Achievement goals, self-handicapping, and performance: a 2 x 2 achievement goal perspective.
Elliot and colleagues (2006) examined the effects of experimentally induced achievement goals, proposed by the trichotomous model, on self-handicapping and performance in physical education. Our study replicated and extended the work of Elliot et al. by experimentally promoting all four goals proposed by the 2 x 2 model (Elliot & McGregor, 2001), measuring the participants' own situational achievement goals, using a relatively novel task, and testing the participants in a group setting. We used a randomized experimental design with four conditions that aimed to induce one of the four goals advanced by the 2 x 2 model. The participants (n = 138) were undergraduates who engaged in a dart-throwing task. The results pertaining to self-handicapping partly replicated Elliot and colleagues' findings by showing that experimentally promoted performance-avoidance goals resulted in less practice. In contrast, the promotion of mastery-avoidance goals did not result in less practice compared with either of the approach goals. Dart-throwing performance did not differ among the four goal conditions. Personal achievement goals did not moderate the effects of experimentally induced goals on self-handicapping and performance. The extent to which mastery-avoidance goals are maladaptive is discussed, as well as the interplay between personal and experimentally induced goals.
Ntoumanis
Nikos
N
School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. n.ntoumanis@bham.ac.uk
Thøgersen-Ntoumani
Cecilie
C
Smith
Alison L
AL
D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000523:psychology*; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010806:Physical Education and Training; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013177:Sports / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult