HOW THIS TEST WORKS
How Am I Self-Sabotaging? works
How version core-v1 is scored, and what it can and cannot tell you.
How it is scored
Self-sabotage is not a diagnosis. It is a common name for habits that get in the way of your own goals. Researchers have studied many of them. One review found that most self-defeating behavior comes from trying to avoid a bad feeling in the short term, not from wanting to fail (Baumeister and Scher, 1988). Research on "self-handicapping" shows that people sometimes make success harder so they have an excuse if they fail (Jones and Berglas, 1978), and that this tends to hurt them over time (Zuckerman and Tsai, 2005).
This test looks at five areas: setting up excuses, fear of failing, doubting you deserve good things, pushing people away, and quick escapes. Each area has eight sentences. Half describe the habit and half describe the opposite, so you cannot get a high score just by agreeing with everything. Each answer gives 0 to 4 points.
Each area score runs from 0 to 100. Your overall score is the average of the five areas. Scores are read as Low (0 to 33), Medium (34 to 66), or High (67 to 100). These levels show how you answered. They do not compare you with other people.
PersonalitySite.com wrote all of these questions and descriptions. They are not copied from any other test.
What it cannot tell you
This test is for learning about yourself. It is not a diagnosis, and it cannot tell you if you have a mental health condition or an addiction. Do not use it to make health, work, or legal decisions about anyone.
People tend to answer in ways that make them look good. Your answers can also change with your mood and what is going on in your life.
This version has not yet been tested with a large group of people, so we do not yet know how accurate it is.