Week 8 Assignment

I can definitely think of a few instances, especially from high school, when I participated in the self-handicapping phenomenon. (My want to actually share these instances, on the other hand, is another story). One time, before a state-wide solo dance competition, a reoccurring pain in my back from a car accident began nagging me. It wasn’t anything horrible, but it was noticeable. As the dancers were warming up on the performance stage, big-time butterflies were fluttering in my stomach. I was aware of my ache, but it hadn’t worsened. I, on the other hand, made a little bit bigger of a show out of it. How horrible! With my behavior (such as gripping my back, bending over and stretching, etc.), I made my teammates – who knew about the car accident – believe that I was in more pain than I actually was experiencing. It wasn’t intentional to the extent that I had planned to take advantage of the discounting principle, but I completely understand why the self-handicapping phenomenon exists. I actually ended up doing exceptionally well in the competition; however, I think the decrease of confidence during warm-up led me to believe that I wouldn’t perform well, and this in turn led to a self-handicapping effect. Planning ahead, I didn’t want a poor performance to be due so much to my honest dancing ability but rather to an injury from a car accident that was more out of my control.