guilt. All the while, students also face the chance of making an effort that involves the possible chance of feelings such as humiliation or shame if or when their effort results in failure. If their effort is proven to be unsuccessful, they believe that they will be seen as an unsuccessful person. According to Covington this means that students have only two choices. The first one being that they refuse to make an effort and take on the negativity of failure or perceived punishment. The second being that they in fact make an effort which gives creates this sense of vulnerability and opens the door to being judged as being unintelligent or lacking the proper abilities. This is why we see so many students using this self-handicapping mechanism as a last resort effort to protect themselves and their perceived positive self-image. Individual differences People differ in the extent to which they self-handicap and most research on individual differences has used the Self-Handicapping Scale (SHS). The SHS was developed as a means of measuring individuals' tendency to employ excuses or create handicaps as a means to protect one's self-esteem. Research to date shows that SHS has adequate construct validity. For example, individuals who score high on the SHS put in less effort and practice less when concerned about their ability to perform well in a given task. They are also more likely than those rated low self-handicappers (LSH) to mention obstacles or external factors that may hinder their success, prior to performing. A number of characteristics have been related to self-handicapping (e.g. hypochondriasis) and research suggests that those more prone to self-handicapping may differ motivationally compared to those that do not rely on such defensive strategies. For example, fear of failure, a heightened sensitivity to shame and embarrassment upon failure, motivates self-handicapping behavior. Students who fear failure are more likely to adopt performance goals in the classroom or goals focused on the demonstration of competence or avoidance of demonstrating incompetence; goals that heighten one's sensitivity to failure. A student, for example, may approach course exams with the goal of not performing poorly as this would suggest a lack of ability. To avoid ability attributions and the shame of failure, the student fails to adequately prepare for an exam. While this may provide temporary relief, it renders one's ability conceptions more uncertain, resulting in further self-handicapping. Gender differences While research suggests that