This research attempted to replicate the behavioral and nonbehavioral aspects of Horner's fear of success work, using preadolescent males and females as participants. It aimed to determine at what point in chronological development motive-to-avoid-success imagery in projective stories was related to performance decrements in competitive situations, and to investigate sex-related differences in this relationship and in types of imagery expressed. Participants were 386 white, middle-class students (196 males and 190 females) in the 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 11th grades in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Participants were volunteers from classes of those teachers who were interested in participating in the study. The data were collected in conjunction with Carol Smokler between November, 1972, and February, 1973. Five verbal projective story cues (Thematic Apperception Test, TAT, cues adapted from Horner, 1968) were given to students in their classrooms. They also performed a series of scrambled word tasks under five different experimental conditions: nonexplicit competitive group, competitive group, same sex competitive, opposite sex competitive, and noncompetitive alone. Participants were given a modified version of the Broverman et al. (1972) Sex Role Questionnaire; and a 20-minute structured interview regarding future plans (i.e., college, marriage, career, etc.), parental expectations, siblings, friends, best things about the self, and females' attitudes toward women's liberation. Typed TATs, raw data, and coding sheets are available. Some of the raw data have been subsequently coded by Abigail Stewart and other Murray Center staff members as part of a project funded by the Grant Foundation and are available in computer-accessible format as well. Ratliff's (1979) follow-up of this sample is housed at the Murray Center (see Ratliff, A555).
