Question

Just before an exam, your friend Marc turns to you and says "Man, I'm so tired! I partied 'til four in the morning." Marc is engaging in what type of self-presentation?A: self-handicappingB: ingratiationC: self-promotionD: self-enhancement

Answer 1

Answer:

A. self-handicapping

Explanation:

In psychology, the term self-handicap refers to an strategy that people use in order to enhance the opportunity to attribute failure to external situations and not take responsibility for it. This strategy is used in order to protect our self-esteem (since we can attribute failure to external factors and not to our own abilities).

In this example, before an exam Marc tells you that he's tired because he partied the night before. We can see that, by saying this, if he gets a bad grade, he can attribute it to the fact that he was tired because of the party (which would be an external situation and therefore he won't attribute it to his lack of knowledge which would be an internal factor). Therefore, Marc is engaging in self-handicapping.