Self-handicapping and the Five Factor Model of personality: mediation between Neuroticism and Conscientiousness

The current study is an investigation of the relationship between self-handicapping and the Five Factor Model as measured by the NEO-PI-R [Costa, P. T. & McCrae, R. R. (1992). NEO-PI-R Professional Manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources]. In keeping with previous findings for the construct of procrastination, we found that self-handicapping was positively related to Neuroticism and negatively related to Conscientiousness. Stepwise multiple regression indicated that the facets of Depression, Self-Consciousness, Impulsiveness, and Vulnerability contributed unique variance to self-handicapping. Additionally, the Conscientiousness facets of Competence, Dutifulness, and Self-Discipline were most strongly related to dispositional self-handicapping. Finally, analyses using partial correlation indicated that the construct of self-handicapping mediates the negative relationship between Neuroticism and Conscientiousness reported in previous studies.