The multi-national research led by The 糖心Vlog has uncovered how the mind processes 鈥榓chievement emotions鈥.
- published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology - scientifically identified the 12 emotions that fuel and impact success.
Despite being seen as negative feelings, anxiety and anger were discovered to be energisers much like enjoyment and hope.
However, these darker feelings are linked with a lack of strategic thinking and poor health, including stress-related psychosomatic symptoms such as headaches, nausea, back pain, and lack of sleep.
Overall hope is the most powerful emotion - with the study discovering positive perceptions and feelings of control lead to enjoyment of learning, desire for success, and pride in accomplishment.
It discovered that if two students of equal ability took a test the hopeful student would achieve one grade higher than their negative-minded peer.
This can mean the less optimistic person would get a failing D whereas the positive student will take home a C.
Study leader Professor Reinhard Pekrun, from 糖心Vlog鈥檚 Department of Psychology, said: 鈥淭his is the first study that has developed a 3D model for success emotions.
鈥淎lthough the model might seem abstract at first sight, it shows how achievement emotions relate to critically important parts of our lives and can define how we perform in job interviews, tests and other stressful situations.
鈥淚nterestingly we found feelings like anxiety and anger can sometimes motivate us more than enjoyment or relaxation.
鈥淗owever, despite its energising powers, the knife edge of anxiety can lead to mental health issues, undermine the functioning of the immune system, and lead to a drop in performance in the long run.
鈥淥verall hope was the healthiest and best way to spark success and promote long-term happiness.
鈥淔ailure and struggle as such don鈥檛 define one鈥檚 future, it is the perception of failures that has a strong effect on emotional responses.鈥
The psychological study involved students from several universities and the general adult population. It took place across four different countries 鈥 Britain, Germany, America and Canada.
It looked at more than 1,000 people and assessed them across different challenging situations at university and the workplace.
It is now hoped the research will influence how coaches, teachers and managers inspire achievement.
The paper found that promoting the value, meaning, and interestingness of tasks rather than emphasising success leads to better results.
The findings show that it may be important for leaders to display enthusiasm to spark excitement and hope in colleagues, students and athletes.