Making sense of failure: learning or defence? a study of how individuals interpret their personal failures based on the recollected experiences of business people, professionals, artists and athletes

Cannon, David (1995) Making sense of failure: learning or defence? a study of how individuals interpret their personal failures based on the recollected experiences of business people, professionals, artists and athletes. Doctoral thesis, University of London: London Business School.

Abstract

The thesis focuses on the process of how individuals respond to and report to learn from past experiences of failure. Using the case study method, in-depth interviews were conducted with two samples: a diverse sample of 28 individuals from business, the professions, the arts and athletics, and a sample of 14 accountant trainees who had recently failed the same senior level professional examination. The study found that memories of failure were accessible, vivid, detailed and charged with negative affect corroborating established memory theory. The common goal of subjects in reviewing their past setbacks was the prevention of similar painful events happening in the future. To gain a sense of future control people assumed some blame for the past failure. This took the form of a self-critical response (Bandura 1991) or negative selfreaction that was found to be independent of the assignment of attribution for cause (Weiner 1986). Three types of self-critical responses were identified and employed as negative seif-motivators in a process of self-regulation. Negative self-reaction responses were used by subjects to reinforce associated learning responses aimed at preventing subsequent failure. Rotter's (1966) construct of locus of control and the personality dimension of Neuroticism (Costa and McCrae 1991) demonstrated promise as predictors of failure response patterns. The results suggest that individuals are cognitively biased in the way in which they interpret past setbacks and that people may be predisposed to remember specific types of personal failures. Differences in patterns of negative self-reaction were found to be associated with differences in the amount and type of reported learning. It is argued that self-knowledge of the nature of one's interpretive response to recalled failure would allow for compensation and facilitate learning helpful to self-development and objective assessment of past performance at individual and group levels.