Personal, interpersonal, and situational influences on behavioral self-handicapping.
This study explored the combined effects of personal factors (participant sex), interpersonal factors (experimenter sex), and situational factors (performance feedback) on two forms of behavioral self-handicapping. Participants received non-contingent success or failure feedback concerning their performance on a novel ability and were given the opportunity to self-handicap before performing again. Behavioral self-handicapping took the form of (a) exerting less practice effort (practice) or (b) choosing a performance-debilitating tape (choice). Men practiced least after failure feedback and chose a debilitating tape if they were interacting with a female experimenter. Generally, across all participants in both choice and practice conditions, high performance concern and the presence of a male experimenter led to the most self-handicapping. Results are interpreted in terms of self-presentational concerns that emphasize a desire to impress or an awareness of the female or male experimenter's acceptance of self-handicappers.
Brown
Christina M
CM
Department of Psychology, Saint Louis University, 221 N. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63109, USA. cbrown81@slu.edu
Kimble
Charles E
CE
D000124:Achievement; D001076:Aptitude; D030141:Feedback, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011340:Problem Solving; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D012919:Social Behavior; D012931:Social Environment; D012938:Social Perception