The need to win is not adaptive: the need to win, coping strategies, hope and self-esteem

In a previous paper we reported the factor analytic development of a scale that differentiates people, among other things, in terms of their need to win (WIN), their need to perform well (PW) and their preference for difficult tasks (DIFF). This paper presents correlations between WIN, PW and DIFF and various personality/coping measures. The correlations indicate that people with a strong need to win as compared with people who like to perform well or like difficult tasks tend to have poorer coping skills (e.g., tend to engage in denial and become behaviorally and mentally disengaged when stressed), tend to see the world as more hostile (e.g., “it is a dog-eat-dog world”), tend to have an entity view of intelligence/skills (e.g., intelligence is fixed), tend to view the route to success as coming from such things as modeling and appearance. In addition, people with a need to win tend to have poorer self-esteem (SE) and tend to be lower in hope (HOPE) than people who like to perform well (PW) and people who like difficult tasks (DIFF). These results are consistent with the idea that people with a need to win tend to have an ego orientation whereas people who like to perform well and who like difficult tasks tend to have a mastery orientation.