Homer has stated that the motive to avoid success ("fear of success") is increased in females who are forced to compete with males, and she has suggested that ...
Journal of Educational Psychology 1974, Vol. 66, No. 5, 726-730
IMPACT OF COEDUCATION ON "FEAR OF SUCCESS" IMAGERY EXPRESSED BY MALE AND FEMALE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS1 RONALD WINCHEL, DIANE FENNER, AND PHILLIP SHAVER2 Columbia University Homer has stated that the motive to avoid success ("fear of success") is increased in females who are forced to compete with males, and she has suggested that coeducation is detrimental to females' academic performance. In the present study, 240 male and female high school seniors were tested for fear of success, some while attending coed and some while attending noncoed high schools. The kind of elementary school the subjects had attended, coed or noncoed, was also recorded. Results indicated that (a) both male and female subjects expressed more negative themes when writing stories about a successful female than when writing about a similarly successful male; (b) the coed versus noncoed distinction was a potent predictor of fear of success response in female subjects, especially at the elementary school level; and (c) when negative consequences of success were mentioned, they were usually social or amliative if the successful figure in the story was female and nonaffiliative if the figure was male. Theoretical and practical implications were briefly discussed.
Ann finds herself at the top of her medical school class." A majority of her subjects, over 65%, portrayed Ann as anxious or guilty or predicted that Ann's success would have unpleasant consequences, such as loss of femininity or social rejection. In a comparable group of male subjects, responding to a cue describing "John" rather than "Ann" as the successful medical student, less than 10% expressed negative themes. It was also found that females who expressed fear of success on the projective measure performed worse in a competitive than in a noncompetitive situation, whereas most of the males and the minority of females who did not show fear of success performed better under competitive conditions. Because Horner gave the John cue only to males and the Ann cue only to females, it was impossible to determine whether 1 The authors gratefully acknowledge the co- negative responses were due to sex of suboperation of the Yeshiva University High Schools, ject (suggesting fear and conflict peculiar Brooklyn, and the Joel Braverman Yeshiva High to females) or to sex of the actor in the cue School, Brooklyn. (suggesting that males and females hold 2 Requests for reprints should be sent to Phillip common sex role stereotypes). Homer's Shaver, Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027. studies also left open many developmental 726 Recent studies reported by Homer (1970, 1972) have greatly increased our understanding of the motivational differences between American males and females in achievement situations. It had long been known that a large body of results and inferences concerning achievement motivation in males did not apply for some reason to females (e.g., Atkinson, 1958; French & Lesser, 1964; Lesser, Krawitz, & Packard, 1963; Veroff, Wilcox & Atkinson, 1953), but no adequate explanation had been formulated. Horner hypothesized that females are hampered by a form of anxiety, which she called "fear of success," that is uncommon in males. In order to measure fear of success, Horner asked female college students to tell a story based on the following projective cue: "After first-term finals,
COEDUCATION AND "FEAR OF SUCCESS"
and educational policy questions, as she herself pointed out (Horner, 1968, Chapter 4). A study by Monahan, Kuhn, and Shaver (1974) has addressed some of these questions. One hundred and twenty 10- to 16-year-old boys and girls responded to the John or Ann cue in a completely crossed design. Both sexes gave more negative responses to the Ann cue, indicating that sex role stereotypes are largely responsible for the "fear of success" imagery. There was also some evidence, however, that motivational differences were being tapped: Females often expressed anxiety and conflict in describing Ann's fate while the males often expressed hostility. The overall frequency of negative responses declined with age, contrary to a trend described by Horner (1972), and more "fear of success" was expressed in response to the John cue than Horner's study would lead one to expect. (This finding has been obtained in other recent investigations as well; see the review by Tresemer, 1973.) Horner's experimental results (1968, 1970) and subjects' answers to questions concerning competition convinced her that the "motive to avoid success" is aroused most strongly in competitive situations. Considering the prevailing sex roles and the emphasis on education as a means to "get ahead" in a competitive society, she speculated that the developmental trend toward greater fear of success in older college females was due to the increasingly significant competition for valued positions in academic and professional life. Consistent with this is her finding (Horner, 1972) that academically superior female students— those most capable of competing with males for professional positions—are more likely than their less able classmates to show fear of success. In several places, Horner has suggested that such findings may argue against the prevailing emphasis on coeducation, since coeducation increases the salience of cross-sex competition for academic and professional success. This possibility is especially important considering a recently released report from the Carnegie Commision on Higher Education (1973), Opportunities for Women in Higher Education.
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The report indicates that a high proportion of successful women come from noncoed colleges. Although this could be due partly to selective enrollment, there are reasons for believing that the experience of attending a women's college is partially responsible. In women's colleges, female students are not reluctant to participate actively in class discussion for fear of losing their feminine appeal in the eyes of male students. They have far greater opportunity to gain experience in leadership roles in campus organizations and activities than women in coeducational institutions, where the top leadership positions nearly always go to men [p. 73].
The report also notes that students in women's colleges are more likely to enter traditionally male fields, such as science, and are more likely to participate in athletics. The present study was designed to explore the development of fear of success a bit further, with particular emphasis on how such development is affected by coeducation. Male and female high school students from the same geographical area and from similar socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds were given either the Ann or the John cue as a measure of fear of success. Some of them were attending a coed high school and some were not. Moreover, part of each group had attended noncoed elementary schools.3 METHOD Subjects Two hundred and fifty-two high school seniors attending Jewish private schools in a middle- to upper-middle-class Brooklyn community completed the fear of success measure in the spring of 1973. After the measure had been taken, each subject was asked what he or she thought the study was about (Horner's work had been discussed in national periodicals that were potentially available to the subjects). Twelve people were eliminated before analyses were performed because they were aware of the purpose of the measure. The number of males and females in each school and cue category is shown in Table 1. Procedure Subjects completed the fear of success measure in their classrooms after being assured that 8 In this paper, "elementary school" refers to Grades 1 through 8.
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the results would be seen only by researchers at Columbia University and not by the subjects' teachers. Some received booklets containing the John cue, others received the Ann cue. An attempt was made to equate the number of males and females in each condition, but this was not always successful. All instructions were given in written form. These asked the subject to "write a story" based on the following sentence: After first term finals, Ann (John) finds herself (himself) at the top of her (his) medical school class. "You should tell (a) what has happended in the past that led up to this; (b) what Ann (John) thinks about this; (c) what will happen to Ann (John) in the future." Each subject was given as much time as necessary. After completing a story, each subject answered the question mentioned previously about the probable purpose of the study. All protocols were adequate for scoring and, with the exception of those from the 12 nonnaive subjects, all were included in the analyses (N = 240).
Scoring The initial scoring procedure was identical to Homer's (1970, p. 59). If a protocol expressed an overall positive attitude toward the achievement and toward the actor, it was scored as positive. If it indicated any negative attitudes toward the achievement or the actor or specified negative consequences of the achievement, it was scored as negative. Two raters, one male and one female, scored the protocols independently, agreeing in 96% of the cases. They also divided the negative responses into two categories (agreeing in 93% of the cases): affiliative concerns (e.g., marriage, loss of friends, loss of feminine attractiveness) and nonaffiliative concerns (e.g., monetary considerations, dissatisfaction with work load, claims that the success was due to cheating). All disagreements were easily resolved by discussion.
RESULTS The percentages of subjects whose protocols were assigned to the "fear of success" TABLE 1 PROPORTION OF SUBJECTS GIVING FEAR OF SUCCESS RESPONSES IN EACH SEX-SCHOOL-CUE CONDITION Ann cue
John cue
School/sex Proportion
Coed high school Females Males Noncoed high school Females Males
Proportion
9/22 12/39
40.9 30.8
4/17 2/23
23.5 8.7
6/38 9/33
15.8 27.3
2/34 4/34
5.9 11.8
TABLE 2 PROPORTION OF FEMALE SUBJECTS WHO SHOWED FEAR OF SUCCESS IN RESPONSE TO THE ANN CUE CLASSIFIED BY TYPES OF SCHOOLS ATTENDED High school Elementary school
Noncoed
Coed Proportion
%
Proportion
%
Noncoed
0/9
0
1/17
5.8
Coed
9/13
69.2
5/21
23.8
category are given in Table 1 for each condition. The results replicate Homer's basic finding: For each sex of subject and type of school category, the proportion of subjects showing fear of success is higher for the Ann cue than it is for the John cue (overall x2 = 8.71, df - 1, p < .005). Of special interest is the significant difference between the proportion of fear of success stories evoked by the Ann cue in females from coed schools and the corresponding proportion for females from noncoed schools (40.9% for the coed school, 15.8% for the noncoed school: x2 = 4.43, df = 1, p < .05; the corresponding percentages for males, 30.8% and 27.3%, are not significantly different). Further analyses (summarized in Table 2) revealed that in all but one case in which females responded negatively to the Ann cue, the subjects had attended a coed elementary school (x2 — 10.25, df = 1, p < .005) .4 Of the nine girls who attended a noncoed elementary school and a coed high school, none showed fear of success. Turning to the 34 girls who attended coed elementary schools, we find that the proportion showing fear of success was affected significantly by the kind of high school they attended (69.2% for the coed high school, 23.8% for the noncoed high school; x2 = 5.09, df = 1, p < .025). It might also be 4 One of the authors visited a kindergarten classroom in one of the coed elementary schools and found, in addition to distinct play areas for boys (blocks, planes, etc.) and girls (a model kitchen), two posters proclaiming (in pink) "what little girls are made of" (sugar and spice...) and (in blue) "what little boys are made of" (snails and puppy dog tails).
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COEDUCATION AND "FEAR OF SUCCESS"
noted that the figure of 69.2% is quite similar to the 65% obtained by Homer, most of whose subjects—students at the University of Michigan—had probably always attended coed schools. Finally, Table 3 shows the frequency with which negative responses to both Ann and John cues fell into affiliative or nonaffiliative categories as a function of sex of subject and type of school. It is evident that negative responses to the Ann cue from both male and female subjects fell primarily into the affiliative category (69.4%), while the reverse pattern obtained for the John cue (only 16.7% in the affiliative category). A 2 x 2 (Ann-John/affiliative-nonaffiliative) chi-square test indicates that the overall pattern is highly reliable (x2 = 8.15, df = l,p< .005). DISCUSSION The results are compatible with Homer's notion that increased cross-sex competition increases fear of success in females. It appears, however, that the motive is largely formed before a girl reaches high school and that females who have not learned to avoid success in the presence of male classmates in elementary school do not "fear success." For those who do attend coed elementary schools, fear of success is more common, and it appears to be increased by attendance at a coed high school. Obviously we must be cautious in generalizing from these results. The subject population may not be representative of all high school students. The measure of success avoidance was quite primitive; only after the study was completed did a more precise measuring system involving different cues and different scoring procedures become available (Homer, Tresemer, Berens, & Watson, 1973). Also, we cannot be completely certain that the results are due solely to school rather than home environment. We tried to rule out the effect of home by chosing schools that were as similar as possible while differing on the coed-noncoed dimension. The two high schools are only four blocks apart; the male and female sections of the noncoed school are located in adjacent buildings (although there is no contact between males and females during
TABLE 3 NUMBER OF SUBJECTS WITHIN EACH SEX-SCHOOLCUE CONDITION WHO GAVE AFFILIATIVE OR NONAFFILIATIVE FEAR OF SUCCESS RESPONSES John cue
Ann cue
School/sex Affiliative
Coed high school Females Males Noncoed high school Females Males
Nonaffili- Affiliaative tive
i
7
3 5
0
6 6
0 3
0
6
i
Nonaffiliative
3 2
1 4
the school day); the students at the two schools come from similar religious backgrounds, neighborhoods, social classes, and, in several cases, from the same families. In discussions with the principals of the two schools, we were unable to determine any systematic differences between families who chose to send their children to the different schools. Our results have both theoretical and practical implications. They indicate that developmental studies of fear of success should include preadolescent age groups and should treat school environment as an important variable. On the practical side, the results seem to argue for noncoed schools. Since there may be other arguments that favor coeducation, and considering that most schools in the country would not be likely to change their commitment to coeducation even if the present results proved reliable, it would be more realistic to try to design ways to reduce the motivational handicap developed by females under current arrangements. Some of the relevant issues, for example, the elimination of stereotypes commonly presented in textbooks and in physical education courses, have already been addressed by concerned students and their parents. These are undoubtedly only a beginning. REFERENCES Atkinson, J. W. (Ed.) Motives in fantasy, action, and society. Princeton, N.J.: Van Nostrand, 1958. Carnegie Commission on Higher Education. Op-
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•portunities for women in higher education. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973. French, E. G., & Lesser, G. S. Some characteristics of the achievement motive in women. Journal oj Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1964, 68, 119-128. Homer, M. S. Sex differences in achievement motivation and performance in competitive and non-competitive situations. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan, 1968. Horner, M. S. Femininity and successful achievement: A basic inconsistency. In J. Bardwick, E. M. Douvan, M. S. Horner, & D. Gutmann (Eds.), Feminine personality and conflict. Belmont, Calif.: Brooks-Cole, 1970. Horner, M. S. Toward an understanding of achievement-related conflicts in women. Journal of Social Issues, 1972, 28,157-175. Horner, M. S., Tresemer, D. W., Berens, A. E,. & Watson, R. I., Jr. Scoring manual for an empir-
ically derived scoring system for motive to avoid success. Unpublished monograph, Harvard University, 1973. Lesser, G. S., Krawitz, R., & Packard, R. Experimental arousal of achievement motivation in adolescent girls. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1963, 66, 59-66. Monohan, L., Kuhn, D., & Shaver, P. Intrapsychic versus cultural explanations of the "fear of success" motive. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1974, 29, 60-64. Tresemer, D. Fear of success: Popular, but unproven. In C. Tavris (Ed.), The female experience. Del Mar, Calif.: CRM Publishers, 1973. Veroff, J., Wilcox, S., & Atkinson, J. W. The achievement motive in high school and collegeage women. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1953, 48,103-119. (Received November 1, 1973)
