Pressure to succeed may run in the family

With the influx of people filling up tables in campus coffee shops during the day, or in the study sessions suggested by dormitory lights late into the night, the fear of failure is palpable again at UCLA as students get back to their routines.

Experts of clinical psychology at UCLA say fear of failure affects some cultural groups more than others, but that the feeling is a normal one that can enhance performance.

People have varying degrees of the fear of failure for reasons that are part biological and part environmental, explained Raphael Rose, an assistant professor of clinical psychology. Some of these environmental factors include anxiety concerning success, competition and status, coming from a successful family or cultural expectations.

These culture-specific expectations affect Asian American students more than European American students, said Anna Lau, an assistant professor of clinical psychology. She said Asian Americans generally report higher levels of fear of failure, perfectionism and maladaptive perfectionism than their European American counterparts in ethnic comparison studies.

Lau said the fear of failure for Asian American students often translates into more effort put into schoolwork, where as the same cannot necessarily be said for European American students.

“On one level this might be helpful, but it might be risky also,” said Lau.

The reasons for this disparity can be linked to parental pressure for achievement, she said. As they are often first-generation college students coming from immigrant families, Asian American students fear failure in ways that go beyond concern for individual success, said Lau.

“Many parents undertake immigration primarily for educational opportunities,” she said. “There is a lot of investment in these kids going to school.”

The feeling of responsibility to others is something Bernard Weiner, a professor of psychology, said can cause burdens and impede motivation.

“If you think others are dependant on you, the whole situation becomes more important,” he said.

Ancy Cherian, a professor of clinical psychology and a counselor at the Counseling and Psychological Services Center (CAPS) at UCLA said certain environmental and cultural situational factors reinforce the problems associated with anxiety.

However, she said it would be hard to say there are more incidences in the Asian American population on campus due to the fact that there are more Asian American students on campus in general. The bottom line is that fear of failure is a common experience across the board, she said.

“It’s a normal thing to be afraid of failure, but when it begins to consume one’s thoughts, that’s when you want to step in and help someone manage those fears differently,” said Cherian.

The main indication that normal and healthy concern for one’s success has become problematic lies in how much the fear of failure prevents individuals from getting things done, and how much their level of anxiety bothers them, said Cherian.

The physiological responses associated with anxiety include feelings of panic, heart palpitations, changes in breathing, body temperature and perspiration and the inability to think clearly, said Cherian. She said people are either immobilized by these feelings or are able to use them to take step-by-step action.

“We would want to help them regulate the emotional aspect of their thinking to get a more balanced way of looking at a solution,” said Cherian.

Research shows that one needs at least a moderate level of such physiological arousal in order achieve success, said Rose.

“Anxiety is essential for us as people as it motivates us; it is normal adaptive-level anxiety that causes us to meet our deadlines,” said Cherian.

Counselors like Cherian are available to teach students awareness on what causes their negative responses to stress and to help them break down these patterns in their behavior. Cherian said this process often reduces the physiological symptoms of anxiety.

“This kind of fear of failure is very treatable,” said Cherian.