Fear of Success. Questo articolo non è disponibile.Fear of Success

Nought's had, all's spent, Where our desire is got without content: 'Tis safer to be that which we destroy Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy. So speaks Lady Macbeth upon the attainment of the aim of her ambition (act 3, scene 2). Is this expression of a fear of success the consequence of the highly competitive arena in which she is striving to achieve? Will this sentiment later lead to the avoidance of this or other forms of success? Does she fear success because she is a woman? While the fear and avoidance of success are ideas that are not new to psychology or to human behavior, recent work by Matina Homer has excited great interest in the psychological measure of a personal disposition to avoid success and a behavioral measure of that avoidance. It is with this recent wave of research and writing that Part II of this book is concerned. Great personal interest was stimulated in the "fear of success" concept. It is not only the hypochondriacs who find in the idea of a "fear of success" syndrome an explanation for the course of their lives. In Part I are presented the earlier forms which the concept of "fear of success" took, especially in psychoanalytic theory and per­ sonality theory, originating with Freud's discussion of "those wrecked by success," but citing some of the much older cultural traditions involving a fear and/or avoidance of success.

I Fear of Success: Facts and Theories.- 1 Fear of Success—The Traditional View.- Psychoanalytic Theories.- The Case of Morphy.- An Application to Sports.- Other Conceptions.- Sociological and Anthropological Views.- The Wheel of Fortune.- 2 Achievement Motivation Theory and a New Theory of Fear of Success.- Approach and Avoidance in Motivation Theory.- Fear of Failure.- Thematic Measures of Fear of Failure.- The Possibility of “Fear of Success”.- Homer’s Conception of “Fear of Success”.- Women and Achievement.- Success.- Deviance.- Success—Public and Private.- Subjective Success.- Fear of Failure and Fear of Success.- Summary for Chapters 1 and 2.- 3 Social Psychological Perspectives on Fear of Success.- A Theory of Boundary Maintenance.- Role.- Commitment to Conformity.- Social Comparison.- Justice and Transgression.- Disconfirmed Expectations: Unexpected Success.- High Achievers.- The Envious Evil Eye.- Dissection of Behavior.- Alternatives in Achievement Motivation Theory.- The Case of Gender-Role Boundaries.- Previous Related Research.- The Sources of Success Avoidance.- II Recent Research on Fear of Success.- 4 Scoring Success-Avoidance Thema in Responses to Verbal Story Cues.- Format.- Validation of the Scoring System.- Homer’s Fear of Success.- Clarifications.- Bizarre Stories.- Negative Antecedent.- General Inhibition Thema.- Responsiveness of Negative Thema to Situational Differences.- Production.- Further Thoughts on the Cue and Projective Methods.- 5 The The Cumulative Record of Research on Fear of Success.- Effect Size.- Working Assumptions.- Criticism.- Gender Differences in Incidence of FOS.- Statistical Methods.- Cumulative Results.- Responses to Cross-Gender Cues.- Changes in FOS over Time.- Correlates of FOS.- Ability.- Gender-Role Identification.- Anxiety.- External Control.- Age.- Cooperation vs. Competition.- Other Correlates.- Relationships with FOS.- 6 The Relationship of Fear of Success to Performance Behavior.- Reanalysis of the First Experiment.- “Like the Men”.- FOS and Achievement.- Replications of Horner’s Original Study.- Gender Composition of Group and FOS.- Male-Female Competitive Pairs and FOS.- Gender-Role Appropriateness of Tasks and FOS.- Other Control Groups.- The FOS Effect Without the Measurement of FOS.- External Validity.- New Measures of Fear of Success.- Revisions of the Original Scoring System.- A New Scoring System for Thematic Imagery.- The New Questionnaire Measures.- Other Systems.- Overview: The Performance of FOS.- Issues in Future Research.- Avoidance Phenomena.- Avoidance Motivation.- Success.- III Conclusion.- 7 Progress for Fear of Success.- Nomothetic and Idiographic Approaches.- Cases.- The Proper Place of Stories.- Idiographic Approach to Avoidance Motivation.- The Fear of Success.- The Meaning of Success.- Beyond Fear of Success.- References.