Vanessa has an important presentation coming up at work, but she fears that she will do a poor job. The week before the presentation, she claims that she is feeling under the weather; she leaves work early almost every day and barely practices her presentation at all. Even though she may not realize what she is doing, Vanessa is setting herself up so that she will have an "excuse" in case the

presentation does not go well. Social psychologists refer to this pattern of behavior as ____.

a. self-regulation
b. the self-reference effect
c. overjustification
d. self-handicapping

D