1. An experimental investigation of determinants and consequences of self-handicapping strategies across motivational climates.
- Author
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Coudevylle, Guillaume R. and Martin Ginis, Kathleen A.
- Subjects
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MOTIVATION (Psychology) , *ANALYSIS of variance , *ANXIETY , *QUESTIONNAIRES , *BASKETBALL techniques , *SPORTS psychology , *SOCIOLOGY of sports , *EGO (Psychology) - Abstract
Theorists have highlighted the important conceptual distinction between claimed and behavioral self-handicaps (e.g., Leary & Shepperd, 1986), but effort has not been directed toward determining whether the two forms of self-handicapping have different determinants and consequences. Kuczka and Treasure (2005) found that the use of claimed self-handicaps prior to a tournament was positively correlated with perceptions of the team environment as being ego-oriented, and negatively correlated with perceptions of the team environment as being task-oriented. However, we are not aware of any studies that have manipulated motivational climate and directly compared the use of self-handicaps across climates. Thus, the purpose of the present experiment was to examine whether the use of claimed and behavioral self-handicaps and their correlates differed across experimentally manipulated motivational climates. Fifty-six competitive players, 25 men (M age = 20.7 years, SD = 2.6) and 31 women (M age = 20.8; SD = 3.9), participated in the study. A repeated measures design was utilized, such that all participants completed the experimental task (i.e., a test of basketball skill) in both mastery and performance climate. Questionnaire measures of anxiety direction and claimed self-handicapping were administered pretest. Behavioral self-handicapping was operationalized as the number of preparatory shots taken during a warm-up. ANOVA showed no differences in claimed self-handicapping across motivational climates (p > .05). However, greater behavioral self-handicapping occurred in the performance than the mastery climate, F(1, 54) = 46.21, p < .001. Claimed, but not behavioral was predicted by cognitive (r = -.39) and somatic (r = -.50) anxiety direction. Contrary to expectation, neither type of self-handicap was related to performance on the test in either climate (p > .05). These findings reinforce the conceptual distinction between claimed and behavioral self-handicaps and suggest that individual and environmental factors may differentially influence each type of handicap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2007