How Age,Gender and Self-Perception Affect Self-Handicapping Essay

How Age,Gender and Self-Perception Affect Self-Handicapping - Essay Example The matter has caused so much attention from psychologists because of its perceived importance in helping create better responses from students and employees alike. Therefore, there have been much studies conducted to further understand the implications of self-handicapping in schools. In addition, more studies are being employed to consider more variables such as culture, setting and other factors. As more researches have been conducted, proven and accepted regarding the matter on the factors such as age, gender and self-perception, this paper will deal particularly on the aforementioned three components affecting self-handicaps in addition to the definition of the term. This paper will show how age affects self-handicapping. In addition, it will also show that women have been found to be more resilient and therefore able to escape self-handicapping more than men. Lastly, the paper will also look deeper into how self-perception affects the tendency of self-handicapping. First and fo remost, it is the aim of this paper to expound on what self-handicap is all about. According to McCrea and Flamm (2011), self-handicapping is â€Å"an anticipatory self-protective strategy in which individuals create or claim obstacles to success prior to an important performance to excuse potential failure†. ... Understandably, individuals tend to take pride in themselves regardless of their abilities and capabilities so that they would want to be appreciated most of the time especially when they perform well. Nevertheless, failure is inevitable even to the best of the best. However, there is such a circumstance that most people resort to in order to escape the embarrassment of failure and it is called self-handicapping. Leondari and Gonida (2007) summarize the definition of term saying, â€Å"it involves creating obstacles to successful performance on tasks that the individual considers important†. Such obstacles are influenced by factors such as age, gender and self-perception. Just like in many circumstances, age makes a difference in how people react. In the case of self-handicapping, it has been found out that younger children are less inclined to self-handicap compared to older children. According to a study performed on a population of 702 students in Greece, there is no signif icant difference in self-handicapping among the elementary and high school students involved in the experiment. Initially, the researchers assumed that high school students will use self-handicapping strategies more than elementary students because the â€Å"high school environment is more competitive and places more emphasis on performance demands† (Leondari & Gonida, 2007). Nevertheless, their study proved the supposition wrong. What the researchers have found though was that, task goals significantly affected the result of self-handicapping strategies. This means that task goals are more of a motivation to one’s accomplishment in relation to age rather than age alone as a factor influencing self-handicapping. From the

Data Collection and Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Data Collection and Analysis - Essay Example Depending on the need, availability of information and expected outputs one or combination of more than one methods for data collection and analysis needs to be adopted. Following are some of the methods for data collection - 1. Primary Research - this method involves collecting information from first hand research done by other individuals / teams / groups and using it to draw inferences with due references to the original research work. 2. Secondary Research - this method involves collecting information which has been derived or inferred from some other primary research work. This may involve articles, secondary research reports, published opinions, etc. among others. 3. Survey - this is a widely known method of data collection by conducting a survey over a sample target population and analyzing the results in order to get first hand information on the research work. 5. Interviews - interviews are another form of collecting information from relevant target population and use the information captured to satisfy the research objectives. Interviews can be structured or unstructured and can be conducted in person or on phone or video conference. 6. Delphi Method - this is a method for collection of expert opinion in the area in which research is being conducted. Experts consulted should be credible and knowledgeable people in the area of the research. For each of the data collection met... However, the above list captures the most commonly used data collection methods. Pros and Cons For each of the data collection methods stated above, there are pros and cons of adopting them in a research project as well as appropriateness for specific type of research projects. Following is a brief discussion on the same - 1. Primary Research - this is a good method of data collection as it provides valuable data points for the research without actually conducting a firsthand research. This method is useful where there are constraints on either time or resources for conducting fully fledged research activities. However, this is still a substitute for actual research. Information available may not exactly match the conditions needed for the research. Hence, there may be compromises or assumptions to be made while using this form of research. This may lead to inaccuracies in research results. 2. Secondary Research - similar to primary research, secondary research may also used in cases of constraints on resources or time. Many times, this form of research is used as a literature review for first step in a research project to provide rough idea on the research topic. This provides important data points which may be useful for designing the actual research, tools used and analysis of data. Again, the disadvantages are that the secondary source information may have inherent inaccuracies introduced while drawing inferences and conclusions from the primary research sources. 3. Survey - this is a popular data collection tool used while conducting business research or market research. The survey results and their analysis provide first hand information directly from the main sources and are not dependent on inferences or