An Research On Self-Affirmation Reducing Self-Handicapping Behavior Of Junior High School Students

Objective:The main purpose of this study includes three aspects, whether self-affirmation can reduce self-handicapping behavior of junior high school students; whether self-affirmation is able to trigger positive emotions; whether the effect of different self-affirmation operations has significant difference.Methods:Two experiments test hypotheses. Eighth Graders were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions:values essay, kindness questionnaire and the control condition.The experimental procedure is as following:(1) Self-affirmation manipulation:participants under different experimental conditions completed different writing tasks. values essay group completed "Personal Attitude Questionnaire1", kindness questionnaire group completed "Personal Experience Questionnaire". The control group were randomized to "Personal Attitudes Questionnaire2" or "Personal Views Questionnaire".(2) Emotion Measuring:participants were asked to rate their feelings of love, joy, giving, connectedness, and pride on five-point not at all (1) to extremely (6).(3) Circumstances manipulation and Manipulation checks:Inform subjects that they will have an intelligence test and the result will be published. Participants evaluate its difficulty, estimate their performance and the accuracy of the estimates.(4) Measurement of self-handicapping behavior:it includes behavioral self-handicapping and reported self-handicapping. Exercises version is an indicator of behavioral self-handicapping. The smaller number of exercises version includes less exercises. Behavioral self-handicapping was coded such that lower numbers reflected greater evidence of self-handicapping. Then participants complete the "Impact Factor Questionnaire", consisted of five questions, not at all (1) to extremely(5). The total score is the indicator of reported self-handicapping.Results:(1) Circumstances manipulation is successful. Students generally believe that the text is important, their score is not very satisfactory, and the accuracy of the estimation is not guranteed.(2) There was no significant difference of manipulation checks among different experimental conditions.(3) The two different self-affirmation operations were able to trigger positive emotions. Different self-affirmation operations did not have a significant effect on their level of positive emotions.(4) Experimental conditions had a significant effect on their level of behavioral self-handicapping. Self-affirmation led to less behavioral self-handicapping than control condition.(5) Participants under control condition had more preferences for reported self-handicapping. But There was no significant difference of reported self-handicapping among different experimental conditions.Conclusions:(1) Self-affirmation can reduce self-handicapping behavior of junior high school students.(2) Self-affirmation is able to trigger positive emotions.(3) The effect of different self-affirmation operations has no significant difference.