Self-handicapping and defensive pessimism: A model of self-protection from a longitudinal perspective

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Abstract

This research places self-handicapping and defensive pessimism (comprising defensive expectations and reflectivity) into a single conceptual and analytic framework that models the full self-protective process across time. Data on two occasions collected during students’ (n=328) first two years at university show: performance orientation positively predicts self-handicapping, defensive expectations, and reflectivity; task-orientation negatively predicts self-handicapping and defensive expectations and positively predicts reflectivity; uncertain personal control positively predicts defensive expectations and reflectivity; and an external attributional orientation positively predicts self-handicapping and defensive expectations. Although both self-handicapping and defensive expectations negatively affect academic outcomes, the negative effects of self-handicapping were more marked. In contrast to these counter-productive strategies, reflectivity had positive effects on academic engagement.

Introduction

Individuals can use a variety of strategies to deal with threats to their self-worth. Two such strategies—self-handicapping and defensive pessimism—have received little joint attention to date and their separate and combined effects are the focus of the present study. According to the self-worth theory of motivation (Covington, 1984, Covington, 1992, Covington, 1997), the need to protect one’s self-worth arises primarily from a fear of failure and the implications this failure may have for one’s private and public sense of ability and subsequent self-worth. Using this theory as a basis to guide hypotheses, a longitudinal model of the processes giving rise to and following from self-handicapping and defensive pessimism is examined. In testing this model, the study seeks to (a) explore the processes of defensive manoeuvring as they relate to self-handicapping and defensive pessimism, (b) clarify the factors giving rise to self-handicapping and defensive pessimism and the consequences that follow from them, (c) draw together self-handicapping and defensive pessimism under a common conceptual and empirical framework, and (d) add to the small body of research that assesses defensive manoeuvring in a longitudinal fashion.

A useful framework to guide the study of this process is one proposed by Buss and Cantor (1989). According to them, individuals’ dispositions or characteristic orientations influence the strategies they use to negotiate demands in their environment, and these strategies in turn influence their behaviour within this environment. In contrast to the bulk of research that typically studies such processes from personality and social psychological perspectives, the present study evaluates the generalisability of this model in an educational context.

Section snippets

Self-worth motivation

The importance of protecting one’s self-worth from failure has been emphasized over the past two decades (Covington, 1984, Covington, 1992, Covington, 1997). Covington, 1984, Covington, 1992 argues that failure holds implications for students’ self-worth because failure is interpreted as being indicative of low ability and low ability is equated with a lack of self-worth. Thus, many students go to great lengths to avoid failure or to alter its meaning. Two strategies they can use to do this are

Predictors of self-handicapping and defensive pessimism

The strategy in this research is to clarify the similarities and differences between self-handicapping and defensive pessimism is to examine the relation of these two strategies to affective and motivational measures that are conceptually relevant to the issue of self-worth motivation. The specific factors that comprise this self-worth motivation have not been systematically examined to date. Nor have they been examined in terms of how they contribute to the tendency to engage in

Associations between academic strategies and academic outcomes

The present study is also concerned with exploring the relationships between the academic strategies and academic outcomes. As discussed above, the findings in relation to the consequences of self-handicapping have been mixed—some suggesting it leads to positive outcomes, while others suggest it has more negative consequences. The present conceptualisation of self-handicapping is that it is explicitly self-protective. When the protective dimension of self-handicapping has been operationalised,

Focus of the study and hypotheses

The central aim of the present study is to examine—across students’ first and second years at university—(a) the relationship between self-handicapping, defensive expectations, and reflectivity and a variety of educationally relevant affective and motivational predictors (performance orientation, task-orientation, uncertain personal control, external attributional orientation, and self-esteem), (b) the relationship between these three strategies and educational outcomes that include current and

Sample

Students enrolled in Teacher Education programs from three universities in metropolitan Sydney, Australia, were surveyed midway through their first year at university (Time 1) and again midway through their second year (Time 2). Data for both Time 1 and Time 2 were available for a total of 328 respondents. Most respondents (n=291, 88.7%) were female, 37 (11.3%) were male. The mean age at Time 2 was 21.31 years (SD=4.84). Primary Education students (n=240, 73.2%) represented the majority of this

Preliminary confirmatory factor analysis

Before examining the constructs in the hypothesised longitudinal model, correlations between these constructs were first tested in a CFA as well as the overall fit of the model to the data. The CFA yielded an acceptable fit to the data (χ2=3038.84, df=1736, RNI=.91, TLI=.89, RMSEA=.048). Mean factor loadings, Cronbach’s αs, and correlations are presented in Table 1. Generally the loadings are quite high as are the reliabilities for the factors. A number of correlations are noteworthy. The high

Discussion

The central aim of the study was to test the proposed longitudinal model. It was hypothesised that the structure of the model as one in which a variety of affective and motivational factors predict self-handicapping and defensive expectations and reflectivity at Times 1 and 2. At both times, these three strategies were hypothesised to predict self-regulation, persistence, and future academic plans, while the relationships between Time 1 strategies and grades at the end of students’ first year

Conclusion

The proposed yields of the present study are multifold. It has (a) clarified the factors giving rise to self-handicapping, defensive expectations, and reflectivity and the academic outcomes that follow from them (b) assessed these issues using a model that captured both predictors and consequences of self-handicapping, defensive expectations, and reflectivity, thus extending previous research which typically examines predictors and consequences separately; (c) extended the self-worth motivation

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