RELATIONSHIPS AMONG FEAR OF SUCCESS, FEAR OF FAILURE, AND ANDROGYNY

Fear of success, fear of failure, and sex role orientation were examined in engineering undergraduates using the Fear of Success Scale (FOSS; Zuckerman & Allison, 1976), the Debilitating Anxiety Scale (DAS; Alpert & Haber, 1960), and the Bern Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI; Bem, 1974), respectively. The correlation (r = 45) between fear of success and fear of failure supported the finding of Criffore (1977). BSRI subscale scores rather than BSRI sex role category scores increased the predictability of FOSS and DAS. Fear of success was found to be a sex-role-related construct whereas fear of failure was found to be a gender-related construct.     

Schizophrenia: The Narcissistic Retreat

A 27-item Fear of Success Scale (FOSS) was developed to assess individual differences in the motive to avoid success. Females scored significantly higher on the FOSS than did males; the FOSS was positively related to Horner's projective measure of fear of success, and negatively related to Mehrabian's measure of achievement motivation; subjects (both males and females) with high scores on the FOSS (a) performed less well on an anagram test, (b) attributed success more to external factors, and (c) attributed failure more to internal factors than subjects with low scores on the FOSS. These results supported the validity of the FOSS with regard to its use in future research.     

Fear of success,sex role attitudes,and career salience and anxiety levels of college women

This study examined, for 99 female undergraduate students, both the relationship between fear of success, sex role attitudes, and career salience, and the relationship between fear of success, career salience, and trait anxiety. Fear of success was assessed using the Fear of Success Scale, while sex role attitudes were assessed using the Attitudes towards Women Scale. Career Salience was measured by the Career Salience Scale, and trait anxiety was assessed by the trait subscale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. The results indicated that fear of success and sex-role attitudes, in combination, significantly predicted the level of career salience in a multiple regression analysis. The women higher in fear of success and more traditional tended to be lower in career salience. Trait anxiety levels of women did not differ significantly as a function of fear of success, career salience, or the combination of the two.     

Fear of success: The influence of sex,sex-role identity,and components of masculinity

Phase I of this experiment was conducted to determine the nature of the relationship between fear of success and sex-role identity. Eighty female and 124 male subjects completed a measure of fear of success (the Sadd Fear of Success Scale, SFOS) and two sex-role scales (the Bem Sex Role Inventory, BSRI; and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire, PAQ). Subjects were subsequently classified by their responses to the BSRI and PAQ as either androgynous, masculine, feminine, or undifferentiated. The results indicated that androgynous and masculine individuals reported less fear of success than feminine or undifferentiated individuals, regardless of their sex. Subsequent analyses revealed that fear of success was more related to the absence of masculine traits than to the presence of feminine traits. Phase II of this investigation was conducted to determine whether a specific component of masculinity was related to the fear of success. The masculinity scales were factor analyzed and factor scores were regressed on the fear-of-success scores. Factor scores reflecting high self-confidence, decisiveness, analyticalness, and independence were related to low levels of fear of success; factor scores reflecting assertiveness, competitiveness, and opinionatedness were not related to the fear of success.     

Manifestations, acquisition and diagnostic categories of dental fear in a self-referred population

This study aimed to clarify how manifestations and acquisition relate to diagnostic categories of dental fear in a population of self-referred dental fear patients, since diagnostic criteria specifically related to dental fear have not been validated. DSM III-R diagnostic criteria for phobias were used to compare with four existing dental fear diagnostic categories, referred to as the Seattle system. Subjects were 208 persons with dental fear who were telephone interviewed, of whom a subsample of 155 responded to a mailed Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and a modified FSS-II Geer Fear Scale (GFS). Personal interviews and a Dental Beliefs Scale of perceived trust and social interaction with dentists were also used to evaluate a subsample of 80 patients selected by sex and high dental fear. Results showed that the majority of the 80 patients (66%), suffered from social embarrassment about their dental fear problem and their inability to do something about it. The largest cause of their fear (84%) was reported to be traumatic dental experiences, especially in childhood (70%). A minority of patients (16%) could not isolate traumatic experiences and had a history of general fearfulness or anxiety. Analysis of GFS data for the 155 subjects showed that fear of snakes and injuries were highest among women; heights and injections among men. Fear of blood was rarely reported. Spearman correlations between GFS individual items and DAS scores indicated functional independence between dental fear and common fears such as blood, injections and enclosures in most cases. Only in specific types of dental fear did these results support Rachman and Lopatka's contention that fears are thought to summate.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Fear of success: the construction and validation of a measuring instrument

This study constructed an instrument which identifies people who fear success (FOS) in academic areas and conducted a laboratory study which tested the instrument's predictive validity. The theoretical formulation of the FOS phenomenon leads to the expectation that individuals high in the fear of success would demonstrate the following characteristics: low self-esteem, a preoccupation with the evaluative aspects of situations, a competitive orientation, repudiation of competence, and self-sabotage at the approach or attainment of success. The fear of success questionnaire is an 83-item scale with a reliability of .90. In a 2 x 2 factorial design, subjects identified by the FOS questionnaire were given either Success or nonsuccess feedback after completing the first of two equivalent reading tests. The results of the laboratory experiment indicated that there is strong clear evidence of self-sabotage under conditions of success among subjects who scored high on the FOS questionnaire.     

Convergence of Self-Report Scales and Rorschach Indexes of Psychological Distress: The Moderating Role of Self-Disclosure

This study constructed an instrument which identifies people who fear success (FOS) in academic areas and conducted a laboratory study which tested the instrument's predictive validity. The theoretical formulation of the FOS phenomenon leads to the expectation that individuals high in the fear of success would demonstrate the following characteristics: low self-esteem, a preoccupation with the evaluative aspects of situations, a competitive orientation, repudiation of competence, and self-sabotage at the approach or attainment of success. The fear of success questionnaire is an 83-item scale with a reliability of .90. In a 2 × 2 factorial design, subjects identified by the FOS questionnaire were given either Success or nonsuccess feedback after completing the first of two equivalent reading tests. The results of the laboratory experiment indicated that there is strong clear evidence of self-sabotage under conditions of success among subjects who scored high on the FOS questionnaire.     

Manifest anxiety and fearfulness in children and adolescents.

The relationship between self-reported fear and anxiety was examined in a large sample of normal Australian children and adolescents. Participants completed the Fear Survey Schedule for Children--Revised (Ollendick, 1983) and the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (Reynolds & Richmond, 1978). Following an examination of the internal consistency of these instruments, correlational analyses were conducted on anxiety and fear scores. Fear scores were shown to be sensitive to anxiety, sex, and age groups. Furthermore, discriminant analysis showed that high-anxiety children indicated a greater fear of items related to failure and criticism than did low-anxiety children. Other issues, including the content overlap between the two scales used in the investigation, are discussed.     

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.     

Achievement motivation and field independence

Abstract.— Previous studies on the relationship between achievement motivation and field independence appear to have concentrated on the hope of success motive and Embedded Figures Test measures of field independence. The present study relates measures of both hope of success and fear of failure to performance on the Rod and Frame Test. It was found that a group with high Hope of Success/high Fear of Failure and one with low Hope of Success/low Fear of Failure were more field dependent than a group with high Hope of Success/low Fear of Failure and one with low Hope of Success/high Fear of Failure. The results were interpreted in line with the Yerkes-Dodson law. High Hope of Success/high Fear of Failure was assumed to reflect a too high level of effort output or arousal, whereas low Hope of Success/low Fear of Failure was assumed to reflect a too low level of effort expenditure. According to a second interpretation, the field dependent performance of high/high and low/low groups was assumed to relate to a confused/uncertain self image.     

Relationship of internal-external locus of control,self-concept,and masculinity-femininity to fear of success in Black freshmen and senior college women

The concepts of locus of control, self-concept, masculinity-femininity, and their relationship to fear of success in Black college women were explored. Scores were obtained from stories written in response to six verbal cues designed to assess fear-of-success imagery. Tabulations ranging from zero (denoting absence of fear) to six (denoting most fear) were correlated with Gurin's I-E Scale, the Modified Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale, and the Modified Gough Masculinity-Femininity Scale. There was no significant mean difference between freshmen and seniors on fear of success. However, an analysis of variance revealed that externals showed significantly more fear-of-success imagery than internals. Significant inverse correlations were located between the measure of self-concept and certain cues eliciting fear of success. Femininity was not shown to be related to any of the fear-of-success measures.     

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.     

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.     

Reliability and validity of the Fear of Intimacy Scale in China

Participants in China (n = 343) and the United States (n = 283) completed measures to assess the reliability and validity of the Fear of Intimacy Scale (Descutner & Thelen, 1991) with a Chinese population. Internal consistency was strong in both cultures, and the factor structure was also similar between cultures, with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) identifying three-factor models in both samples. As evidence of convergent validity, the scale was positively correlated with depression and negatively correlated with social support and self-esteem. There were gender differences between cultures, but low levels of femininity were predictive of fear of intimacy in both cultures. The influence of individualism and collectivism varied, with high levels of individualism more predictive of a fear of intimacy in China than in the United States.     

Achievement motivation and perception of the body boundary

Vollmer, F. Achievement motivation and perception of the body boundary. Scand. J. Psychol., 1973, 14, 91–95.-In a group of 37 female students, a measure of the perceived body boundary (the Barrier Index) was related to three indices of achievement motivation: Hope of Success (HS), Fear of Failure (FF), and Net Hope (NH=HS minus FF). The Barrier Index correlated negatively with FF and positively with NH, but was unrelated to HS. Analysis of the NH variable showed that the correlation between NH and the Barrier Index could be ascribed alone to the strong negative relationship between FF and the Barrier Index, and that subjects with NH scores around zero, due both to high HS and high FF, scored notably low on the Barrier Index.     

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

The 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.     

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.The research reported here was supported by Grant 1 R03 MH 28835-01 from the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.     

Fear of failure and fear of success

Verbal leads were used to elicit TAT responses from 160 male and female high school seniors, under neutral and aroused conditions. These protocols were scored for fear of success (FOS) according to the 1973 revised scoring system developed by Horner, Tresemer, Berens, and Watson (Note 1) and also scored for fear of failure (FOF) according to the Hostile Press Scoring System developed by Birney, Burdick, and Teevan (1969). Significant positive correlations between the two motive scores were obtained under both neutral and aroused conditions. The lack of independence between the FOS and FOF scores reflects theoretical similarities in the definitions of the motives, as well as considerable overlap in the scoring systems. It was hypothesized that for those people (especially women) whose affiliative and achievement needs are interrelated, FOF and FOS may be nearly equivalent, since fear of social rejection thus becomes tantamount to fear of failure.