Psychological Monographs: General and Applied - Failure-Avoidance in Situational Interpretation and Problem Solving - Harold M. Schroder and David E. Hunt

Sep 21, 2026

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Failure-avoidance is examined as a defensive process operating under negative situational conditions. The study focuses on how personality-related constructs and problem-solving responses relate when individuals face failure and criticism, treating situational variance as central to interpretation and adjustment. The authors justify using failure and criticism conditions both experimentally and as conditional items within personality measures, arguing that accounting for the psychological situation clarifies prior difficulties in explaining interindividual differences in problem solving.

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Psychological Monographs: General and Applied

Failure-Avoidance in Situational Interpretation and Problem Solving

I. The Problem

Pychologicalonographs No.4321957 eneral and AppliedVol.7IPrice $1.00No.3Edited by Herbert S.Conrad Schroder and Hunt | Failure-Avoidance in Situational Interpre-
tation and Problem Solving
By
Harold M.Schroder
Princeton University
and
David E.Hunt
Yale University | | --- | Published by The American Psychological Association,Inc. # Psychological Monographs:General and Applied Combining the Applied Psychology Monographs and the Archives of Psychologywith the Psychological Monographs HERBERT S.CONRAD,EditorDepartment of Health,Education,and WelfareOffice of EducationWashington 25,D.C. Consulting Editors DoNALD E.BAIERHAROLD E.JONESFRANK A.BEACHDONALD W.MACKINNONRoBERT G.BERNREUTERLORRIN A.RIGGSWILLIAM A.BROWNELLCARL R.ROGERSHAROLD E.BURTTSAUL ROSENZWEIGJERRY W.CARTER,JR.Ross STAGNERCLYDE H.CoOMBSPERCIVAL M.SYMONDSJoHN F.DASHIELLJOSEPH TIFFINEUGENIA HANFMANNLEDYARD R TuCKEREDNA HEIDBREDERJoSEPH ZUBIN ARTHUR C.HoFFMAN,Managing EditorHELEN ORR,Assistant Managing EditorEditorial Staff:FRANCES HAZEL,BARBARA CUMMINGS,SADIE J.DOYLE MANUSCRIPTS should be sent to the Editor. Because of lack of space,the Psychological Monographs can print only the originalor advanced contribution of the author.Background and bibliographic materialsmust,in general,be totally excluded or kept to an irreducible minimum.Statisticaltables should be used to present only the most important of the statistical data orevidence. The first page of the manuscript should contain the title of the paper,the author'sname,and his institutional connection (or his city of residence).Acknowledgmentsshould be kept brief,and appear as a footnote on the first page.No table of contentsneed be included.For other directions or suggestions on the preparation of manu-scripts,see:CoNRAD,H.S.Preparation of manuscripts for publication as mono-graphs.J.Psychol.,1948,26,447-459. CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING BUSINESS MATTERS(such as subscriptions and sales,change of address,etc.)should be addressed to the American Psychological Associa-tion,Inc.,1333 Sixteenth St.N.W.,Washington 6,D.C.Address changes must arriveby the 1oth of the month to take effect the following month.Undelivered copiesresulting from address changes will not be replaced;subscribers should notify thepost office that they will guarantee third-class forwarding postage. CoPYRIGHT,1957,BY THE AMERICAN PsYCHOLOGICAL AssOCIATION,INC. # Failure-Avoidance in Situational Interpretation andProblem Solving¹ HAROLD M.SCHRODERANDDAVID E.HUNTPrinceton UniversityYale University with the collaboration of JoHN McDAVID,JR.,Princeton University ceptualize such reactions:stress toler-ance,frustration tolerance,ego strength,and tolerance for ambiguity.It is im-plicitly assumed in the use of such con-structs that a person's inability to copewith environmental adversity is moreor less central to many adjustment prob-lems;such an assumption is explicitlysupported in the repeated incidencenoted in case histories of a negative con-dition in the patient's life situation pre-cipitating a breakdown in adjustment.Therefore,we felt justified in our selec-tion of failure and criticism conditionsfor study,and have accordingly employedthese situational conditions not only asexperimentally induced conditions,butalso as conditional items in personalitymeasures.2 Such a restriction of condi-tional (or situational)variance representsour agreement with Rotter(19)on theimportance of taking account of,and ifpossible controlling,the psychologicalsituation.It is not unlikely that much ofthe previous difficulty in accounting forinterindividual variance in problem solv-ing by the use of personality instruments # I.THE PROBLEM mHE IMPORTANCE of understandingI the relationship between personalityfactors and problem-solving behavior hasrecently become apparent(4,10,18).The purpose of the present study was toinvestigate several hypotheses concern-ing the relationship beween personalityand problem-

FAQs

What is the main purpose of the study?

To investigate hypotheses about the relationship between personality factors and problem-solving factors under negative conditions.

How do the authors define avoidance in this work?

Avoidance refers to behavior or interpretation directed away from a situational event, such as withdrawing from a task after performing poorly under failure.

Why are failure and criticism conditions used in the research?

They are used to study failure-avoidance reactions as both experimentally induced conditions and as conditional items in personality measures, supporting the importance of controlling the psychological situation.

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Liam