ESTEEM PROTECTION OR ENHANCEMENT - SELF-HANDICAPPING MOTIVES AND ATTRIBUTIONS DIFFER BY TRAIT SELF-ESTEEM

Four studies sought to differentiate between self-enhancement and self-protection as motivations self-handicapping. High-self-esteem participants self-handicapped to enhance success, whereas low-self-esteem participants self-handicapped to protect against the esteem-threatening implications of failure. This was supported with 2 different forms of self-handicapping and corroborated by attributional statements regarding the implications of handicaps for performance outcomes. Thus, different people use the same (self-handicapping) strategy for different reasons. Also, patterns of social motivation vary with level of trait self-esteem.