Claims

Self-handicapping decreases effort to protect self-worth, in contrast to defensive pessimism

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2000 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims

Reading the evidence codes

q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.

This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.

q2 i? Self-handicapping involves decreasing effort or procrastinating to protect self-worth by attributing likely poor outcomes to low effort rather than low ability, whereas defensive pessimism harnesses negative affect to increase effort. → Paul R. Pintrich 2000

Evidence

Paul R. Pintrich 2000

Paul R. Pintrich. (2000). The Role of Goal Orientation in Self-Regulated Learning. Handbook of Self-Regulation, Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-012109890-2/50043-3

q2 · i? · review · r2

Definitional and synthetic review statement contrasting two motivational regulation strategies. Defensive pessimism is described as harnessing anxiety about doing poorly to increase effort and perform better; self-handicapping works in the opposite direction through reduced effort.

"Self-handicapping, in contrast to defensive pessimism, involves the decrease of effort (little or no studying) or procrastination (only cramming for an exam, writing a paper at the very end of the deadline) to protect self-worth by attributing the likely poor outcome to low effort, not low ability"

Discussion

Page metadata
Field Value
type claim
id self-handicapping-versus-defensive-pessimism
title Self-handicapping decreases effort to protect self-worth, in contrast to defensive pessimism
description Self-handicapping decreases effort to protect self-worth, in contrast to defensive pessimism
status review
evidence_strength weak
newest_evidence 2000
generated by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-16
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources 1 — paul-r-pintrich-2000

Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.