Bigger Picture Sources

1. Scholarly Source

Martin, Andrew J., and Herbert W. Marsh. “Fear of Failure: Friend or Foe?” Australian Psychologist, vol. 38, no. 1, Mar. 2003, pp. 31–38. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/00050060310001706997.

This article aims to discover whether fear of failure is good or bad. The article suggests that sometimes fearing failure is good, but most of the time it is bad. I learned a lot from this article because it demonstrated a model called the quadripolar model which places individuals in four groups depending on their relationship to fear. It is interesting to see that almost all individuals can fit into one of these categories, and that an individuals’ relationship to fear can affect the ways in which they make decisions. After learning more about the model, I discovered that self-saboteurs are not limited to one of the four groups which makes understanding self-sabotage more confusing. This article changed my view on self-saboteurs because I initially thought they were all self-protectors but it turns out they can also be, for example, over-strivers. As well, I never knew people could see failure as a friend so it was interesting to see the authors make that argument. (Martin and Marsh 2003)

2. Scholarly Source

Honken, Nora B., and Patricia A. S. Ralston. “High-Achieving High School Students and Not So High-Achieving College Students: A Look at Lack of Self-Control, Academic Ability, and Performance in College.” Journal of Advanced Academics, vol. 24, no. 2, May 2013, pp. 108–124. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/1932202X13482466.

This article compares self-control to academic success. While I was not initially planning on discussing school or the education system in my feature story, I now feel as though the correlations that the study finds on self-control and academic success plays a lot into the issue of self-sabotage. The article also emphasizes that parents and teachers should be more involved in ensuring teenagers have enough self-control. This is interesting because I always thought self-control was more of a personal problem that the individual him/herself had to overcome on their own. However, this article presents that the influence of others has a major effect on why individuals lack or have good self-control.

3. Non-scholarly Source

Howes, Elizabeth. “Why We Turn to Self-Blame and How to Release Ourselves From It.” Torch, 2 Oct. 2019.

This article provides potential solutions for individuals who engage in self sabotage. A common issue many self-saboteurs face is lack of self-esteem which results in self-blame. The title of this article had me very interested because I learned that self-blame is a major factor that contributes to self-sabotaging behaviours and I never thought self-blame was being a factor in this issue. This article presents interesting ways on how to become more confident and how individuals can recognize that they are blaming themselves for situations. I learned that self-blame results from individuals’ inability to properly gain control over a situation. When an individual engages in self-sabotage, they often feel like they have no control and they blame themselves for making bad decisions. The article explains how to solve these issues, as well as explaining that self-blame is not our faults. (Howes 2019).

4. Non-scholarly Source

“Carpe Diem: Seize the Day.” Effectiviology.

This article presents a term I was unfamiliar with, being “carpe diem” which translates to “seize the day”. The article provides a deep meaning of the word and how it is used in our society. The article specifically discusses the psychology of the term which is very interesting and will be useful for my feature story. I learned that often when people knowingly make bad decisions, they do so because they have a fear of the unknown and are constantly thinking of what’s to come. As well, learning to seize the day can be a potential solution for self-sabotage. In my feature story, I hope to provide some solutions for individuals who self-sabotage and this article presents some helpful advice about how to be present and to not be worrying about the future. This entire article provided me with new insight on my topic because I never knew what “carpe diem” was, but now that I know, I think it could be very useful to include in my feature story.

5. Cultural or Artistic Artifact

Ariana Grande’s song “Breathin’” describes anxiety and what it is like to feel helpless and stressed. Her song discusses that she tends to overcomplicate situations and she has trouble remaining calm, which can ultimately lead to bad decisions. This relates to the topic of self-sabotage because often individuals who find themselves self-deprecating are those who struggle with anxiety. Ariana’s song describes her inability to control her thoughts and often how she desires to gain control. Her song reflects emotions that many teenagers undergo on a day to day basis. It is interesting to see a song written about anxiety in order to get a better idea of what anxious people go through and how anxiety affects people’s ability to think rationally. I see my topic differently because I never realized how easily anxiety can affect individual’s decision making and that even some of the smartest people are powerless when it comes to anxiety. Anxiety is therefore a cause in explaining why individuals self-sabotage.

6. Example of Experiential Research

During dinner, my parents were discussing a situation about one of their friends who has generalized anxiety disorder. Their friend has been on medicine to treat her anxiety for about 3 years now and is reliant on her pills in order to cope with her anxiety. However, recently, she’s been feeling “off” and as if her pills are not working well anymore. She said she felt as though she was too dependent on her medicine and as if she had no control over her thoughts and emotions. She began feeling super overwhelmed and decided to stop taking her medicine. She no longer wanted to be dependent on medicine. My parents were discussing whether they think she’s screwing herself over by deciding to stop taking the medicine. My mother argued, “I feel like she’s going to go down a bad path because her body is not used to functioning without the pills”, to which my father replied, “She’ll get back on her medicine soon. She just needs to feel like she’s in control”. This story provided me with a lot of insight on my topic because I never knew people would go that extreme in their self-sabotaging actions. The woman knows she should take her pills but she still decides to stop taking them and I find that to be very alarming. It makes me realize the severity of the issue and how self-sabotage can put people at a very high risk.

Librarian Visit

I spoke to a librarian named Vickey who works at the reference desk in Dawson College. She was very friendly and was willing to help me. I explained to her that my topic was about why teens self-sabotage, which I believe was not a topic that she was too familiar with. I think she had trouble understanding my idea, but regardless she was helpful in providing me tips on how to navigate the Dawson Library databases. I didn’t have much experience using the Dawson Library databases because I normally prefer to use Google Scholar. On the Dawson database, she suggested that when doing an online search, there are bars on the left side of the screen that are able to make your search process quicker and more concise. She suggested that I tick off the boxes that limited my search to English sources, scholarly journals and full text sources. By doing so, it eliminates sources that would not be useful to me (such as, for example, sources in other languages). This made my research process a lot faster because rather than sifting through thousands of articles, it limited my search to a couple hundred articles (all of which I knew had the criteria I was looking for). She also explained that the shorter my search was, the better. For example, rather than searching “the effects of sleep deprivation on decision making”, she suggested I search “sleep” in the top bar and then “decision making” in the lower bar. By doing so, it allows the search engine to find more articles since my search was less specific and vaguer. Overall, I think it was helpful for me to learn how to better navigate the Dawson databases, but I did not receive much guidance on research ideas for my topic.