The present study investigated how Taiwanese children’s perceptions of classroom goal structure and personal goal orientations were related to each other and to their engagement in handicapping and test anxiety. Three hundred and twenty-six sixth-graders completed a self-report survey assessing their achievement goal orientations, perceptions of the classroom goal structure, use of self-handica...

This study examined the efficacy of a modified form of cognitive behavioural therapy, known as cognitive behavioural coaching, in reducing levels of perfectionism and self-handicapping in a non-clinical population. Twenty-eight Research Higher Degree students participated in an intensive workshop series held over six weeks. Perfectionism and self-handicapping were measured at the commencement a...

Should a firm favor a weaker or stronger employee in a contest? Despite a widespread emphasis on rewarding the best employees, managers continue to tolerate and even favor poor performers. Contest theory reveals that evenly matched contests are the most intense, which implies that a contest designer can maximize each player’s effort by artificially boosting the underdog’s chances. We apply this...

Claiming or creating obstacles before performing important tasks (i.e., self-handicapping) is a costly strategy to protect the self from implications of poor outcomes. We predicted that forming an if–then plan (implementation intention) helps individuals overcome their performance-related worries and thus prevents self-handicapping behavior. In two experiments, all participants formed the goal ...

Self-compassion is a self-regulation strategy for countering negative self-directed feelings and emotions. High self-compassionate people treat themselves with kindness, care, and concern when facing negative life experience. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of self-compassion on the use of two self-esteem protecting strategies, self-handicapping and sandbagging. Both stra...

Purpose: This research was conducted with the aim of presenting a model of self-handicapping based on time perspective and intelligence beliefs mediated by academic self-efficacy in students. Methodology: Present study was cross-sectional from type of correlation. The research population was all secondary high school students of Tehran city in 2019-20 academic years. The sample size was consid...

Objectives: Considering the negative effect of self-handicapping on both mental and physical health and the positive effect of self-efficacy on success and efficacy of people, this research has been conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of meta-cognitive skills training on self-handicapping and self-efficacy of students.  Methods: This research is an experimental study with p...

There has been very limited research on the use of self-worth protection strategies in the achievement context of school physical education (PE). Thus, this study aimed to examine some antecedents and consequences of defensive pessimism and selfhandicapping. The sample comprised 534 (females n = 275; males n = 259) British pupils recruited from two schools who responded to established questionn...