International Journal of New Innovations in Engineering and Technology Volume 9 Issue 3– December 2018 010 ISSN: 2319-6319 Study of self-handicapping among sports personnel in relation to self esteem Rajesh Kumar 1 , Beenu Varma 2 1 Associate Professor & Head, Department of Psychology, Post Graduate Govt. College, Sector-46, Chandigarh 2 Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Post Graduate Govt. College, Sector-46, Chandigarh Abstract- Self-handicapping is most likely to occur in situations that are public, are important to the individual’s self - concept and in which the individual is evaluated against high standards or rel ative to another person’s performance (Berglas & Jones, 1978). These conditions are inherent in sport competition where an athlete’s self -concept can be strongly influenced by self-evaluations and public evaluations of the athlete’s physical abilities. Sel f-esteem reflects a person’s overall emotional evaluation of his or her own worth. It is a judgment of oneself as well as an attitude towards the self. The main objective of the research was to study the self-handicapping among sports personnel in relation to their self-esteem. 50 players aged 18-24 years (both males & females) from different games were selected with purposely sampling technique. The 25 males and 25 females were selected from Khalsa Institutes, Amritsar who were playing handball, basketball, volleyball, football, and hockey. Self-Handicapping Scale by Jones and Rhodewalt (1982) was used to measure self-handicapping and Self-Esteem Scale by Rosenberg (1965) was used to measure self-esteem was administered on the sample. Descriptive statistics, t-test and correlation were used for the testing differences between mean scores and relationship between variables. Result shows that there were significant gender differences on self handicapping group. The t-value comes out to be 1.82, p<0.05. Correlational value also shows negative relationship among the measured variables. Keywords: Self handicapping, self esteem, sports personnel, games I. INTRODUCTION Self-handicapping has been defined in a variety of ways by researchers but most of them agree that it involves creating impediments to successful performance on tasks that the individual considers important (Covington, 1992; Rhodewalt, 1990 & Tice, 1991). Such impediments to performance can be the result of action (e.g. getting drunk the night before an exam) or inaction (e.g. failing to study for the exam). Self-handicapping involves behavior that occurs prior to or simultaneously with the achievement activity, not after the activity has occurred. Self-Handicapping is defined as actions or statements we make that allow us to avoid effort or responsibility for potential failures that could damage our self-esteem. Self-handicapping is a cognitive strategy by which people avoid effort in the hopes of keeping potential from hurting self-esteem. Berglas and Jones (1978), defines self-handicap as “obstacles created or claimed by the individual in anticipation of failing performance”. Self-handicapping can be seen as a method of preserving self-esteem but it can also be used for self enhancement and to manage the impressions of others. There are two methods that people use to self- handicap: Behavioral self-handicap and claimed self-handicap. People withdraw effort or create obstacles to success so that they can maintain public and private self-images of competence. Self-handicapping is a widespread behavior amongst humans that has been observed in a variety of cultures and geographic areas. For instance, students frequently participate in self-handicapping behavior to avoid feeling bad about them, if they do not perform well in class. The first method people use to self-handicap is when they make a task harder for themselves in fear of not successfully completing that task. Self-handicapping behavior