Michigan Studies of Fear of Failure

Abstract

The theory of resistance proposed in Dynamics of Action (Atkinson & Birch, 1970, 1974) treats motivational implications of expectation of failure as analogous to expectation of success, but as opposite in motivational effect. We have yet to achieve consensus in the consideration of “fear of failure,” that is, whether it sometimes has a facilitating effect on motivation (Heck-hausen, 1984 a) or whether it always has a dampening effect (Atkinson, 1974 b). I take this opportunity to review developments in the work at Michigan that led to our conception of resistance (Atkinson & Birch, 1970) and to two important conclusions: (a) that self-report measures of Test Anxiety provide the best assessment of individual differences in “fear of failure”; and (b) that sometimes the dampening of task motivation has the paradoxical effect of enhancing rather than inhibiting task performance. According to the latter conclusion, one cannot infer facilitating motivational effects of fear of failure from facilitating performance effects. Our discussion will supplement other recent discussions of resistance (Atkinson, 1982, 1983, 1984) in identifying some facts that any analysis of fear of failure must take into account.