How Age,Gender and Self-Perception Affect Self-Handicapping - Essay Example

? How Age, Gender and Self-Perception Affect Self-Handicapping Full Self-handicapping is said to have been considered in a general manner nevertheless, lately, it has been more closely studied in relation to academic settings. This is quite an interesting and important research because it could help students not only in their present endeavors but also in their future activities as adults. The matter has caused so much attention from psychologists because of its perceived importance in helping create better responses from students and employees alike. Therefore, there have been much studies conducted to further understand the implications of self-handicapping in schools. In addition, more studies are being employed to consider more variables such as culture, setting and other factors. As more researches have been conducted, proven and accepted regarding the matter on the factors such as age, gender and self-perception, this paper will deal particularly on the aforementioned three components affecting self-handicaps in addition to the definition of the term. This paper will show how age affects self-handicapping. In addition, it will also show that women have been found to be more resilient and therefore able to escape self-handicapping more than men. Lastly, the paper will also look deeper into how self-perception affects the tendency of self-handicapping. First and foremost, it is the aim of this paper to expound on what self-handicap is all about. According to McCrea and Flamm (2011), self-handicapping is “an anticipatory self-protective strategy in which individuals create or claim obstacles to success prior to an important performance to excuse potential failure”. This means that people, specifically in this paper, students, look for reasons to cover up a possible failure especially if they see the incoming endeavor as difficult or if they have not been fully prepared for the tasks at hand. For instance, a student who is taking a math exam, in showing a self-handicapping strategy, will point at his circumstances or even the people around him as reasons for his possible disappointments. Gadbois and Sturgeon on the other hand claim that self-handicapping strategies are “planned actions which individuals employ before performing a task which failure might reflect negatively on them. Understandably, individuals tend to take pride in themselves regardless of their abilities and capabilities so that they would want to be appreciated most of the time especially when they perform well. Nevertheless, failure is inevitable even to the best of the best. However, there is such a circumstance that most people resort to in order to escape the embarrassment of failure and it is called self-handicapping. Leondari and Gonida (2007) summarize the definition of term saying, “it involves creating obstacles to successful performance on tasks that the individual considers important”. Such obstacles are influenced by factors such as age, gender and self-perception. Just like in many circumstances, age makes a difference in how people react. In the case of self-handicapping, it has been found out that younger children are less inclined to self-handicap compared to older children. According to a study performed on a population of 702 students in Greece, there is no significant difference in self-handicapping among the elementary and high school students involved in the experiment. Initially, the researchers assumed that high school students will use self-handicapping strategies more than elementary students because the “high school environment is more competitive and places more emphasis on performance demands” (Leondari & Gonida, 2007). Nevertheless, their study proved the supposition wrong. What the researchers have found though was that, task goals significantly affected the result of self-handicapping strategies. This means that task goals are more of a motivation to one’s accomplishment in relation to age rather than age alone as a factor influencing self-handicapping. From the study, it has been found out that younger children are more oriented to task goals than high school students. This means that their drive for achievement is not primarily fuelled by their characteristics as younger children in comparison to high school students but that the significant factor is their inclination to task goals. In other words, the study shows there is really no definite correlation between age and self-handicapping. Another factor influencing self-handicapping is gender. According to the same study performed in Greece, it has been found out that “there are no gender differences in their research because other claims on the effect of gender have not been consistently replicated” (Leondari & Gonida, 2007). Nevertheless, the authors acknowledge the fact that other studies show some evidences of gender differences in self-handicapping. McCrea and Flamm (2011) seemed to have specifically looked deeper into the matter and made the conclusion that even though “men and women are willing to claim the existence of self-handicapping, women are less likely to engage in more behavioral forms of self-handicapping such as withdrawing effort or listening to distracting music”. This means that women are more able to accept the challenges more seriously and prepare in order to be overcome whatever the endeavor is all about. On the other hand, when failure is imminent, they tend to accept the fact and move on rather than dwell on the failure that only makes them find some excuse if only to escape embarrassments caused by their failures. On the other hand, men are found to resort to strategies which they can soon point out as the reasons for their incompetence. For instance, the research found out that men are likely to listen to distracting music when taking an examination that they know they will poorly fail in and when their expected result occurs, they will say that it is all because of the distraction. Nevertheless, when the result comes out to be the opposite, they would claim honor for their abilities. Nevertheless, it has been carefully studied and proven that men do tend to create obstacles in order for them to have a seemingly acceptable reason to avoid embarrassment for their defeat. In addition to listening to distracting music, men also have the tendency of withdrawing effort. Based from Hirt et al., “Men self-handicap by withdrawing effort when placed in a conditioned of public focus compared with a control condition while women did not self-handicap” (McCrea & Flamm, 2011). This means that men are perceived to be more concerned about public opinion of their abilities so that when they were informed that they are being observed while performing the tasks required even though they are not, they did not prepare well so that they have a ready excuse for their failure. On the other hand, the control group of men who were not informed that they are being observed; performed better than the former group. On the contrary, women showed no difference in the control and observed groups so that they have been considered as less likely to self-handicap. Lastly, self-perception has also been greatly considered by psychological scholars in the study of self-handicapping in academic setting. Leodari and Gonida prove that self-perception greatly affects self-handicapping strategies by explaining the results of their experiment. They have discovered in the Math examinations they gave to the students that low achievers and those who have developed performance-avoidance goals were likely to show self-handicapping strategies. On the other hand, high achievers did not show such strategies, giving the impression that greater possibility of failure makes one find excuses to give logical reasons for the neglect while achievements give no reason for finding defenses. A study by Thomas and Gadbois in 2007 reveals a similar outcome. The two researchers gave three sets of examinations to students having the first two exams comprising half of their grade while the third exam completed the other half. From the experiment, it has been concluded that “Greater Academic Self-Handicapping (ASH) was associated with lower self-regulation, deep learning approaches, perceived intrinsic value of learning, academic self-efficacy, greater test anxiety and surface learning approaches” (Gadbois & Sturgeon, 2011). This means that the students who have negative perceptions of themselves tend to blame something to explain their failures. In conclusion, self-handicapping or the act of finding reasons to explain one’s failures; is primarily affected by gender and self-perception. Age has been found to have not greatly made a difference in the results of the experiment conducted by researchers in Greece. Nevertheless, they have considered other factors that may affect age such as task goals. Researches have clearly shown that men are more likely to employ self-handicapping strategies when faced with challenges especially when they are exposed to public criticisms. Moreover, it has also been proven that self-perception plays a great role in manipulating others into thinking the desired considerations by making up acceptable reasons. Again, this may be all because of the fact that people want to be accepted and highly-considered by the other members of the society regardless of their abilities and capabilities. References Gadbois, Shannon A., & Sturgeon, Ryan D. (2011). Academic Self-Handicapping: Relationships with Learning Specific and General Self-Perceptions and Academic Performance Over Time. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 81, 207-222. Leondari, Angeliki & Gonida, Eleftheria. (2007). Predicting Academic Self-Handicapping in Different Age Groups: The Role of Personal Achievement Goals and Social Goals. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 77, 595-611. McCrea, Sean M., & Flamm, Aneka. (September 27, 2011). Dysfunctional Anticipatory Thoughts and the Self-Handicapping Strategy. European Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 72-81. Read More