Fear of Failure
Fear of Failure as It Relates to Sports
Christopher Butler
Psyc 312
Sagar, S. S., Lavallee, D (2010).
The developmental origins of fear of failure in adolescent athletes: Examining parental practices, Psychology of Sport and Exercise 1-11.
Sager et al. (2010) examined the origins of Fear of Failure (FF) in adolescent adults. They did this by examining how parent socialization and child interaction play a part in the development of FF in a child. Three families with adolescent athletes ages 13-14 were tested. The parents and the athletes were all interviewed separately and individually three times over a period of a month. The first interview was just for background information. The second interview examined the parents’ and athletes’ aspirations, attitudes, and achievement beliefs. The third interview was broken into three parts. The first part examined past experiences of success and failure and their reactions to it. The second part of the interview examined how parents evaluated their child’s performance and then how they conveyed approval or disapproval to the child. The final part of the interview examined the interaction between parents and athlete before the competition, during competition, and after competition. The results showed that parental practices and behavior were divided into three categories: parental punitive behavior, parental controlling behavior, and parental high expectations. Parental punitive behavior included parental criticism, parental punishment, and parental threat. Parental controlling behavior included attending daily training, engaging in competition preparation, and attending competitions. Parental high expectations included having a good attitude, showing good sportsmanship, and performing well.
This study did a good job of explaining the effect that parents have on children’s motivation. According to the research parents can either motivate or tear down the child’s self esteem to the point where they no longer want
Christopher Butler
Psyc 312
Sagar, S. S., Lavallee, D (2010).
The developmental origins of fear of failure in adolescent athletes: Examining parental practices, Psychology of Sport and Exercise 1-11.
Sager et al. (2010) examined the origins of Fear of Failure (FF) in adolescent adults. They did this by examining how parent socialization and child interaction play a part in the development of FF in a child. Three families with adolescent athletes ages 13-14 were tested. The parents and the athletes were all interviewed separately and individually three times over a period of a month. The first interview was just for background information. The second interview examined the parents’ and athletes’ aspirations, attitudes, and achievement beliefs. The third interview was broken into three parts. The first part examined past experiences of success and failure and their reactions to it. The second part of the interview examined how parents evaluated their child’s performance and then how they conveyed approval or disapproval to the child. The final part of the interview examined the interaction between parents and athlete before the competition, during competition, and after competition. The results showed that parental practices and behavior were divided into three categories: parental punitive behavior, parental controlling behavior, and parental high expectations. Parental punitive behavior included parental criticism, parental punishment, and parental threat. Parental controlling behavior included attending daily training, engaging in competition preparation, and attending competitions. Parental high expectations included having a good attitude, showing good sportsmanship, and performing well.
This study did a good job of explaining the effect that parents have on children’s motivation. According to the research parents can either motivate or tear down the child’s self esteem to the point where they no longer want