Fear of failure and achievement goals in sport: Addressing the issue of the chicken and the egg

Abstract

The hierarchical model of achievement motivation proposes that, in addition to need achievement, fear of failure (FF) energizes achievement behaviour and predisposes individuals to adopt particular types of achievement goals. An impressive volume of cross-sectional support for this model has emerged, however, the causal assumptions of the model have never been tested. College students (N=356) enrolled in physical activity classes completed multidimensional measures of FF and achievement goals on four occasions in a 3-week interval. FF was positively related to mastery-avoidance (MAv), performance-approach (PAp), and performance-avoidance (PAv) achievement goals. FF scores predicted residualized change in MAv and PAv (but not MAp or PAp) goal scores across occasions. Goal scores did not reliably predict residualized change in FF scores across occasions. Results were consistent with the hierarchical model of achievement motivation and suggest that FF may indeed have a causal influence on achievement goals.

Keywords:

• Fear of failure
• Achievement goals
• Hierarchical model

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Jon Metzler, Jessica Miller, and Jason Willow for their assistance collecting and entering the data.

Notes

The need for achievement is also a key component in classic achievement motivation models; however, it will not be discussed because the focus of this manuscript is avoidance motivation at the motive level.

Structural model parameters were of greatest theoretical interest in this study so measurement model results are not reported here. Those results may be obtained from the first author.