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

Christopher M. Spray & Richard J. Keegan
ceived motivational climate in sport and
physical education do not exclusively focus
on the promotion of competence (defined
in mastery or performance terms) by significant
social agents. For example, ‘perceived
important role’ (mastery climate)
and ‘unequal recognition’ (performance
climate) are two climate dimensions that
do not centre on competence explicitly.
Nevertheless, we argue that these dimensions
are important components of the
‘perceived climate’ and will influence goal
adoption.
Those dimensions of climate that appear
to be competence-based such as ‘effort/
improvement’ (mastery) and ‘out performing
others’ (performance) have been
conceptualised within the definition component
of competence and are primarily
approach-focussed. To date, the valence
component of competence has not been targeted
intentionally, although closer examination
of current measures reveals some
avoidance-focussed elements where the concern
would appear to be incompetence and
its consequences (e.g., ‘worry about mistakes’).
Utilising qualitative procedures, we
are currently examining how young athletes,
coaches and parents perceive motivational
climate in terms of the 2 x 2 model.
This process should result in the development
of measures to tap approach-avoidance
elements of climate (in addition to
mastery-performance elements) for each of
these social agents. We hope to identify the
processes by which parents, coaches and
peers highlight the salience of approachavoidance
forms of competence to young
people in sport. Inclusion of the valence
component of competence within climatebased
research will hopefully provide a
more complete picture of perceived situationally-emphasised
goals and associated
motivational processes and outcomes in
sport (and exercise).
Relationships among goals
Elliot and Conroy (2005) referred to
the conceptual independence of the four
approach-avoidance goals (p. 20). From an
empirical perspective, the interrelationships
among the four goals within the 2 x 2 model
are likely to vary depending on the level of
analysis (i.e., assessment of goals in relation
to a specific context versus assessment of
moment-to-moment goal states). The limited
published research to date employing the
2 x 2 framework in exercise and sport settings
reveals positive intercorrelations. Utilising
the Achievement Goals Questionnaire
for Sport (AGQ-S), Conroy, Elliot & Hofer,
(2003) found that achievement goals sharing
the same definition or valence of competence
were moderately correlated. Performance-avoidance
and mastery-approach
goals were weakly associated, whereas performance-approach
and mastery-avoidance
goals were moderately positively correlated.
Research in the school physical education
setting reveals similar patterns (Spray, 2005).
It seems, therefore, that pursuing one goal
does not preclude pursuing others, at least
when the goals are framed in terms of a
particular activity. Indeed, it is likely that
participants strive to achieve multiple goals
simultaneously in sport and exercise settings
because of the number and variety of possible
antecedents (Elliot, 1999). However,
with the exception of the investigation by
Gernigon et al. (2004), we have few data that
examine the dominance of different goals
during the execution of a physical task.
Mastery-avoidance goal
As the ‘new kid on the block’, the masteryavoidance
goal is beginning to come under
close scrutiny in sport and exercise psychology
research. Elliot and Conroy (2005) presented
some plausible examples of how
athletes and exercise participants can
become concerned with self- or task-referenced
incompetence. As they point out, mastery-avoidance
goals may be relevant in some
contexts but not others (p. 20). Initial efforts
to assess the four achievement goals in the
physical education setting, using an adapted
version of the AGQ-S, suggest that masteryavoidance
goals are endorsed by young peo-
48 Sport & Exercise Psychology Review Vol 1 No 2