The Relationship Of Defensive Pessimism In Social Situations, Self-esteem And Achievement Motivation Of College Student

Defensive pessimism applied commonly in our daily lives is one of self-protection strategies. Foreign study of defensive pessimism has been for more than twenty years, primarily concerned with the comparison of defensive pessimism, optimism, and self-handicapping, and some emotional motivation factors which leads to the formation of defensive pessimism. With the introduction of this concept in our country, the researchers start to pay close attention to the characteristics of defensive pessimism under the background of Chinese culture.In this study, on the basis of predecessor’ research, the author proposed the questionnaire of defensive pessimism of college students in social situation, and also explored the relationship between the defensive pessimism and other two factors, achievement motivation and self-esteem. The study reaches conclusions as follows:Firstly, the defensive pessimism of our country students in social situation is a multi-dimensional variable, including two dimensions---fefensive expectation and reflectivity, and the self-made questionnaire has good reliability and validity.Secondly, the defensive pessimism of college students in social situation has differences on gender, like the male is more inclined to use defensive pessimism strategies; in term of family sources, urban students are more likely to use defensive pessimism strategies than rural students; in term of growth environment, the one-child college students prefer to use defensive pessimism strategies; on the way of self-reported parenting styles, the indulgent style individuals are more likely to us defensive pessimism strategies than the democratic and neglectful style individuals; on the way of self-reported competition, the college students who think the competition is intense are more inclined to use defensive pessimism strategies than others who don’t think.Thirdly, the defensive pessimism of college students in social situation is extremely correlated with achievement motivation and self-esteem. Further study found that self-esteem plays a intermediary role between achievement motivation and defensive pessimism.