Fear of success, as traditionally measured by Horner's projective medical school cue and as measured by Pappo's Fear of Success Questionnaire, was examined in an exploratory attempt at validating the fear of success construct. Sixty-eight male and 119 female undergraduates were administered a battery of tests designed to measure fear of success, sex-role stereotypes and orientation, achievement motivation, and affiliative needs. Males wrote more fear of success stories than did females. The two measures of fear of success did not correlate with each other, and correlated only weakly with some of the other variables from a sex role stereotyping questionnaire and the Wellesley Role Orientation Scale. The hypothesis that the conflict between achievement and affiliative needs leads to fear of success was not substantiated. Since the construct and its measures appeared to be weak, further directions for research are indicated. (Author/CTM)