Fear of success in Australian and American student groups: Motive or sex-role stereotype?1

Abstract

In an important contribution to the hterature on achievement motivation. Homer (ig68, 1970, 1972a, 1972b) has argued that women suffer from a fear of success in competitive achievement situations Whereas for most men success m competitive achievement activity is consistent with masculinity and self-esteem, women often pay a price when they succeed, especially m pursuits that are commonly held to be the province of the male and where some degree of ruthlessness and aggression may be the prerequisites for success. For women competitiveness often has overtones of aggression and masculinity. Success by women m competition with others (particularly males) may be taken as evidence of a lack of femininity, and it may lead to social rejection and disapproval, an unfortunate outcome since much of the evidence suggests that women depend a lot upon the approval and esteem of significant others and are very concemed with interpersonal relationships (Bardwick, 1971). As Mead (1949) puts it, whereas men are unsexed by failure, women seem to be unsexed by successIn her analysis Homer assumed that fear of success may be a relatively stable personahty disposition (or motive) in women, that it IS aroused in competitive achievement situations especially where important men are present (e.g, prospective dates, boyfnends), and that it may underlie many of the major sex differences that have appeared m the research on achievement motivation (see Bardwick, 1971; Homer, 1968) She used a projective procedure to assess the presence or absence of fear of

There Is No Motive to Avoid Success: The Compromise Explanation for Success‐Avoiding Behavior

“…According to the cognition hypothesis (Feather & Raphelson, 1974, Monahan, Kuhn, & Shaver, 1974, fear of success IS not a motive but a culture-specific belief that sex-role mappropnate behavior is deviant Accordmg to this conception, success avoidance IS a leamed response to those situations in which other people indicate that to seek success would be socially unacceptable Thus, the individual does not actively seek to avoid success in general, but only avoids success in those specific circumstances where success seeking is, by social mles and conventions, deemed inappropriate…”

Sex and Student Role Stereotypes in Australian University Students

“…A number of studies, however, suggest that Australian students are likely to hold similar sex-role beliefs to their American counterparts. Studies of sex-role stereotyping in the Australian educational system (Bradley and Mortimer, 197211973 ; Edgar, 1972 ; Mercer, 1975) give evidence of the operation of powerful pressures on students to define male and female roles in polarized terms.Research eliciting students' evaluations of successful male and female achievers has also suggested that Australian high school and university students may hold a general stereotype which devalues successful competitive achievement by women (Feather and Raphelson, 1974 ;Feather and Simon, 1975).If Australian students do still subscribe to traditional sex-role stereotypes, then we would expect to find some women students experiencing considerable role conflict. To the extent that they adhere to traditional sex-role stereotypes, female students should experience the formal role demands of the school and university as more discrepant with their sex role than male students.…”

“…Research eliciting students' evaluations of successful male and female achievers has also suggested that Australian high school and university students may hold a general stereotype which devalues successful competitive achievement by women (Feather and Raphelson, 1974 ;Feather and Simon, 1975).…”

'n Herevaluasie van die konsep vrees-vir-sukses by vroue

“…Tweedens word kritiek gelewer op Horner (1968, 1972) se toetsing van hipoteses oor die gedrag van vroue in kompeterende situasies. Ten opsigte van eersgenoemde faktor wys Feather en Raphelson (1974) daarop dat Horner se studies uitgevoer is op koshuisstudente verbonde aan 'n prestige universiteit, wat hulle 'n hoogs geselekteerde groep maak. Die norme en ander faktore kenmerkend aan die besondere universiteit kon 'n invloed gehad het op die vlak van vrees-vir-sukses tellings.…”