Students' Fear Of Success And Predictors Of Research

Matina Homer's research (1969) brought widespread acknowledgment among psychologists and laymen of the existence of fear of success. Homer has described fear of success as a motive which, when aroused, results in anxiety about succeeding in the framework of competition. Homer's study suggests that fear of success is a phenomenon exclusive to women. However, it was found in a series of relevant research that both men and women fear success. The FOS here defined as a psychological state which results in observable paralysis, withdrawal, or retraction in the presence of a consciously understood, subjective or objective goal which is perceived by the individual at the moment of withdrawal.The purpose of this study was to develop "Fear of Success Scale for Chinese Students" and to explore the predictors of Fear of Success of Chinese college students. The findings of the investigation were elaborated as the following:(1) The "Fear of Success Scale for Chinese students" had good reliability and validity. The results showed that the university students had three types of fear of success related with (a) Concern about negative consequences of success, (b) the feeling of intellectual phoniness, (c) avoidance of future success.(2) Fear of Success of college students tended to be moderate. The FOS for working pressure tended to be the highest, FOS for delight of life came the next, and the FOS for making friend and selecting spouse tended to be the lowest.(3) There was no significant difference of fear of success between male and female students indicated by the FOS Scale.(4) There was no significant difference of fear of success between students with different specialties as indicated by the FOS Scale.(5) The undergraduates tended to feel more FOS than graduated students.(6) Female students' Sex role stereotyped image was significantly correlated with FOS. The more traditional the Sex role stereotyped image was, the more FOS perceived by female students.(7) The Chinese-version of NEO PI (5-Factor Model of personality), an instrument designed to measure a universal representation of trait structures, was used in this study. The 5 traits measured are neuroticism, extroversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Fear of success was negatively correlated with extroversion and conscientiousness and positively correlated with neuroticism.(8) The multiple-regression analysis revealed that gender, grade, specialty, Sexual role stereotyped image and personality traits were good predictors of fear of success.