So far we have seen that the self is at the center of our social worlds that self esteem and self sufficiency pay some dividends and the self serving bias influences self evaluation. Perhaps you have wondered, are self enhancing expressions always sincere? Do people have the same feelings privately as they expressed publicly? Or are they just putting on a positive face even while living with self doubt? Sometimes people sabotage their chances for success by creating impediments that make success less likely, far from being deliberately self destructive. certain behaviors typically have a self protective name.

They say I'm really not a failure, I would have done well except for this problem. Why would people handicap themselves with self defeating behavior? Recall that we eagerly protect our self images by attributing failures to external factors. Can you see why fearing failure people might tend to give themselves by far How can I before a job interview or playing video games instead of fighting before the exam, when self image is tied up with performance, it can be more self defeating to try hard to fail than to procrastinate and have already excuse. If we feel while handicapped. In some way we can cling to a sense of competence.

And if we succeed under such conditions, it can only boost our self image and it gives protect the both self esteem and public image by allowing us to attribute failures to something temporary or external. For example, I was feeling sick or I was asked to lead and I before rather than to lack of talent or ability