Sport and Exercise Psychology Review - Sport Psychology Goes to ...

Beyond the dichotomous model of
achievement goals in sport and exercise
psychology:
Comment on Elliot and Conroy (2005)
Christopher M. Spray & Richard J. Keegan
IN THE PREVIOUS issue of Sport & Exercise Psychology
Review, Elliot and Conroy (2005)
presented a case for sport and exercise psychology
researchers to move beyond the
dichotomous model of achievement goals in
their conceptual and empirical work. They
outlined key distinctions between the dichotomous
and trichotomous frameworks
before introducing the more recently developed
2 x 2 achievement goal model. Theoretical
advantages of the 2 x 2 framework
were discussed, before concluding with
applicability considerations of the framework
in sport and exercise settings. Elliot
and Conroy stated that the value of the
expanded 2 x 2 model in these settings
remains a relatively open empirical question
(p. 21). In this brief article, we would like to
highlight several issues that stem from Elliot
and Conroy’s paper, drawing from our own
empirical endeavours to examine the
model’s value. These issues centre on a) level
of analysis, b) goal climate, c) relationships
among goals, and d) the mastery-avoidance
goal.
Level of analysis
Elliot and Conroy (2005) stated that achievement
goals have been studied at the ‘here
and now’ level (involvement), at the dispositional
level (orientation), and at the situational
level (climate) (p. 17). Their article,
they suggested, focussed essentially on states
of goal involvement, although references
were frequently made to the term ‘goal
adoption’. Sport and exercise psychologists
will probably be less familiar with this term,
as research utilising achievement goal theory
has primarily examined goal orientations
with some, albeit limited, attention paid to
goal involvement. Goal adoption refers to
moment-to-moment goals, as well as to goals
that individuals may report pursuing in a
specific context such as an exercise class e.g.,
“in my exercise class it is important to me to
perform as well as I possibly can”. These context-specific
goals, however, are situationally
and temporally specific, and are not conceived
as dispositional tendencies or goal
orientations. In the educational psychology
literature, studies have mainly focussed on
context-specific goals rather than momentto-moment
competence-relevant concerns.
More work is required in both educational
and physical activity settings to examine the
situational dynamics that lead to momentary
switches in avoidance and approach forms of
achievement striving (for an example in
sport, see Gernigon, d’Arripe-Longueville,
Delignieres & Ninot, 2004). To avoid ambiguity,
it is important that sport and exercise
psychologists explicate their conceptualisation
of the level of analysis of the goal construct
in their research (and that they
employ measurement tools consistent with
this conceptualisation).
Goal climate
With respect to the level of analysis of the
goal construct, Elliot and Conroy (2005)
advocate the integration of the approachavoidance
distinction within investigations
of situationally-emphasised achievement
goals (p. 17). Current measures of per-
Sport & Exercise Psychology Review Vol 1 No 2 47