ABSTRACT
As is clear from preceding discussion, failure-avoidant strategies arise as a result of a perceived threat to self-esteem. Situations of intellectual evaluative threat can be created by an array of factors. These include new or somewhat unfamiliar learning tasks or environments, rising or ambiguous demands on the part of teachers and achievement tasks which students assess as beyond their capacity to attain. The list can, of course, be extended at length. Any and all situations which challenge self-worth through diminished self-estimates of ability constitute circumstances of evaluative threat.
