Effects of trait and situational self-handicapping on competitive anxiety among athletes

Abstract

Initial evidence suggests that the employment of self-handicapping strategies has a beneficial effect on negative affective states associated with the perceived threat of evaluative contexts (Harris & Snyder, 1986;Leary, 1986). The present study sought to describe the type of self-handicapping behaviors demonstrated by youth athletes (N=238) as well as to assess the stress-buffering role of athlete self-handicapping on indices of competitive state anxiety. Specifically, it was hypothesized that among high trait-handicapping athletes, those who report a greater degree of perforrnmlce-debilitating obstacles prior to competition would demonstrate lowered cognitive and somatic state anxiety as well as greater state self-confidence than nonhandicapping athletes. However, MANOVA results indicated that both high trait and situational self-handicappers demonstrate elevated state anxiety immediately prior to competition. Results are discussed in relation to the possible role of state anxiety as a salient self-handicapping strategy within competitive sport.As suggested by Jones and Berglas (1975), individuals not only have an implicit knowledge of attributional principles but actually manipulate their surroundings and themselves in order to produce positive attributions regarding their own behavior. Stemming from an individual's "abnormal investment in the question of self-worth" (Jones & Berglas, 1974), self-handicapping has come to represent the proactive use of strategic behavior in the forms of reduced effort or self-reported excuses in order to protect one's self-esteem and sense of personal competence from threat. These self-effacing tactics are used by threatened athletes as a means of coping with situations characterized by uncertainty of successful outcome. It seems contradictory that maladaptive cognitions or behaviors, which act as obstacles to achievement, could conceivably provide a positive function for the athlete, affording her an excuse for inadequate performance or other negative self-referent feedback. These self-imposed obstacles serve to minimize one's responsibility for potentially unfavorable outcomes as well as reduce the expectations of others involved in the evaluative context of training or competition. In other words, a self-handicapping strategy allows the athlete to control the causal attribution of a potential success or failure, thereby minimizing the perceived loss of self-esteem and its accompanying emotional distress. By advanc-

Media Hype and Its Influence on Athletic Performance

“…The operationalizations of the 4cs have been published in work conducted by Ryska, Yin, and Cooley (1998) as well as Mackenzie (1997).…”

Determinants of Self-Handicapping Strategies in Sport and Their Effects on Athletic Performance

“…10 However, effort has not been directed toward determining whether each has different 11 determinants. The majority of the published sport studies have focused on determinants of 12 claimed self-handicapping (e.g., Kuczka Greenberg, 1983). The few studies that have examined both types have assumed common 15 determinants (e.g., Elliot, Cury, Fryer, & Huguet, 2006; Thompson & Richardson, 2001).…”

“…Within the self-handicapping 11 literature, feeble self-beliefs have been conceptualised as low self-esteem (see Tice, 1991). 12 Athletes with low self-esteem may not want to risk sabotaging an upcoming performance with a 13 costly behavioral self-handicap, but just in case they do fail, they may desire the protection of a 14 relatively low-risk, claimed self-handicap. Indeed, Martin and Brawley (2002, Study 2) found 15 that low self-esteem was associated with greater claimed self-handicapping prior to a fitness test.…”

The relationships between self-handicapping tendency and narcissistic personality traits, anxiety sensitivity, social support, academic achievement

“…Researches showed that anxiety might be used as a self-handicapping strategy (17,18). Various cognitive mechanisms might play a role in development of anxiety and anxiety disorders (19).…”