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Summary
This study investigated some of the effects of a fear of failure that is related to self-esteem. The Test Anxiety Questionnaire (TAQ) and the Self-Esteem Contingency Questionnaire (SEC) were administered to the Ss; the SEC measured the extent to which the S's self-esteem is contingent on academic achievement. The Ss were 49 American male college students, and an S was classified as having fear of failure if he scored high on both the SEC and the TAQ.
It was expected that the fear of failure group would have an approachavoidance conflict about academic pursuits, and measures reflecting this conflict were administered to the Ss.
The results provided partial confirmation for our expectations in that the High SEC group as compared to the Low SEC group had a higher n Ach score, was more compulsive about studying and considered academic degrees as being very important. Furthermore, the fear of failure group (High TAQHigh SEC) tended to have a lower self-esteem and a more negative attitude towards college. The last finding was related to Merton's (14) theory on types of adaptation to society. It was argued that although the fearful of failure individual has a negative attitude towards college, the opposite is not necessarily the case.
