The self-handicapper reaches out for impediments, exaggerates handicaps, and embraces any factor reducing personal responsibility for mediocrity.

Rather than simply contending with external obstacles to success, many of us actively collaborate in our own defeat.

We are our own worst enemies and our inability to achieve goals, develop our character,

and attain success is a result of self-handicapping.

In this video, we explore the psychology of self-handicapping.

We look at why it emerges and why living a life constrained by self-erected impediments

can prove so attractive to some people. The idea that we would deliberately undermine our potential may seem absurd.

Given the apparent irrationality of self-handicapping, one may be tempted to relegate it to fringe cases of severe personality disorder.

Self-handicapping, however, is not only common, but also an effective way to satisfy

deep-seated psychological needs. Self-handicaps consistently have been demonstrated in empirical research

over the last decade, writes the psychologist, C.R. Snyder, indeed, although some persons

are especially prone to self-handicapping, there are certain circumstances

that may lead the perfectly normal person to engage in self-handicapping.

So, if some of the people tend to self-handicap most of the time, and most of the people

tend to self-handicap some of the time, a reasonable conclusion is that people must be

getting something out of such

maneuvers. What is that something? To understand the benefits of self-handicapping, we need to

recognize that among life's primary motivations is the need to create and preserve a reasonably

tolerable image of ourselves. Psychologists refer to this need to think well of ourselves as the need for self-esteem.

By self-esteem, we refer to the evaluation the individual makes and customarily maintains with regard to himself.

It expresses an attitude of approval or disapproval.

There are both healthy and unhealthy paths to self-esteem. The healthy path is to strive

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