Fear of failure, a common experience for humans, is defined as the fear of lacking the ability to achieve goals or demonstrate competence (p. 1). In order to quantify individuals’ fear of failure, Conroy et al. (2002) developed a system, called Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory (PFAI). Through their study, Henschel & Iffland (2021) adapted and validated the original scale in German.

PFAI assesses fear of failure through five criterias that result from potential failure: 1) experiencing shame and embarrassment, 2) fear of devaluing one’s self-estimate, 3) fear of having an uncertain future, 4) fear of important others losing interest, 5) fear of upsetting important others.

25 items measuring five of the critieras were selected and translated into German from the original PFAI. The items were formatted as statements, which asked participants to rate the extent to which they agreed with them, from 1 being does not apply at all to 5 being completely true. The finalized list of statements were published and completed by 326 university students.

Validity and reliability were measured through various statistical methods, and results demonstrated “satisfactory to excellent levels of internal consistences” (p. 4). There were moderate correlations between PFAI’s subscales. It can be seen as a promising measure for assessing anticipated fear of failing in academic settings.

PFAI is a relevant concept to EPIC. Understanding how much students fear failure allows us to better understand the diverse and individualized failure experiences that students encounter, as well as the impacts of failure on students’ learning endeavors.

To read the article in more detail, retrieve it at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/2698-1866/a000018.

Reference:

Henschel, C. & Iffland, B. (2021). Measuring Fear of Failure: Validation of a German Version of the Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory. Psychological Test Adaptation and Development. https://doi.org/10.1027/2698-1866/a000018.