| Description |
Understanding the self-concept is important because it is the basis for human thoughts, emotions, and behavior. This thesis reviews paradigms developed throughout the past decades, unifies various research perspectives, and reports a research study on the impact of changing self-conceptions on self-handicapping behavior. The Present Study: Effects of Shiftining Self-Concept on Self-handicapping Behavior Despite the vast amount of research conducted on self-concept, little is known about the relationship between self-concept and behavior. The current study examined the impact of shifting self-concept on self-handicapping behavior. Momentary self-concept was manipulated in two ways. First, participants took a sample IQ test (easy vs. difficult) designed to vary their certainty about performing successfully. Second, participants answered a past-experience questionnaire (which selectively primes past success or failure experiences). Finally, participants would choose a music tape (ranging from extremely distracting to extremely facilitating) to listen to while taking the final IQ test Choosing the distracting tape was measured as an indication of self-handicapping behavior because the distraction provided an external attribution about the cause of the anticipated poor performance. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed an interactional effect: Male participants who took the easy sample test and answered the failure-experience questionnaire tended to self-handicap more than participants in other conditions. |
