Self-esteem, self-conscious emotions, resilience, trait anxiety and their relation to self-handicapping tendencies

Jones and Berglas (1978) coined the term self-handicapping to describe the a priori strategy of protecting selfesteem in the face of potential danger. According to their definition, “self-handicapping involves any action or choice of performance setting that enhances the opportunity to externalize (or excuse) failure and to internalize (reasonably accept credit for) success” (p. 406). When handicapping himself or herself, e.g., by drinking alcohol or failing to prepare for a situation, or claiming pre-existing illness or fatigue, the individual is capitalizing on the attributional principles of discounting and augmentation at the same time (Kelley, 1972). Somebody who fails to prepare for an important upcoming test can attribute an external cause to the failure, that is, discount the role of ability. However, if the outcome is successful, the ability appears to be augmented, because success occurred in spite of the obstacle. In other words, self-protection is possible in case of failure, while self-enhancement occurs in the event of success. Subsequent studies have shown that different people use the self-handicapping strategy for different reasons: high-selfesteem participants self-handicapped to enhance success, Self-esteem, self-conscious emotions, resilience, trait anxiety and their relation to self-handicapping tendencies