Motivational dynamics underlying competition
The chapter delineates motivational mechanisms underlying how competition affects performance. The authors propose an opposing processes model of competition and performance in which competition positively influences performance via the adoption of performance-approach goals (i.e., trying to do better than others), whereas competition impairs performance via the adoption of performance-avoidance goals (i.e., trying to avoid doing worse than others). In competitions, these positive and negative goal processes often cancel each other out, producing a seemingly weak or non-existent relationship between competition and performance. The authors review empirical evidence for the proposed model, discuss the implications of the model in relation to other theoretical perspectives on competition, and speculate on the possibility that competition can play an instrumental role in sustainable engagement in a task.