Implicit Theories of Ability, Achievement Goals, and Self-handicapping in Strength-Athlete

Strength-sports are both physically and psychologically strenuous. The influence of psychological factors on athletic performance is widely accepted, which has led to the recent interest in mental toughness. Common themes throughout the metal toughness literature pertain to an athlete's beliefs about the nature of athletic ability, athletic goals, and responses to adversity. The purpose of the present study is to examine the relationships between implicit theory of ability, achievement goals, and claimed self-handicapping among strength-sport athletes. Data from 130 strength-sport athletes (Female= 38, Male= 92) were analyzed. All participants completed an online survey consisting of the Conceptions of the Nature of Athletic Ability Questionnaire-2, the Achievement Goals Questionnaire for Sport, the Kuckza-Vierling Situational Self-Handicapping Scale, and a brief demographic questionnaire. Findings indicated that entity beliefs significantly related to claimed self-handicapping. This suggested that participants who believed that ability in strength-sports is a fixed entity may have claimed more barriers to their success in order to appear as if their performance successes were due to their natural athletic ability and their performance shortcomings were due to external factors. However, other predicted relationships among research variables failed to find significance. It is possible that the remaining relationships are only significant among strength-sport athletes when failure is present or highly probable. Future studies should include a study procedure to either elicit memories of failure or include a task with a high probability of failure.