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Questions concerning fear of success and its conceptual relatives

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Abstract

Several measures of fear of success have been constructed, yet little attempt has been made to study the relations between them. Moreover, it is not clear that most of the measures can be differentiated from measures of fear of failure. Few fear of success researchers have worried about the relationship between their work and the large body of literature dealing with achievement motivation and fear of failure. Arguments about behavioral correlates of achievement-related anxieties should acknowledge the possibility that some people are both successful and anxious, and that they suffer on dimensions other than performance (e.g., psychosomatic illness). Two general forms of success anxiety — cultural and neurotic — have been discussed; both seem to require more intensive study than has been devoted to either one so far.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Room 769, New York University, 4 Washington Place, 10003, New York, New York

    Phillip Shaver

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  1. Phillip Shaver
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Preparation of this paper was facilitated by a grant from the Spencer Foundation, administered through Columbia University's Teachers College. I am grateful to Katherine Garner, Fred Miller, and David Tresemer for commenting on an earlier draft of the manuscript. I also benefited from reading prepublication drafts of books by Donna Canavan-Gumpert, Katherine Garner, and Peter Gumpert, and by David Tresemer. Of course, none of them is responsible for my interpretations or conclusions.

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Shaver, P. Questions concerning fear of success and its conceptual relatives. Sex Roles 2, 305–320 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287658

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