Examining the Relationship between Authenticity and Self-Handicapping

Self-handicapping includes strategies of externalization in which people excuse failure and internalize success, but which also prevents them from behaving in an authentic way. The goal was to investigate the relation of authenticity with self-handicapping. The study was conducted with 366 university students (176 men, 190 women; M age = 20.2 yr.). Participants completed the Turkish version of the Authenticity Scale and the Self-handicapping Scale. Self-handicapping was correlated positively with two factors of authenticity, accepting external influence and self-alienation, and negatively with the authentic living factor. A multiple regression analysis indicated that self-handicapping was predicted positively by self-alienation and accepting external influence and negatively by authentic living, accounting for 21% of the variance collectively. These results demonstrated the negative association of authenticity with self-handicapping.