An experimental investigation of the determinants and consequences of self-handicapping strategies across motivational climates

International audienceThe aim of the present study was to determine whether the use of claimed and behavioural self-handicaps and theircorrelates differed across experimentally manipulated motivational climates. Fifty-six competitive basketball playersparticipated in the study. A crossover design was used, such that all participants completed the experimental task (i.e., atest of basketball skill) in both mastery and performance climates. Analyses of variance showed that claimed self-handicapswere used more in the performance than the mastery condition but only for the men. In addition, greater behavioral self-handicapping occurred in the performance than the mastery climate. Contrary to expectation, neither type of self-handicapwas related to performance on the basketball task in either climate. These findings reinforce the conceptual distinctionbetween claimed and behavioural self-handicaps and suggest that individual and environmental factors may differentiallyinfluence each type of handicap