Psychological Responses to Failure in Impossible Tasks

Abstract

Failure is a universal experience in academic, personal, and professional settings. It can lead individuals to avoid tasks, withdraw effort, or reframe challenges depending on their psychological resources. Previous research has examined both the consequences of failure (such as changes in affect and performance) and the factors that predict responses to failure (including self-efficacy, coping, anxiety, and working memory). However, most studies rely on solvable tasks where failure is uncertain, making it difficult to guarantee failure. The current project aims to address this gap by examining how self-efficacy, coping, anxiety, and working memory predict individuals’ affective and behavioral responses to failure in the context of an intentionally impossible task. Findings from this study have important implications for both research and applied settings. Research implications include identifying how multiple psychological factors jointly influence failure responses, clarifying theoretical models of motivation, emotion regulation, and cognitive interference, and supporting the use of impossible-task paradigms in future studies. Applied implications extend to educational, clinical, and performance-based environments, where understanding predictors of resilience can guide interventions aimed at strengthening adaptive coping, enhancing self-efficacy, and reducing anxiety in individuals who routinely encounter challenging or evaluative tasks