Behavioral self-handicapping among male and femal athletes

Author

Richanne C. Sniezek, Beloit College

Periodical Title

Modern Psychological Studies

Volume

7

Number

1 & 2

Page Numbers

pages 20-27

Department

Dept. of Psychology

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Date

2001

Abstract

Self-handicapping is a term used to refer to the strategic creation of obstacles that interfere with successful performance of a task. Self-handicapping allows a person to credit failure to an external cause (the handicap) or to credit success to an internal cause (e.g., ability to overcome an obstacle), thereby protecting self-esteem in either case. The general consensus among researchers has been that women do not behaviorally self-handicap. The goal of the present study is twofold. The first goal is to explore possible paradigms in which females behaviorally selfhandicap. It is proposed that self-handicapping women do choose behavioral handicaps in high importance, real-life situations. The performance task in the present study is competition in NCAA Division III college athletics at a small mid-western liberal arts college. Based upon current literature on behavioral self-handicapping in groups and in athletes, it is further hypothesized that members of individual sports will behaviorally self-handicap more than members of team sports. The sample included males and females from four different sports (basketball, soccer, track, and swimming). Sixty-six athletes received, completed, and returned a behavioral self-handicapping survey via campus mail. The experimental design was a 2 (men vs. women) X 2 (team vs. individual sport) factorial design. The results, analyzed in a two-way ANOVA, support the hypothesis that individual athletes behaviorally selfhandicap significantly more than team athletes and that there are no sex differences.

Subject

Psychology

Discipline

Psychology

Document Type

article

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

8 leaves

Language

English

Call Number

BF1 .M63 v. 7 no. 1 & 2 2001

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Recommended Citation

Sniezek, Richanne C. (2001) "Behavioral self-handicapping among male and femal athletes," Modern Psychological Studies: Vol. 7: No. 1, Article 4.
Available at: https://scholar.utc.edu/mps/vol7/iss1/4