Asha Kumari B.
Regional Institute of Education, Mysore, India
Pages:23-28
Education is one of the most significant factors that influence the quality of the life
of an individual. It enables an individual to equip oneself with required knowledge,
competencies, and skills to deal with real-life situations. There is an interaction between
psychological constructs and environment to achieve desirable changes. One of the
desirable behaviours among adolescents is protecting one’s self-esteem despite the
failures they face. Self-handicapping is defined as an action or choice of performance
setting that enhances the opportunity to externalize failure and internalize success.
Adolescents employ self-handicapping as a strategy to protect their self-esteem. Selfhandicapping is used in evaluative situations where one’s performance is assessed.
Individuals engaging in self–handicapping create unfavourable circumstances or
situations prior to their important performances. The behaviour of self-handicapping is
influenced by many other strategies adolescents employ to protect their self-esteem.
One among these is procrastination. Research review shows that procrastinators have
a high relation with self-handicapping. Chronic procrastinators are found to be engaged
in self-handicapping especially when the task at hand is evaluative and self-threatening.
This paper examines the concept of procrastination as a contributor for self-handicapping
behaviour, classroom environment promoting this behaviour and strategies to cope with
this behaviour by adolescents aiding the healthy development of individuals..
Keywords: Procrastination, Self-handicapping, Educational Implications