Self-handicapping and defensive pessimism : a model of self-protection from a longitudinal perspective

This research places self-handicapping and defensive pessimism (comprising defensive expectations and reflectivity) into a single conceptual and analytic framework that models the full self-protective process across time. Data on two occasions collected during students’ (n=328) first two years at university show: performance orientation positively predicts self-handicapping, defensive expectations, and reflectivity; task-orientation negatively predicts self-handicapping and defensive expectations and positively predicts reflectivity; uncertain personal control positively predicts defensive expectations and reflectivity; and an external attributional orientation positively predicts self-handicapping and defensive expectations. Although both self-handicapping and defensive expectations negatively affect academic outcomes, the negative effects of self-handicapping were more marked. In contrast to these counter-productive strategies, reflectivity had positive effects on academic engagement