Intra-individual changes in 3x2 achievement goals, friendship goals, motivational regulations and consequences in physical education

Introduction: This research examines intraindividual changes in 3x2 achievement goals in physical education classes during one semester, as well as the relationship of these changes with those in other motivational and outcome variables. Method: A total of 334 (178 boys and 156 girls) high school students (M = 13.12, SD = 1.05) completed five questionnaires in two different school years. Results: The results of the true intraindividual change model (TIC) provided unequivocal support for the separation of task-based and self-based goals, as well as the structures based on both valences of approach and avoidance. They also showed different intraindividual change patterns in the 3x2 achievement goals, indicating a progression in the stability of the goals depending on their definition. Intraindividual variability in achievement goals is directly related to intraindividual variability in dependent variables, with the task-approach goals TIC being the most adaptive. Conclusions: These goals should be prioritized.

Early Adolescents’ Social Achievement Goals and Perceived Relational Support: Their Additive and Interactive Effects on Social Behavior

The current study examined the additive and interactive effects of early adolescents’ social achievement goals and perceived relational support from teachers and peers on their social behavior. Adolescents’ social achievement goals (i.e., social development, social demonstration-approach, and social demonstration-avoidance), perceived relational support from teachers and peers, and social behavior (i.e., overt and relational aggression, prosocial behavior, and anxious solitary behavior) were assessed in a sample of fifth and sixth graders (Mage = 12.5; N = 677) nested within 26 classrooms. Multilevel modeling results indicated that social goals and relational support from teachers and peers made additive contributions to adolescents’ social behavior. Results also indicated the evidence of interactive effects, such that relational support from teachers was negatively associated with overt and relational aggression primarily among adolescents who had high social demonstration-approach goals. Findings underscore the need to consider adolescents’ social goals in conjunction with their perceived relational support for educators and practitioners.

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.

Personal Achievement Goals, Learning Strategies, and Perceived IT Affordances

What people perceive when they interact with technologies are not the features and functionalities of the technology but rather the behaviors it affords them. Affordance perception determines how organizational information technology (IT) is used by employees and the benefits they provide to organizations and their members. In this article, we explain how employees who pursue different personal goals and use various learning strategies come to perceive different IT affordances. We identify three distinct pathways: (1) performance-avoidance goals are positively associated with surface processing, which leads to perceptions of common in-role IT affordances; (2) performance-approach goals are positively associated with surface processing and effort regulation and these learning strategies lead to perceptions of common and specialized in-role IT affordances; and (3) mastery goals are associated with deep processing, effort regulation, and peer learning, which are positively associated with perceptions of specialized in-role and extra-role IT affordances. By identifying the different pathways to perceived affordances, the article identifies potential interventions that can help managers steer employees toward certain affordances and away from other, less desirable affordances.

Teamwork: A Systematic Review of Implications From Psychosocial Constructs for Research and Practice in the Performance of Ultimate Frisbee Games

Introduction: Ultimate Frisbee (UF) is a non-contact, challenging, and self-promoted team sport. Some factors such as the game environment and rules seem to influence athletes' behavior. Goals: Provide a robust systematic review (SR) of the psychological domains associated with UF.Methods: A SR according to Cochrane guidelines was completed. A reproducible search strategy was conducted by two independent reviewers in thirteen online databases: the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, SCOPUS, B-On, SportDiscus, Scielo; APA PsycINFO, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences; Academic Search Complete; Medline (PubMed); ERIC; Google Scholar; Open Acess Thesis and Dissertations. The search occurred from 1st to 30th June 2020, and there were no limitations regarding the year of publication. Original papers that contained relevant data regarding psychological domains in the context of UF in English, Portuguese and Spanish were selected. The combination of the main terms “ultimate frisbee” and “sport psychology” was used in all databases. A total of 464 studies were identified and selected in the last phase of selection. After the Screening (n = 301) and Eligibility (n = 71) phases, a total of 30 potential papers were selected and classified. Finally, only four papers were qualified to be included in the final version of SR.Results: The psychological dimensions revealed in the present study were: leadership; basic psychological needs; behaviors; task cohesion and performance; intrateam communication; performance-avoidance goals; friendship goals; sportsmanship associated with goal-directed self-talk and self-regulated learning.Discussion: To our knowledge, this is the first SR about UF. In reviewing all the findings in the studies, there is evidence that UF can promote teamwork, task cohesion, leadership, and increase friendship-approach goals.Conclusion: The results revealed that group goals and promoting teamwork significantly predicted social cohesion and that teamwork and task cohesion was mediated by communication. UF is characterized by communication between all players, whether they are from the same team or the opposing team. In summary, the current study revealed real-time information about the game and its rules. This is important because UF is one of the few team sports worldwide that are self-referred by participants.Systematic Review Registration:https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=169294, identifier: CRD42020169294.

Assessing the Stability and Replicability of the Associations between Goal Orientation and Self-Regulated Learning Strategies: A Pre-Registered Replication of Muis and Franco (2009)

In this pre-registered replication of findings from Muis and Franco [2009; Contemporary Educational Psychology, 34(4), 306-318], college students (N = 978) from across the United States and Canada were surveyed regarding their goal orientations and learning strategies. A structural equation modelling approach was used to assess the associations between goal orientations and learning strategies. Twelve of the sixteen associations (75%) tested by Muis and Franco replicated successfully in the current study. Mastery approach goals positively predicted endorsement of all learning strategies (Rehearsal, Critical Thinking, Metacognitive Self-Regulation and Elaboration). Performance avoidance goals negatively predicted critical thinking, while positively predicting metacognitive self-regulation and rehearsal. Evidence for moderation by assignment type was found. No evidence of the moderation of these associations by gender, underrepresented minority status, or course type (STEM, Humanities, or Social Sciences) was found. The reliability of common scales used in educational research and issues concerning the replication of studies using structural equation modeling are discussed.

Effects of Attribute Affirmation and Achievement Goals on High School Students' Motivation

Researchers have suggested that receiving attribute affirmation (AA) may increase the motivation of students to confront a challenge. However, we posited that to determine whether AA increases the motivation of students to confront a challenging task, we must consider dispositional achievement goals of the students. The participants were 171 junior-high-school students, randomly assigned to an AA or no affirmation condition. The results showed that AA enhanced the tendency to confront a challenging task for students who endorsed low mastery-approach goals (MAGs) and low performance-approach goals (PAGs) simultaneously (b = 0.5, p = 0.015). The effect was mainly mediated by the increasing state performance-approach goals (SPAGs) in confronting the task (indirect effect = 0.21, 95% CI = 0.04–0.49); however, being attribute-affirmed decreased the tendency to confront the challenging task for students adopting a dominant PAG orientation (b = −0.76, p = 0.049). In addition, for students adopting a dominant MAG orientation or adopting high MAGs and high PAGs simultaneously, no difference was noted in the tendency to confront the task between participants in the control and attribute-affirmed conditions.

Stress Responses, Competition, and Free-Throw Performance: The Predicting Role of Other-Approach Goals

Experimental stress paradigms have been little used in the sport psychology literature because they are unrelated to the specific sport task. The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) was used in the present study to investigate its influence on the free-throw performance of skilled basketball players. We also investigated the influence of adopting other-approach goals (i.e., doing well relative to others) on free-throw performance when basketball players were placed in a competition immediately after the TSST, comparatively with a control condition without competition. The results showed that free-throw performance decreased in the control condition, while free-throw performance remained stable when the TSST was followed by a competition. They also highlighted that other-approach goals were significant positive predictors of post-TSST performance in the competition condition but not in the control condition. The TSST may now be used with skilled athletes as an experimental stress paradigm to induce acute stress in the sport domain.

Temporal Dynamics Between Faculty Goals, Burnout/Engagement, and Performance in Teaching and Research: A Latent Change Score Approach

Motivation is posited to be central for faculty members’ professional experiences and performance. To this end, achievement goals have been associated with burnout/engagement and performance at work. However, the few studies that have examined this topic were cross-sectional and only considered one of the two equally important work domains of faculty members. In the present research, we analyze the temporal relationships between achievement goals and burnout/engagement as well as performance and investigate the domain specificity of goal pursuit by considering goals for teaching and goals for research. To this end, we conducted a longitudinal study including 681 German faculty members that were surveyed four times over a total of two years. Multivariate Latent Change Score modeling attested that in both domains, mastery-approach goals were positively related to subsequent development of performance, while performance was also positively related to subsequent development of mastery goals, creating a double positive loop. Performance goals and work-avoidance goals were differentially associated with performance in both domains, indicating that the effects of goals can be bound to different contextual features. For overall burnout/engagement, our results implied that for its development, primarily research goals mattered (with performance-avoidance and work-avoidance goals being risk factors), while high burnout levels were associated with subsequent reduction of adaptive mastery-approach goals in both domains. This highlights the relevance of achievement goals for burnout/engagement and performance of faculty and employees in general, and sheds light on their complex temporal dynamics that can also meaningfully inform achievement goal research in other contexts.