The attribution of similarity: The influence of success and failure.

"One subject in… [a] pair was informed that he had earned high percentile scores on… [tasks], while the other subject was told he had earned low scores. Each subject then received a partially completed Allport-Vernon-Lindzey test booklet designed either to be identical with or systematically dissimilar to the one completed by the subject 6 or more weeks earlier… . he was to complete the booklet as he believed his colleague had. Degree of similarity attributed was defined as the absolute difference between own and attributed score on a… scale… . The results revealed that failure subjects attributed greater similarity to their colleagues than did successful subjects, particularly with respect to presumably dissimilar colleagues." From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2GE19S. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Action embellishment: An intention bias in the perception of success.

Na?ve theories of behavior hold that actions are caused by an agent's intentions, and the subsequent success of an action is measured by the satisfaction of those intentions. However, when an action is not as successful as intended, the expected causal link between intention and action may distort perception of the action itself. Four studies found evidence of an intention bias in perceptions of action. Actors perceived actions to be more successful when given a prior choice (e.g., choose between 2 words to type) and also when they felt greater motivation for the action (e.g., hitting pictures of disliked people). When the intent was to fail (e.g., singing poorly), choice led to worse estimates of performance. A final experiment suggested that intention bias works independent from self-enhancement motives. In observing another actor hit pictures of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, shots were distorted to match the actor's intentions, even when it opposed personal wishes. Together these studies indicate that judgments of action may be automatically distorted and that these inferences arise from the expected consistency between intention and action in agency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitudes of schizophrenics and normals toward success and failure.

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that schizophrenics, as compared with normals, are relatively more highly motivated to avoid failure than to achieve success. A total of 291 Ss, including 136 hospitalized male schizophrenics, 103 normals, and--as a contrast group--52 neurotics, were administered the Success-Failure Inventory (SFI), a 22-item True-False instrument designed to assess attitudes toward success attainment and failure avoidance. As predicted, the schizophrenic samples manifested greater relative failure avoidance than the normals. Further, active schizophrenics evidenced greater relative failure avoidance than did remitted schizophrenics. Remitted schizophrenics and neurotics were not significantly different. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotions in memories of success and failure: A cultural perspective.

Americans and Chinese tend to behave differently in response to success and failure: Americans tend to persist on a task after success, whereas Chinese tend to persist after failure. This study examined whether cultural differences in emotional reactions to success and failure account for these differences. American and Chinese students recalled personal success and failure events, evaluated the primary emotion evoked by the event, and responded to measures of concerns, appraisals, and willingness to try the same task again. Americans were more likely than Chinese to report that their success enhanced their self-esteem. Chinese were more likely than Americans to estimate that their success would make others jealous and enhance others' respect for their family. Chinese, compared to Americans, viewed failures as more tolerable, as less problematic for their goals, and as less damaging to their self-esteem. Culture moderated the relations between these components of emotion and willingness to try the task again. In short, culturally framed emotional reactions to success and failure result in different patterns of anticipated self-regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assimilation of the knowledgeable newcomer under conditions of group success and failure.

"It was proposed that a new member may be perceived as either a resource or as an unwelcome source of disruption, depending upon the needs of the group… . [and] it was hypothesized that a newcomer is accepted more readily by a group with a history of failure than by a successful group." Hypotheses supported and meaning of results discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group creativity under conditions of success or failure and variations in group stability.

This study deals with the creativity of groups with a history of success or failure followed by 4 variations of group stability: the addition, replacement, or removal of a member, and a control condition in which the original group composition was maintained. Following an induction of group success or failure, 1 of the 3 variations of group composition change or the control condition was effected. The 64 experimental groups were initially composed of either 2, 3, or 4 persons, depending upon the experimental conditions; but following the stability conditions, all groups were comprised of 3 persons. The creativity task involved composing as many captions for a Saturday Evening Post cartoon as possible within a given time limit. The results indicate (p     

Hope of success and fear of failure as aspects of need for achievement.

3 classes of Swarthmore freshmen were given a level-of-aspiration questionnaire designed to give an independent measure of the hope of success (HS) and fear of failure (FF) continuum. The relations between this measure and total n Achievement and various n Achievement subscores were investigated. The findings were: "(a) Students at the extremes of the continuum have lower n Achievement scores than students in the middle of the continuum. (b) In terms of positive subscores (goal imagery) on the n Achievement measure, the extremes have higher scores than subjects in the middle of the HS-FF continuum. (c) In terms of negative subscores (deprivation imagery) the middle group tends to score more highly in the extremes." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Size estimation of pictures associated with success and failure as a function of manifest anxiety.

"An experiment was performed to test the hypothesis that the size of a picture associated with failure would be overestimated relative to that of a picture associated with success and control pictures primarily by Ss with high scores on the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale… . The results showed that, in accordance with the hypothesis, high MAS Ss significantly overestimated the size of the failure picture… but the low MAS group showed an insignificant trend in the opposite direction. In addition, it was shown that the 'psychological' anxiety items of the Taylor scale related significantly to the success-failure difference in size estimation, but the 'somatic' items did not." From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2HK57Z. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of success and failure on the discrimination learning of normal and retarded children.

30 normal and 30 retarded children learned a 3-choice size discrimination following exposure to experimental tasks under conditions of success, failure, or neutrality. Both normal and retarded children learned more quickly following success and failure than under the neutral condition. In a 2nd study, 32 normal and 32 retarded children learned the same criterion task under success or failure conditions. Here, both success and failure again facilitated the performance of both normal and retarded Ss. Also, social responsivity interacted with intelligence and exeprimental conditions in influencing the children's learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Causal attribution for success and failure: A multivariate investigation of dimensionality, formation, and consequences.

The dimensions underlying causal attributions for success and failure, the influence of various informational cues on attributions along the dimensions, and the consequences of such attributions were investigated using a 3-mode factor analytic technique (PARAFAC; parallel factors) developed by R. Harshman (1976). Hypothetical cases describing high school students' performance on a university entrance exam and in high school, the performance of others on the exam, and the importance of the exam were presented to 193 male undergraduates in a within-Ss design. The students were described as male to half of the Ss and as female to the other half. Ss judged how strongly each of 9 possible causes (e.g., ability, preparation) may have influenced performance on the exam. Ratings of perceived satisfaction and expectancy of future success were also obtained. Results reveal 3 factors corresponding to and supporting the stability, locus, and control dimensions proposed by B. Weiner (1974; also, see record 1984-08688-001). Attributions along these dimensions were influenced primarily by consistency, consensus, and incentive information, respectively. Ratings of expectancy and satisfaction were in turn related to the stability and controllability of the perceived causes. (49 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships between hope of success and fear of failure, anxiety, and need for achievement.

2 previous investigations (Clark, et al, 1956, and Atkinson, 1958) found contradictory results in using degree of aspiration to predict S's response to McClelland's TAT of need for achievement (N Achiev). Clark, et al concluded that degree of aspiration would be negatively related to development of anxiety; that those who hoped for success (HS) and those who feared failure (FF) were genotypically different with regard to anxiety over goal attainment but phenotypically similar in regard to N Achiev. Atkinson concluded the reverse. To settle the dispute, Taylor MA scale was administered along with selected TAT cards to college Ss. No relationship was found between the HS-FF continuum and TAT scores, suggesting that the position of Clark, et al, was more correct. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4HJ65R. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-description as a predictor of success or failure in foreign service clerical jobs.

In attempting to predict success or failure in various clerical jobs in the Foreign Service, how useful are responses to questions about attitudes, interests, activities, and family background? From Spring 1954 to December 1956 1183 questionnaires were collected from clerical employees. For each of these employees numerical ratings, length of service and, for those who had terminated, reasons for leaving were determined. "Seven behavioral elements which related to ways of responding to authority, ways for dealing with people, and level of use of intellect appeared to be suggested by the data. It seems likely that the effectiveness of the questionnaire can be improved by redesigning it specifically to measure the behavioral style and capability elements which have emerged from this study." From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2LD16W. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trait reappraisal amplifies subjective defeat, sadness, and negative affect in response to failure versus success in nonclinical and psychosis populations.

Perceptions of defeat have been linked to a range of clinical disorders including psychosis. Perceived defeat sometimes increases in response to failure, but the strength of this association varies between individuals. The present research investigated whether trait reappraisal, a thought-focused coping style, amplified response to stressful events. Two studies (Study 1, n = 120 nonclinical participants; Study 2, n = 77 participants with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders) investigated whether trait reappraisal amplified feelings of defeat following an experience of failure versus success. Frequent reappraisers showed the largest increases in subjective defeat after failure versus success in both studies, with nonclinical participants with greater habitual reappraisal also showing larger increases in sadness and general negative affect. Frequent use of reappraisal may confer vulnerability to subjective defeat in response to stressful life events among nonclinical and clinical populations and could be an area for relapse prevention interventions to target. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early cessation success or failure among women attempting to quit smoking: Trajectories and volatility of urge and negative mood during the first postcessation week.

Aversive symptoms of abstinence from nicotine have been posited to lead to smoking relapse and research on temporal patterns of abstinence symptoms confirms this assumption. However, little is known about the association of symptom trajectories early after quitting with postcessation smoking or about the differential effects of tonic (background) versus phasic (temptation-related) symptom trajectories on smoking status. The current study examined trajectories of urge and negative mood among 300 women using the nicotine patch during the first postcessation week. Ecological momentary assessments collected randomly and during temptation episodes were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling yielding four individual trajectory parameters: intercept (initial symptom level), linear slope (direction and rate of change), quadratic coefficient (curvature), and volatility (scatter). Early lapsers, who lapsed during the first postcessation week, exhibited more severe tonic urge and phasic negative mood immediately after quitting, and more volatile tonic and phasic urge compared to abstainers. Late lapsers, who were abstinent during the first week but lapsed by 1 month, exhibited more severe tonic urge immediately after quitting compared to abstainers. These results demonstrate the importance of early postcessation urge and negative affect and highlight the value of examining both tonic and phasic effects of abstinence from nicotine. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Antecedents and consequences of mothers' autonomy support: An experimental investigation.

This study examined the effects of contextual and individual differences on mothers' autonomy support versus control on homeworklike tasks. Sixty mothers and their third-grade children worked on map and poem tasks, with mothers in either an ego-involving (high pressure) or a non-ego-involving (low pressure) condition. Later, children worked on similar tasks themselves. Mothers in the high-pressure condition were more controlling on the poem task. For the map task, mothers who came in with controlling styles and received the high-pressure manipulation were most controlling. Children whose mothers interacted in a more controlling manner wrote less creative poems when alone. Results suggest the importance of context, children's competence levels, and mothers' styles in determining levels of autonomy support. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attachment, motivations, and alcohol: Testing a dual-path model of high-risk drinking and adverse consequences in transitional clinical and student samples.

The purpose of this study was to replicate and extend a motivational model of high-risk drinking and alcohol-related consequences (Cooper, Frone, Russell, & Mudar, 1995; Read, Wood, Kahler, Maddock, & Palfai, 2003), testing the notion that attachment is a common antecedent for both the affective and social paths to problem drinking, defined in terms of 2 dimensions; high-risk drinking and alcohol-related consequences. First-year university students (N = 696), and first-time clients at an addiction treatment facility (N = 213) completed questionnaires assessing alcohol use, alcohol-related consequences, drinking motives, and attachment style. Results underscored the importance of the affective path to drinking patterns and to vulnerability to problems. Results also found that those with higher levels of attachment anxiety were more vulnerable to experiencing adverse consequences related to their drinking. These findings emphasise the importance of attachment styles as a risk factor for high-risk drinking and experiencing alcohol-related consequences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How the rich (and happy) get richer (and happier): Relationship of core self-evaluations to trajectories in attaining work success.

In this study, the authors linked core self-evaluations to job and work success. Utilizing a dynamic design from participants in the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY79), core self-evaluations were hypothesized to predict individuals' intercepts (starting levels of success), and their growth trajectories (slope of individuals' success over time) with respect to job satisfaction, pay, and occupational status. Results indicated that higher core self-evaluations were associated with both higher initial levels of work success and steeper work success trajectories. Education and health problems that interfere with work mediated a portion of the hypothesized relationships, suggesting that individuals with high core self-evaluations have more ascendant jobs and careers, in part, because they are more apt to pursue further education and maintain better health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Widowhood and illness: A comparison of social network characteristics in France, Germany, Japan, and the United States.

This study examined social network characteristics of adults aged 70 to 90 years in relation to widowhood and illness in France, Germany, Japan, and the United States. Participants were drawn from representative samples from each of the 4 countries (total N?=?1,331). Resource deficit profiles based on whether respondents were widowed, ill, both, or neither were directly related to social network characteristics for German and Japanese adults, were differentially related by gender and age for French adults, and were not related to social networks of Americans. Country, gender, and age differences in total network size, proportion of close network members, and frequency of contact with network members are reported. Similarities and differences found in the associations between normative late-life deficits and social network characteristics in the 4 countries point to the importance of investigating sociocultural factors that mediate the impact of resource loss and afford life quality in very old age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting success in college: A longitudinal study of achievement goals and ability measures as predictors of interest and performance from freshman year through graduation.

The authors examined the role of achievement goals, ability, and high school performance in predicting academic success over students' college careers. First, the authors examined which variables predicted students' interest and performance in an introductory psychology course taken their first semester in college. Then, the authors followed students until they graduated to examine continued interest in psychology and performance in subsequent classes. Achievement goals, ability measures, and prior high school performance each contributed unique variance in predicting initial and long-term outcomes, but these predictors were linked to different educational outcomes. Mastery goals predicted continued interest, whereas performance-approach goals predicted performance. Ability measures and prior high school performance predicted academic performance but not interest. The findings support a multiple goals perspective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Autopsy of a failure: Evaluating process and contextual issues in an organizational-level work stress intervention.

The difficulties associated with the evaluation of organizational-level work stress interventions are notorious yet little attention has been paid to the reasons why they fail. This case study took place in a department of 205 employees from a private company where an intervention was developed but poorly implemented. This paper scrutinizes the intervention to understand why it was poorly implemented and examine its effects on employees. Qualitative data (field notes and interviews with managers) was used to evaluate the intervention. Questionnaires (n = 125, n = 94, 60 full-completers) were used to evaluate the level of implementation and its effects. Results suggest partial implementation might have a detrimental effect on commitment. Poor implementation could be accounted for by the changing organizational context, low ownership of stakeholders, and flaws in the intervention design. Considering the process and context of interventions is essential to understand their effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)