Defensive Pessimism Research Articles

When anxiety is not always a handicap in physical education and sport: Some implications of the defensive pessimism strategy

In this article we present a defensive strategy that individuals may use to cope with sporting events in that they present the possibility of failure and potential threat to self-esteem. Previous research has indicated that failures in sport and educational contexts are related to high anxiety and low self-estimates of ability. The defensive pessimism strategy lead anxious people to perform well in a risky situation by managing their anxiety as motivation. Defensive pessimists may use low expectations to cope with their anxiety so that it does not become debilitating. Decreasing strategic expectations may help individuals negotiate sporting events by intensifying reflectivity about possible negative outcomes, and increasing effort to reinforce the task focus. But defensive pessimists possess a cognitive flexibility that leads them to use their preferred strategy in risky situations and to select in their repertoire another strategy when failure is unlikely. These data showed that the effects of high anxiety and low expectations on performance may be mediated by the strategy use. That is why the users of defensive pessimism perform as well as strategic optimists, who report lower anxiety and higher expectations of success.

Achievement strategies at school: types and correlates

In this study we made an effort to identify the kinds of strategies adolescents deploy in achievement context in an unselected sample of Swedish adolescents. The participants were 880 14–15-year-old comprehensive school students (399 boys and 481 girls) from a middle-sized town in central Sweden. Six groups of adolescents were identified according to the strategies they deployed. Four of them, i.e. optimistic, defensive pessimistic, self-handicapping and learned helplessness strategies, were similar to those described previously in the literature. The results showed that membership in the functional strategy groups, such as in mastery-oriented and defensive pessimist groups, was associated with well-being, school adjustment and achievement, and low levels of norm-breaking behaviour. By contrast, membership in the dysfunctional, for example self-handicapping and learned helplessness strategy groups, was associated with low levels of well-being, and of school adjustment, and a higher level of norm-breaking behaviour. Copyright 2002 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Estrategias cognitivas, controlabilidad situacional y estado afectivo : el caso del pesimismo defensivo y el optimismo

This study assesses the role of two components of situational control, Difficulty and environmental Contingency (responsivity), in the activation-interference of strategies in defensive pessimists and optimists, on the one hand, and their affective and behavioral (performance level) consequences, on the other. For this purpose, we use a 2 (Group: defensive pessimists, optimists) X 2 (Difficulty: high, low) X 2(Contingency: low, high) factorial design. Our aim was to foster a congruent or incongruent environmental control level with each group, with the purpose of assess their influence on anxiety, positive-negative affect, and performance. The results showed that the two components of situational control have different functions in the definition of the quality of coping in defensive pessimists, principally. Specifically, Difficulty establishes the person (valorative style)-environment (controllability) congruence level, while Contingency operates as a moderator of this relation. In this sense, the affective state proves to be an adequate adaptative indicator of the resultant coping.

Self-handicapping and defensive pessimism: Exploring a model of predictors and outcomes from a self-protection perspective.

The present study is centrally concerned with self-handicapping and defensive pessimism (comprising defensive expectations and reflectivity), the factors that predict these strategies, and the associations between these strategies and a variety of academic outcomes. Major findings are that task orientation negatively predicts both self-handicapping and defensive expectations and positively predicts reflectivity; uncertain personal control positively predicts defensive expectations, and to a lesser extent, self-handicapping; and an external attributional orientation is positively associated with self-handicapping, and to a lesser extent, defensive expectations. Both self-handicapping and defensive expectations are negatively associated with self-regulation and persistence, whereas reflectivity is positively associated with these outcomes. Students high in self-handicapping received lower end-of-year grades than did students low in self-handicapping and were less likely to be in attendance 1 year later.

A Quadripolar Need Achievement Representation of Self-Handicapping and Defensive Pessimism

From need achievement and self-worth motivation perspectives, self-handicapping and defensive pessimism (comprising defensive expectations and reflectivity) are integrated into a quadripolar model reflecting the motives to avoid failure and approach success. Consistent with hypotheses, defensive expectations and self-handicapping reflected failure avoidance (with self-handicapping bordering failure acceptance); reflectivity was marked by high failure avoidance and high success orientation; and, self-concept essentially reflected success orientation. This quadripolar model was consistent across students’ (n = 328) first and second years at university. Interpretation of these constructs in terms of failure avoidance and success orientation was validated through structural equation modeling in which self-handicapping, defensive pessimism, and self-concept differentially predicted a variety of academic outcomes.

Self-handicapping and defensive pessimism: Exploring a model of predictors and outcomes from a self-protection perspective.

Self-handicapping and defensive pessimism: Exploring a model of predictors and outcomes from a self-protection perspective.

Subjective overachievement: individual differences in self-doubt and concern with performance.

We discuss the construct of doubt about one's competence and suggest that doubt can have myriad consequences (e.g., self-handicapping, defensive pessimism). We focus on the effect of self-doubt when it is combined with a concern with performance and assert that this combination leads to the phenomenon of subjective overachievement. In two studies, we present a new 17-item Subjective Overachievement Scale (SOS), which includes two independent subscales measuring individual differences in self-doubt and concern with performance. The first study, consisting of two large samples (Ns = 2,311 and 1,703), provides evidence that the scale has high internal consistency and a clear two-factor structure. Additionally, the subscales have adequate test-retest reliability (Ns = 67 and 115). A second study reveals that the SOS has good convergent and discriminant validity. Both subscales are unrelated to social desirability but exhibit the predicted patterns of associations with other related constructs. The Concern with Performance Subscale is correlated with achievement motivation, whereas the Self-Doubt Subscale is correlated with scales assessing negative affectivity (e.g., self-esteem, social anxiety) and other self-related strategies associated with concerns about one's competence (e.g., self-handicapping, defensive pessimism, impostor phenomenon). The SOS, which combines the two subscales, appears to tap a unique strategy that individuals may use to deal with doubts about their own competence.

Defensive Pessimism and Optimism Correlates of Adolescent Future Orientation

This study examined the links between academic and social defensive pessimism and optimism strategies and adolescents’future orientation in two prospective domains: education and military service. Analyses of data collected from Israeli 11th graders indicated (a) the prediction concerning domain specificity was corroborated so that academic strategies were significantly linked to prospective education components, and social strategies to prospective military service components and (b) investment in prospective life-course domains was linked to adolescents’employment of optimistic rather than defensive pessimism strategies. Findings emphasize the optimism underpinning future orientation and the need to distinguish between short-term and long-term effects of defensive pessimism on performance and psychological well-being. It was suggested that defensive pessimism may be positively associated with future orientation are both prospectively directed. Defensive pessimism may facilitate short-term planning and task performance but hinder the motivation to invest in the construction of long-range future orientation.

El pesimismo defensivo y el síndrome del impostor : análisis de sus componentes afectivos y cognitivos

This work undertakes a comparative study of the characteristics associated to the Defensive pessimism (DP) and the Impostor syndrome (IS), two patterns of behavior characterized by selfdoubts, fear of failure, and low outcome expectancies, in spite of a history of success. At the same time, we think that these two constructs can be different in the degree that show these and other responses, beliefs, and attitudes. To check this hypothesis, a series of correlational and hierarchical and multiple regression analyses on several affective and cognitive variables were conducted. The results showed a different pattern for each construct. Specifically, DP is better defined by test anxiety (worry), (low) optimism, (low) academic self-esteem, and pessimism, whereas self-concept confusion, (low) social and global self-esteem, trait anxiety, (low) selfefficacy, externalism, self-consciousness, and social anxiety are more important in IS. In the discussion we emphasize that, compared with DP, IS shows a more inadaptative character, and is more social or interpersonal in nature. Finally, we consider the effects directionality question, and we suggest a continuous feedback among these behavior patterns and their components.

Worry and Defensive Pessimism: A Test of Two Intervention Strategies

AbstractThis study assessed the effectiveness of counterfactual reasoning and relaxation training in reducing worry and defensive pessimism. Thirty-three participants classified as both worriers and defensive pessimists were allocated to either counterfactual reasoning, relaxation training, or control groups. Participants in counterfactual reasoning and relaxation training groups attended four weekly training sessions. Significant reductions in worry between pre- and post-test were evident for scores on the Worry Domains Questionnaire, as well as a reduced tendency to engage in the kind of prototypical thinking characteristic of defensive pessimists as assessed by the Defensive Pessimism / Strategic Optimism Strategy Prototypes Questionnaire. Reductions were also evident in the percentage of the day spent worrying, the intrusiveness of worries, and ratings of the likelihood of worry events occurring.

Implications of manipulating anticipatory attributions on the strategy use of defensive pessimists and strategic optimists

Defensive pessimists (DPs) are individuals who acknowledge prior success in achievement contexts, yet typically enter new achievement situations with unrealistically low expectations and ruminate about possible outcomes. On the other hand, strategic optimists (SOs) set high expectations for their performance and avoid reflecting extensively on an upcoming task. This study tested the assumption that the strategy use of DPs and SOs is activated in situations in which failure is likely to be diagnostic of low ability, but obviated in situations where a face-saving excuse is available to explain poor performance. Following humiliating failure, DPs and SOs performed better than following failure which involved face-saving. Provision of a face-saving excuse not only reduced anxiety for both DPs and SOs, but also reduced cognitive interference and was associated with greater perceived control. Prima facie, these data support the interpretation that the strategy use of DPs and SOs is activated or otherwise on the basis of anticipated attributions for poor performance.

Defensive Pessimism and Optimism: The Bitter-Sweet Influence of Mood on Performance and Prefactual and Counterfactual Thinking

Three studies demonstrated that manipulated moods influence the prefactual (alternative preoutcome predictions) and counterfactual (alternative postoutcome “what might have beens”) mental simulations of defensive pessimists and optimists. In Study 1, negative moods induced more upward (better than expected) prefactuals, and defensive pessimists performed best under such conditions; optimists performed best under induced positive moods, after which they used little prefactual thinking. In Studies 2 and 3, manipulated moods again influenced the strategies of defensive pessimists and optimists. In Study 2, optimists responded with more downward (worse than actuality) counterfactuals, suggesting attempts at mood repair. In Study 3, defensive pessimists and optimists each coped effectively by using preferred mental simulation strategies; both groups rebounded on a second task from poor performances on a first task.

OPTIMISM-PESSIMISM, PERFORMANCE, AND PRECOMPETITION ANXIETY IN COLLEGIATE TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETES

500 Although optimism is widely assumed to be important for success in sport, little research has examined its impact. This study examined the potential effect of optimistic and pessimistic congnitive styles on performance and precompetition anxiety. Collegiate track and field athletes (♀=26,♂=20) completed the Optimism-Pessimism Scale (Norem & Cantor, 1986). Using established procedures, athletes were classified as optimists (O), defensive pessimists (DP) or real pessimists (RP). Predicted precompetition anxiety(STAI) was established for each athlete 24-hr prior to an easy and difficult meet, and actual anxiety was assessed 1-hr before the meets. Season best performances were available in 26 athletes and expressed as a percent based on NCAA qualifying standards. While the majority of the sample (59.9%) had pessimistic styles, ANOVA revealed on group differences in best performance(O=93.8%, DP=92.6%, RP=90.2%). Predicted and actual precompetition anxiety scores, however, were lower (*=P<0.01) for O in both meets compared with DP and RP. TableTableCorrelations between predicted and actual anxiety were significant(P<0.01) except for the RP in the easy meet (r=.29). In summary, a substantial proportion of athletes possessed a pessimistic style which was characterized by significantly elevated anxiety compared with optimists. However, these groups did not differ in performance.

Optimistic, defensive-pessimistic, impulsive and self-handicapping strategies in university environments

A person-oriented approach was used to investigate what types of achievement strategy people apply in university environments, and how these are associated with their academic achievement, related satisfaction and personal well-being. Two hundred and fifty-four undergraduates filled in first the Cartoon-Attribution-Strategy Test, the Strategy and Attribution Questionnaire, Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale and the revised Beck's Depression Inventory at the beginning of their studies, and one year later an academic satisfaction scale. Two years later, they again filled in the same measures. Their academic achievement was coded yearly from university archives. Four types of achievement strategy were identified: optimistic, defensive-pessimistic, impulsive and self-handicapping. An optimistic strategy was associated with academic satisfaction and well-being, whereas defensive pessimism was related to academic achievement. In turn, a self-handicapping strategy was associated with academic dissatisfaction and low well-being. Academic achievement and satisfaction were also found to predict changes in the use of defensive-pessimistic and selfhandicapping strategies.

Reflection and Distraction Defensive Pessimism, Strategic Optimism, and Performance

This research concerns the interaction between performance strategies and imagery conditions. Defensive pessimists (DPs, who set low expectations, feel anxious, and rehearse possible outcomes) and strategic optimists (OPTs, who set high expectations, feel calm, and avoid reflecting) were randomly assigned to three conditions: a coping imagery condition (imagining correcting mistakes), a mastery imagery condition (imagining a flawless performance), or a relaxation condition (relaxation imagery). DPs performed better in the coping imagery condition, which was similar to their typical strategy, than in the relaxation condition, which was hypothesized to interfere with their performance. The opposite was true for OPTs. Both groups performed worst in the mastery imagery condition. Discussion highlights the importance of both reflective process and thought content and the costs and benefits of each strategy.

Defensive pessimism, optimism, and simulating alternatives: some ups and downs of prefactual and counterfactual thinking.

Four studies investigated the prefactual (alternative preoutcome predictions) and counterfactual (alternative postoutcome "what might have beens") mental simulations of defensive pessimists and optimists. In Study 1, defensive pessimists engaged in upward (better than expected) prefactual thinking, whereas optimists engaged in downward (worse than actuality) counterfactual thinking in reaction to a course exam. In Study 2, defensive pessimists preferred upward prefactual thinking and optimists preferred no prefactual thinking when prefactual thoughts were directly manipulated. In Studies 3 and 4, defensive pessimists and optimists differed in reactions to manipulated success and failure, and these reactions were further moderated by the opportunity to engage in prefactual thinking and the possibility of a second try. Individual differences in strategies of prefactual and counterfactual thinking are discussed.

Defensive pessimism, optimism, and stimulating alternatives: Some ups and downs of prefactual and counterfactual thinking.

Defensive pessimism, optimism, and stimulating alternatives: Some ups and downs of prefactual and counterfactual thinking.

The role of motivational strategies in self‐regulated learning

AbstractSelf‐regulated learning involves affective concerns as well as cognitive outcomes. The motivational strategies of defensive pessimism and self‐handicapping, in particular, can determine how students learn and study.

Strategy-dependent effects of reflecting on self and tasks: Some implications of optimism and defensive pessimism.

Two studies investigated the hypothesis that individuals using the cognitive strategy of defensive pessimism will perform better and feel better when allowed to play through possible outcomes and reflect on their progress. In contrast, individuals using an optimistic strategy will perform more poorly and feel worse when they are encouraged or required to reflect on themselves and their goals. A laboratory experiment and a study using experience-sampling methodology (ESM) revealed this pattern for self-reported mood, appraisal of tasks, and progress toward goals; objective performance; and a physiological measure, though the interaction was not always statistically significant

Strategy-dependent effects of reflecting on self and tasks: Some implications of optimism and defensive pessimism.

Strategy-dependent effects of reflecting on self and tasks: Some implications of optimism and defensive pessimism.