 1995; Urdan, Midgley, & Anderman, 1998). The participants responded to a questionnaire about theories of ability, perceived competencies and self-handicapping in physical education