We’ve all done it one time or
another. Whether it was claiming a really bad migraine, struggling with
technological difficulties, or not studying enough for an exam, everyone makes
excuses from time to time to protect their self esteem by creating an
explanation for past or even future failure. Self esteem can be a really
fragile entity for some people, especially in certain situations. When
uncertainty about a particular outcome exists, we protect ourselves from
addressing a possible lack in ability. This ever so popular method of self enhancement
which involves self-sabotaging behaviors to provide an excuse or explanation
for failure is known as self-handicapping
(Berglas & Jones, 1978). In other
words, people will go out of their way to impair or hurt their performance on a
given task in order to avoid admitting their lack of ability in that specific
area. I can think of numerous occasions where I have employed this tactic. For
example, when I took the GRE for the first time, I didn’t use my break time
wisely which meant I had to forgo my snack. About thirty minutes into the
second half of the test I began to regret that choice. Needless to say I wasn’t
fully satisfied with my score so I attributed the gap between what I actually
scored and what I expected to score to hunger and the fact that I couldn’t
focus properly due to my stomach growling. This kept me from feeling inadequate
as a result of this first score and provided me with some optimism for the
second time I took the exam. On numerous occasions I have used some variation
of the self-handicap “I didn’t study
enough for that test” in order to avoid a blow to my self esteem. I haven’t
only used this strategy in academic or test settings either. Recently my
roommate and I started Insanity. I was a little concerned that I wasn’t in good
enough shape to be able to keep up with this workout so I quickly found myself
coming up with excuses for not being able to last the whole time or for taking
breaks such as “I didn’t get enough sleep last night and don’t have as much
energy as I usually do” or “I’m dehydrated”. I think I might have actually used
one of these during the first or second workout not surprisingly.
(n= 395)
Berglas, S.,
& Jones, E. E. (1978). Drug choice as a self-handicapping strategy in
response to noncontingent success. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 405-417.
