A Study Of Self-handicapping And Its Influential Factors In The College Students

Self-handicapping is an anticipatory behaviors in performance setting, which is aimed to create a condition—a reasonable excuse, for one's potential failure, so that a person will not have to blame his or her failure to their incompetence. The school is a typical place of performance setting,Therefore, many scholars overseas and at home have made research on the self-handicapping of university students. Still, most studies are about self-reported handicapping ,but a lesser about behavioral self-handicapping; we are mostly concerned with the self-handicapping by such matters as self-esteem, achievement motivation, achievement goal, etc. In terms of personality,there is only one study about the influence of personality characteristic on self-handicapping. we also seldom probe into the influence of self-efficacy and attributional style on university students.This thesis focuses on the basic situation of self-reported handicapping and behavioral self-handicapping of them, utilizing questionnaire method, experimental method and interview method combined. It also deals with the influences of self-efficacy, achievement goal , attributional styles and personality characteristics on these two kinds of sel-handicapping.The results of experimental method and questionnaire method show that:(1)In terms of self-reported handicapping ,there is no sex difference; in terms of behavioral self-handicapping, when exercise time is regarded as the criterion, there is also no sex difference, but when exercise quantity is the criterion, self-handicapping is more serious on the male side.(2) There is no difference in terms of grade and subject in the two strategies of self-handicapping.(3) Self-efficacy has an obvious negative prediction effect on self-reported handicapping,and their relation is equal to Cubic equation,the higher the self-efficacy is, the lower the self-reported handicapping is; the self-efficacy has no obvious effect on behavioral self-handicapping.(4) there exists a linear relation between self-reported handicapping and achievement-approach goals performance goals as well as master goals. achievement-approach goals have an obvious positive prediction effect on self-reported handicapping,and master goals an obvious negative prediction effect. Achievement-avoid goals also have an obvious positive prediction effect on self-reported handicapping, and actually there is a relation of Cubic equation between them. achievement-approach goals have the biggest effect on self-reported handicapping, Achievement-avoid goals smaller, and achievement-approach goals the smallest. The three dimensions of achievement goals have no obvious connection with exercise time ; achievement-approach goals and Achievement-avoid goals have no clear connection with exercise quantity; mastery goals have a linear relation with exercise quantity --a positive prediction effect on it.(5) In terms of attribution, those with a high level of external cause attribution also have a high level of self-reported handicapping than those who do not. There exists a linear relation between self-reported handicapping and the three attributions dimensions: effort attribution, situational attribution and fortune attribution ,with effort attribution having a negative prediction effect on it, and situational and fortune attribution a positive effect on it, and ability attribution has no prediction effect on self-reported handicapping. In terms of behavioral self-handicapping, attribution styles have no obvious effect on behavioral self-handicapping.(6) In terms of personality,N(Neuroticism) have significantly positive correlation with self-reported handicapping , E (Extrorision- Introrision), P(Psychoticism)and L(Lie) have no obvious effect on self-reported handicapping ; E (Extrorision-Introrision), P(Psychoticism), N(Neuroticism)and L (Lie) have no obvious effect on behavioral self-handicapping.(7) The two kinds of self-handicapping are interrelated; there is no obvious relationship between exercise time and self-reported handicapping,but a negative correlation between exercise quantity and it, and exercise quantity is better than exercise time in indicating behavioral self-handicapping.Besides the conclusions above ,the results of interview method show :(1) In general, only a few university students have serious problems of self-reported handicapping and behavioral self-handicapping,and most of the majority have a very low level of self-handicapping. In addition, university students handicap themselves in various ways, of which self-reported handicapping count for the majority.(2) Those with a strong inclination of self-handicapping have a clear knowledge of themselves, always with double motivation, on the one hand, they want to maintain their own image within themselves; on the other hand, they want to protect their image in other's minds.(3)The consequences of self-handicapping is a poor academic performance, which did help some students to maintain their psychological equilibrium, but extremely painful for many others within their inner heart.