Fear Of Success Research Articles

Gender differences in fear of success: A preliminary validation of the Performance Success Threat Appraisal Inventory

Objectives The present study was designed to examine the usefulness of the Performance Success Threat Appraisal Inventory (PSTAI; Metzler & Conroy, 2007) to assess fear of success in male and female elite athletes and its relationships with achievement goal orientations. Introduced originally to explain gender differences in achievement behavior, we verify the usefulness of fear of success (FS) in sport domain by using the emotionally-based definition of FS proposed by Metzler and Conroy (2007), which is operationalized as belief strengths regarding aversive successes that predispose individuals to appraise success as threatening. Methods Three studies, involving 668 athletes, were designed to assess the multidimensionality of FS, the relationships between FS and personality variable such as anxiety, and the relationships between FS and achievement goals. Results Component factorial analysis provided structural validity of the PSTAI and Pearson correlations supported the compromise hypothesis developed by Hyland (1989). Males who scored high on FS reported high somatic anxiety, worry, concentration disruption, preoccupation with rewards, and a tendency to suffer a lack of freedom in their relations with others. Regression analysis showed that FS males were predisposed to pursue mastery-avoidance goals. FS was not correlated with anxiety for females. Conclusions Evidence of the multidimensional structure of the PSTAI was obtained. Consistent with theoretical predictions, elite athletes are interested by mastery approach and they tend to report fear concerning their capabilities to progress, despite effort.

Patterns of Self-Talk Associated with Different Forms of Competitive Anxiety

Although self-talk and anxiety are both held to influence sport performance, little is known about the relationship between these two psychological phenomena in sport. The introject surface of a circumplex model (Structural Analysis of Social Behavior; SASB) is presented as a tool for integrating popular existing schemes for classifying self-talk in sport. Using a sample of 440 college-age men and women, the present study examined the relationship between SASB-defined patterns of state-specific self-talk (while failing, while succeeding, wished for, and feared) and three forms of situation-specific trait performance anxiety: fear of failure (FF), fear of success (FS), and sport anxiety (SA). Distinct patterns of self-talk were associated with competitive anxieties in sport; the strongest effects were associated with FF and SA, in that order, whereas FS was more weakly associated with systematic patterns of self-talk. These results are consistent with cognitive theories of anxiety and may be used to inform assessments, diagnoses, and treatments of performance anxiety problems in sport.

Achievement motivation in high achieving Latina women

This study investigated achievement motivation in high achieving, Latina women. Sixty‐three Latina women (43 doctoral graduates, 20 completers of doctoral course work) were administered the Work and Family Orientation Questionnaire (WOFO) (Helmreich & Spence, 1978), Sex‐Role Traditionalism Scale (SRTS) (Soto, 1979), Fear‐of‐Success Scale (FOSS) (Cohen, 1974) and a demographic questionnaire. A 90‐minute interview was conducted on a subsample of 10 of these women. Varying strengths in intrinsic achievement motives of mastery, work, competitiveness, and personal unconcern; low levels of sex‐role traditionalism (SRT); and low to average levels of fear of success (FOS) were quantitatively supported in the overall sample. The motives of work and mastery, and an extrinsic motive of generativity, as well as a range of SRT, emerged prominently from the subsample. Various affective, behavioral and cognitive manifestations of FOS, and negative consequences associated with SRT and FOS were qualitatively indicated. A ...

Fear of Success in Anorexic Young Women

Eating Disorders Inventories (EDI) and Thematic Apperception Tests (TATs) scored for fear of success were compared for 26 normal females enrolled at Harvard University and 45 eating-disordered females (27 bulimic and 18 anorexic) at Massachusetts General Hospital. The relationship between eating disorders and fear of success (FOS) was examined. Analyses revealed statistically significant differences in fear of success among the three groups. The anorexic group scored higher in FOS than both the bulimic group and the control group. The bulimic group did not differ significantly from the control group. These findings may have important clinical implications because fear of success may be evident in young women for whom anorexia nervosa is still in a prodromal phase. Thus, fear of success may be a marker of risk of anorexia nervosa.

UNDERSTANDING AND COPING WITH THE FEAR OF SUCCESS

The concept of Fear of Success is defined and its correlates identified. The role of family interactions and culture in the development of Fear and Success is also examined. Methods of coping with Fear of Success in terms of both the individual and the organisation are discussed.

An interactional model of achievement motivation and fear of success

Over the past 20 years, research on Fear of Success (FOS) has generated many inconsistent and contradictory results. The thesis of this article is that misinterpretations of Horner's (Sex Differences in Achievement Motivation and Performance in Competitive and Non-Competitive Situations, unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan, 1968) theory are responsible for such findings. Therefore, Horner's theory regarding the motivational dynamics underlying the performance of males and females is reviewed and contrasted with later interpretations. Based on Horner's formulations, a model of FOS and achievement motivation is presented that both accommodates previous research and provides a framework for guiding future research. Empirical findings are presented that support the utility of this model.

Converging evidence that fear of success is multidimensional

Fear of Success (FOS) was originally conceived as a unidimensional motive. However, there is both theoretical and empirical support for the hypothesis that FOS is multidimensional. We factor analyzed the responses of 236 undergraduates to twenty-oneConcern Over the Negative Consequences of Success items and found four factors. Our four factors show considerable overlap with dimensions based on theoretical accounts of FOS etiology as well as with the factor structures obtained from two other factor analytic studies. Thus, there is converging evidence that FOS is multidimensional. The relationship between multidimensional FOS and a multidimensional approach to achievement motivation is discussed.

Fear of Success in the Social Domain

The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which fear of success (FOS) operates in the social domain. Unacquainted, opposite-sex pairs of subjects participated in a get-acquainted exercise and then received either mixed, neutral, or success feedback allegedly from their partners. Subjects reported their mood both preinteraction and postfeedback, and completed attitude and attribution measures. Results showed the fear of success effect for females' attitudes. Compared to low-FOS females, high-FOS females liked their partners least after success feedback and most after mixed feedback. Females' perceptions of their partners' comfort showed a similar pattern. Unexpectedly, females' own comfort was influenced by their partner's FOS level. High-FOS females paired with high-FOS males showed a FOS effect, but high-FOS females paired with low-FOS males were similar to low-FOS females and did not show a FOS effect for comfort. Results for males did not conform to predictions on any of the measures. We su...

Achievement and identity in college-age vs. adult women students

This study tested a developmental hypothesis with respect to Fear of Success (FOS), Identity Status, and the relationship between the two. Forty college students, equally divided between regular college-age women (18-23) and adult college women (over age 30), were given a multiple-choice and a projective measure of FOS; they were then interviewed regarding exploration and commitment in five content areas: vocation, family vs. career priority, politics, religion, and sex roles. The hypothesis that the adult students would exhibit less FOS than their college-age counterparts was confirmed with both measures of FOS. Chi-square analysis also revealed that a significantly higher proportion of the adult students was classified as identity-achieved and a lower proportion as identity-diffuse than the college-age students. The influence of life experience on the relationship between FOS and each identity status could not be tested due to an insufficient number of identity achievers in the college-age subsample; when the relationship of FOS to identity status was examined for the total sample, however, foreclosures and achievers manifested significantly less FOS than diffusions and moratoriums.

Gender dependency of occupational deviance and role overload as determinants of fear of success imagery

AbstractThe effects of occupational deviance and role overload on Fear of Success (FOS) scores were investigated following Bremer and Wittig's (1980) finding that these inflate FOS scores when a story cue describing a female character is given to respondents of both sexes. This finding was replicated by the present study. However, stories were also given that described events involving a male character. In this condition occupational deviance and role overload produced no such effect upon the FOS scores. Bremer and Wittig's suggestion that these two variables are independent of the sex of the cue character is therefore refuted and it is argued instead that these variables will be interpreted very differently depending on the sex of the cue character.The finding that male and female respondents produce very similar FOS scores to the same stories provides further evidence that such measurement techniques evoke sex‐role stereotypes rather than an indication of the individual's motivation. The particular relevance to Parsons and Goff's (1980) emphasis upon the incentive value component of the McClelland/Atkinson Motivational Model is also explored.

Learned helplessness and ?fear of success? in college women

Anagram performance in comparison and noncomparison situations of 90 high, medium, or low fear-of-success (FOS) women was examined after these subjects had experienced conditions within the traditional triadic learned helplessness design. Low FOS women in the comparison condition proved significantly more susceptible to learned helplessness effects than high FOS women on one dependent measure (number of incorrect anagrams), though not on the other (response latency). Results are discussed with reference to the FOS construct and to Zuckerman and Allison's (1976) scale, used in the present study. An argument is made for increased attention to personality variables within the learned helplessness paradigm.

Fear of success revisited: Introducing an ambiguous cue

One criticism of Horner's fear-of-success (FOS) research concerns the fact that she defined success (being number 1 in a medical school class) for her subjects. Two aims of the present investigation were to (a) reinstate the traditional ambiguity of the projective verbal lead: “Anne (John) has succeeded,” and (b) determine the amount of FOS imagery projected by 64 male and 79 female college students to these leads. The low incidence of FOS in this present study was attributed to the opportunity subjects were given to define success for themselves. There were no significant differences in the amount of FOS projected by men and women. School-related success was the most often cited success theme. Results were supportive of the hypothesis that FOS is situationally determined.

Fear of success as a situational phenomenon

This study was designed to determine whether different arousing situations will generate different responses in fear-of-success (FOS) and performance behavior. Female subjects were given instructions stating that the tasks they were going to complete would later be evaluated by a panel of males, females, or persons in order to determine whether the panel would select them as a potential friend, co-worker, or acquaintance. Results indicated that no significant differences in FOS were due to the different situations. However, there was evidence to conclude that level of performance behavior depends on the situation in which it is measured. Possible explanations for the failure to find FOS situational are discussed, as well as the inability to explain the significant interaction in performance behavior.

Fear of Success and Causal Attributions of Success and Failure in High School and College Students

Summary College males and females (N = 87) exhibited more Fear of Success (FOS) imagery to both gender-appropriate and gender-inappropriate stimulus cues than high school males and females (N = 88). No overall sex differences in incidence of FOS were observed. The gender-inappropriate male cue (Tom in nursing school) elicited more FOS than the gender-inappropriate female cue (Diane as law student) from college, but not from high school subjects. Subjects did not exhibit significantly more FOS to the gender-inappropriate female cue than to the gender-appropriate cue (Diane in nursing school). The presence of FOS to same-sex cues significantly affected attributions of success and failure on an anagrams task for college and high school males and females. The differences in attributions between males and females with FOS are interpreted in terms of maintaining self-concepts consistent with cultural prescriptions.

A comparison of projective and objective fear-of-success and sex-role orientation measures as predictors of women's performance on masculine and feminine tasks

This study compared projective and objective measures of fear of success (FOS) with each other and with a measure of sex-role orientation as alternative predictors of 309 college women's achievement behavior on masculine and feminine tasks. Neither the sex role nor the FOS measures predicted substantial performance differences on the masculine or feminine tasks, although the objective FOS scales and the Bem Sex Role Inventory did predict subjects' stated investment in the task and attributions for success in a manner generally consistent with FOS theory. In addition, the objective FOS scales showed strong relationships with achievement motivation and sex-role orientation, while TAT (Thematic Apperception Test) FOS was unrelated to either of these variables. The results provide partial support that objective FOS scales tap actual avoidance tendencies characteristic of traditionally feminine women, while the TAT measure reflects, at most, an ambivalence over success which may be equally characteristic of high achieving, nontraditional women and low achieving, traditional women.

Concern over the negative consequences of success

A 27-item Concern Over Negative Consequences of Success Scale (CONCOSS) was developed to investigate the motive to avoid success. The concern over negative consequences of success (CONCOS) construct investigated in the present study in a response to Sadd, Lenauer, Shaver, and Dunivant's (1978) recommendation that Horner's (1968) Fear of Success (FOS) construct should be replaced by a more general definition of FOS. Results indicated that CONCOS was negatively related to achievement motivation, initial expectation of success and quality of performance on an anagram test. These results supported the predictive validity of the CONCOSS with regard to its use in future researh.

Fear of Success, Need Achievement, and Fear of Failure: A factor analytic study

Several tests of Fear of Success (FOS), Fear of Failure (FOF), and Need Achievement (nAch), plus Taylor's Manifest Anxiety Scale and a social desirability scale were administered to 104 males and 101 females. FOS, FOF, and nAch did not show factor validity. Results for predictive validity were also poor. Anxiety defined the first factor in the factor analysis. All first-factor tests negatively predicted female grade point average and American College Test scores. All the first-factor tests showed sex differences, with females scoring higher. A clarifying role for anxiety in the study of sex differences in achievement is indicated.

Sex-role orientation and fear of success: Clarifying an unclear relationship

Inconsistencies in research concerning the relationship between fear of success (FOS) and sex-role orientation may be due to the use of sex-role inventories considering masculinity and femininity as endpoints of a bipolar continuum. The Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI; Bem, 1974), which treats masculinity and femininity as separate dimensions, was administered to 218 female undergraduates in addition to measures of FOS, achievement motivation, and performance. It was predicted that women who were androgynous (high feminine and high masculine) would evidence less FOS than women who were high masculine or high feminine. It was also predicted that women who embraced masculine characteristics (androgynous or sex-reversed) would be higher in both achievement motivation and performance than low masculine women. Both predictions were confirmed. Sex-reversed women were highest in FOS.

Achievers and underachievers: A comparative study of fear of success, education and career goals, and conception of woman's role among high school senior girls

Two groups of 16 high school senior girls, achievers and underachievers, were compared on the following variables: educational and career goals, conception of woman's role, and fear of success (FOS). Chi-square analyses showed significant differences between groups with regard to their goals. Achievers aspired significantly higher than underachievers in their educational goals. In addition, they were significantly more contemporary in their career goals and more committed to these goals than the underachievers. In contrast to underachievers, achievers also had a more contemporary view of the roles women should assume in society and, on the other hand, showed more FOS in fantasies about women succeeding in contemporary roles, but these differences did not reach statistical significance.

Women managers and fear of success: A study in the field

Reported here is the first stage of a study designed to test Matina Horner's fear of success (FOS) hypothesis in the field of management. A matched sample of 18 male and 18 female executives wrote stories for TAT-type verbal cues concerned with a successful management career. No significant differences were indicated between sexes in negative imagery, though both expressed anxiety toward success. Implications for Horner's hypothesis are discussed with respect to changing attitudes and expectations of men and women for each other and their relationships in business. The report concludes that understanding of FOS requires research on a broader representation of men and women actually involved in the pursuit of careers via ongoing studies in touch with rapidly changing times.