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Avoidance of Diagnostic Information in Self-Evaluation of Ability

Vanderbilt University

In this study, conditions that led to self-handicapping strategies (Berglas & Jones,1978) were shown to generate avoidance of diagnostic evaluative information. A total of 60 male subjects received contingent or noncontingent success feedback on a test. Later, subjects selected additional problems to do from four tests that varied in diagnosticity and difficulty. The primary' hypothesis, that contingent subjects would prefer high-diagnostic problems, while noncontingent subjects would prefer low-diagnostic problems, was confirmed. There was no effect of contingency on preference for easy or difficult problems, nor were there effects for instructional set or achievement motivation variables on preferences for diagnostic or difficult problems.

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