Evaluative Criteria and Consequences Associated with Failure and Success for Elite Athletes and Performing Artists

Fears of failure and success are widely regarded as salient threats to performance in a variety of domains yet scientific understanding of these constructs is still in its infancy. Sixteen elite athletes and performing artists participated in in-depth interviews to shed light on the nature of the cognitive-motivational-relational appraisals associated with these fears. Results revealed distinct criteria for evaluations of failure and success, as well as the perceived consequences of failure and success. It was concluded that the criteria used to evaluate failure and success are sufficiently distinct to suggest that perceptions of failure and success should not be thought of as a bipolar phenomenon. The consequences of failure and success were used to form multidimensional models of fear of failure and fear of success.