THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS

While research on the Need for Achievement (Atkinson, 1958a; McClelland, Atkinson, Clark, & Lowell, 1953) provided the model for the conceptualization of a motive to avoid success, it had one major difficulty. The research, while conclusive for male subjects, proved inconsistent for females (French & Lesser, 1964; Lesser, 1973). To explain the inconsistency, the concept of fear of success was proposed (Horner, 1968, 1972, 1974). The explanation, that a person might fear success as well as hope for it in achievement-oriented situations, is fully consistent with expectancy value theory as it relates to the concept of achievement motivation. The first studies of fear of success (Horner, 1968) showed that the expectation (not necessarily in awareness) of negative consequences as a result of the pursuit or attainment of success aroused anxiety in female subjects. Similar expectations were significantly less evident in male subjects. Although some subsequent studies found a considerable amount of fear-of-success imagery from males as well (see Tresemer, 1976), the predictive consequences were still far more debilitating for females.