Self-handicapping and obesity: is there a sympathetic audience out there?

After reading a case description of a 20-year-old woman, subjects attributed her personal shortcomings to her weight rather than to herself per se. In particular, people who scored higher on a measure of self-handicapping were even more likely to attribute shortcomings to a person's weight and excuse or overlook them. A person who attributes shortcomings to being overweight will very likely find a sympathetic audience. These results support the suggestion by Baumeister, Kahn, and Tice (1990) that obesity can be a self-handicapping strategy.

Self-defeating personality and strategies for coping with stress.

People who scored higher on a measure of self-defeating personality also scored low on ego-strength, showed an external locus of control, and used less adaptive coping strategies than those who scored lower. These strategies (denial, mental disengagement, alcohol and drug use) were viewed as helping to perpetuate their positions as victims.

Pleasure from activities and self-defeating personality.

As predicted, people who scored higher on a measure of Self-defeating Personality reported experiencing less pleasure and enjoyment from individual and social activities as well as from personal accomplishments. The results were consistent with the idea that these people maintain a self-image of "loser" by minimizing or discounting positives in their lives. Results were also consistent with prior research showing a positive relationship between self-defeating personality and depressive affect.

The role of just world belief and anger issues in self-defeating personality.

Persons who scored higher on a measure of self-defeating personality did not believe in a just world as implied in the writings of such theorists as Reik (1941); however, they had a greater awareness of anger and feelings of mistrust and suspiciousness of others, held anger in, and were self-critical. These latter findings are consistent with conclusions regarding masochism proposed in 1991 by Glickauf-Hughes and Wells.

Self-defeating personality and perceptions of family environment.

People scoring higher on a scale of self-defeating personality perceived their family environments as lacking cohesiveness. Men also perceived their family environments as discouraging open expression of feelings, being unconcerned about school and work achievement, and providing no ethical or religious values. Results were seen as lending validity to clinical theories of masochism which relate lack of family support and lack of reinforcement for assertive, efficacious behavior to the development of self-defeating behavior patterns.

Correlations between self-handicapping and self-defeating personality.

In this study scores on Strube's self-handicapping scale were correlated with scores on Schill's self-defeating personality scale. Berglas believes there are subtypes of self-defeating personality and that his concept of self-handicapping should be correlated with the three criteria which represent a self-protective component of self-defeating personality. Some support for Berglas' proposition was found, particularly for men. However, correlations with other components of self-defeating personality suggest the criteria thought to be self-protective may need to be reconsidered.