Development and validation of the Achievement Goal Scale for Youth Sports

ObjectiveThe objective was to develop and validate an achievement goal scale for young athletes that was aligned with the 2 (mastery/ego)×2 (approach/avoidance) achievement goal framework.MethodA total of 1675 male and female athletes ranging in age from 9 to 14 years participated in the AGSYS scale development and validation phases. Items having a readability level of grade 4 (age 9) or below were written and evaluated in a series of studies to assess the reliability, factorial validity, and construct validity of the Mastery and Ego scales.DesignBoth correlational and experimental methods were used to assess reliability and validity.ResultsExploratory and confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated factorial validity in samples of 9–10-, 11–12-, and 13–14-year-old athletes, and the subscales correlated in a predicted fashion with one another, with other sport and academic goal orientation measures and with several other theoretically relevant variables, including coach-initiated motivational climate, competitive trait anxiety, sport enjoyment, motivation, and self-esteem. Scores also changed significantly in response to a motivational climate coach intervention.ConclusionThe Achievement Goal Scale for Youth Sports (AGSYS) appears to be a reliable and valid measure of achievement goal approach orientations in children between the ages of 9 and 14 years. We were not successful in developing corresponding avoidance goal orientation scales that were not highly correlated, raising the possibility that children do not cognitively differentiate between mastery-avoidance and ego-avoidance orientations.     

多项式回归与一致性研究：应用及分析

本文介绍了多项式回归的分析方法, 讨论并验证了它相比传统的差异分数分析法在检验一致性假设中的优势。针对目前该方法在国内应用方面的缺失状况, 本文从分析基准、理论推导、分析步骤和假设检验等方面完善了多项式回归与响应面分析相结合的应用分析框架。最后, 本文以个人-组织价值观一致性对员工情感性变革承诺的影响研究为例, 对分析框架的具体应用进行了说明。结果表明, 被传统差异分数很好支持的一致性效应并不一定完美, 新的分析框架能够揭示更多的有用信息并给管理实践带来更具体而准确的引导。     

New Directions in Goal-Setting Theory

ABSTRACT— Goal-setting theory is summarized regarding the effectiveness of specific, difficult goals; the relationship of goals to affect; the mediators of goal effects; the relation of goals to self-efficacy; the moderators of goal effects; and the generality of goal effects across people, tasks, countries, time spans, experimental designs, goal sources (i.e., self-set, set jointly with others, or assigned), and dependent variables. Recent studies concerned with goal choice and the factors that influence it, the function of learning goals, the effect of goal framing, goals and affect (well-being), group goal setting, goals and traits, macro-level goal setting, and conscious versus subconscious goals are described. Suggestions are given for future research.     

成败情境下不同目标取向学生内在动机特点

以213名小学生为被试,设置成功和失败情境,考察三种成就目标取向学生内在动机的差异。结果发现:两种情境下,掌握目标的学生均有最高的内在动机;失败情境下,成绩接近目标学生的内在动机显著高于成绩回避目标的学生,但成功情境下,两种目标取向学生的内在动机没有显著差异;掌握目标学生在两种情境下的内在动机无显著差异;成绩接近和成绩回避目标学生在失败情境下的内在动机显著低于成功情境下的内在动机。     

A molar view of goal direction and habit

When we treat behavior within an evolutionary framework and as temporally extended flow, two fundamental questions arise: (a) What is an organism? and (b) What is behavior? An organism is a process that stays intact by constantly exchanging energy with the environment. It takes in resources and puts out waste. The behavior of an organism consists of those process parts of the organism process that make up the exchange. These activities serve the function of reproducing, which generally depends on surviving. Surviving and reproducing depend on responding to phylogenetically important events (PIEs). A PIE induces activities that enhance or mitigate the PIE. Organisms respond not only to a PIE but also to events that covary with the PIE. Both activities and environmental features may covary with a PIE. When either type of covariance is introduced to an organism, behavior adapts over time. The early stages of adaptation constitute what researchers call “goal direction,” and the later stages constitute what researchers call “habit.” Behavior and environment constitute a dynamic system, and manipulations of the covariances and environmental features of the system allow many experimental interventions. This molar approach allows experiments on goal direction and habit to be understood without appeal to everyday mentalistic terms.     

When music tempo affects the temporal congruence between physical practice and motor imagery

When people listen to music, they hear beat and a metrical structure in the rhythm; these perceived patterns enable coordination with the music. A clear correspondence between the tempo of actual movement (e.g., walking) and that of music has been demonstrated, but whether similar coordination occurs during motor imagery is unknown. Twenty participants walked naturally for 8 m, either physically or mentally, while listening to slow and fast music, or not listening to anything at all (control condition). Executed and imagined walking times were recorded to assess the temporal congruence between physical practice (PP) and motor imagery (MI). Results showed a difference when comparing slow and fast time conditions, but each of these durations did not differ from soundless condition times, hence showing that body movement may not necessarily change in order to synchronize with music. However, the main finding revealed that the ability to achieve temporal congruence between PP and MI times was altered when listening to either slow or fast music. These data suggest that when physical movement is modulated with respect to the musical tempo, the MI efficacy of the corresponding movement may be affected by the rhythm of the music. Practical applications in sport are discussed as athletes frequently listen to music before competing while they mentally practice their movements to be performed.     

A longitudinal and multi-method examination of interest–occupation congruence within and across time

Remarkably little research has addressed change and stability in person–environment fit across time. The objective of the current study was to address this gap in the literature by investigating Holland interest–occupation congruence across time for a sample of college alumni (N = 167) that were tracked during the first third of their professional career. Congruence was examined in all its complexity, including a repeated assessment of both occupations and interests, the use of objective (O*NET) and subjective (self-report) environment assessment methods, and adopting sophisticated congruence calculation methods (i.e., Euclidean distance and profile correlation). This resulted in a total of 12 interest–occupation comparisons within and across time that could be related to general and career specific well-being. The results first indicated moderate levels of stability in interests and occupations across the 15-year time interval, yet also with room for change. Congruence analyses indicated significant interest–occupation fit at the beginning of the career and 15 years later, with the magnitude of congruence slightly varying depending on which occupation assessment and which congruence method was used. Profile correlation congruence did not change over time in absolute terms and evidenced relative stability. Euclidean distance indices had little relative stability over time but did manifest some absolute changes in levels of congruence. Finally, job change moderated the association between interest–occupation congruence and life satisfaction in such a way that higher levels of satisfaction were reported only when little job change was present.     

对运动成就目标三维模型的检验 ──一项对高水平乒乓球运动员的实证研究

Harwood等人（2000）对已应用于体育运动领域的任务-自我目标定向理论及其相关的测量工具提出了批判与质疑,并在此基础之上提出了运动成就目标三维模型,该模型将体育运动领域的成就目标分为三种,分别是纯任务目标;自我关联的自我目标;以及他人关联的自我目标。本研究的目的是对Harwood等人提出的运动成就目标三维模型进行检验。全文由两个子研究组成。研究一是成就目标问卷的发展与检验,对问卷的发展与信度、效度的检验进行了详细的介绍。研究二中,研究者采用所发展的成就目标问卷与录像访谈相结合的方法对4位（2男,2女）高水平乒乓球运动员的特质性目标以及赛前,赛中,赛后的状态性目标进行测评与检验。验证性因素分析的结果表明该运动成就目标问卷的三维模型拟合较好,三因素结构较为清晰。重测信度检验结果表明该问卷的三个维度均具有较高的重测信度。教练员对4名运动员成就目标的评估结果与运动员的问卷所得结果的一致性进一步支持了运动成就目标问卷的内部效度。对4名运动员的研究结果表明：（1）特质性目标对赛前状态性目标的预测主要与个人特点有关;（2）运动员在赛前与赛中状态性目标呈多元化趋势,既有只突出某一目标的单维现象,又有两种或三种目标同时占主导的多维现象;（3）运动员赛后状态性目标的变化倾向于受到比赛过程与结果的影响;（4）当运动员在比赛中经历重大挫折的时候,会有“亚目标”状态出现。本研究结果对Harwood等人的运动成就目标三维模型提供了支持。通过本研究,人们对高水平运动员的特质性目标及赛前、赛中、赛后状态性目标的性质及其变化有了更加深入的了解     

How formulating implementation plans and remembering past actions facilitate the enactment of effortful decisions

Building on prior research studying effortful decision making and enactment processes (Bagozzi, Dholakia, & Basuroy, 2003; BDB), we identify and provide an in‐depth understanding of two specific self‐regulatory strategies: (1) formulating an implementation plan, and (2) remembering past actions, that decision makers can use in facilitating enactment of effortful decisions. The results of three experiments, in which the decision maker's goal and self‐regulatory strategy were manipulated, showed that for goals that decision makers chose volitionally, the motivational effects of both these strategies lay in increasing levels of proximal implementation‐related variables (implementation intentions, plan completeness, plan enactment, and goal realization) significantly. In contrast, for goals that were assigned to participants, these strategies' motivational effects additionally extended to significantly increasing distal goal‐related variables (goal desire, goal intentions, perceived self‐efficacy, and implementation desires). The theoretical implications of our findings are discussed, and future research opportunities are explored. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

目标定向与适应:社会自我效能感的中介作用

通过对176名大学新生3个月的纵向研究,采用探索性因素分析、信度分析和回归分析等方法对目标定向与适应的关系以及社会自我效能感在其中的中介作用进行了深入研究。结果表明,(1)学习目标定向能够有效地预测个体的学业适应、社会适应和心理适应;而成绩目标定向对三类适应都无显著性影响;(2)社会自我效能感在学习目标定向与社会适应、心理适应之间具有完全中介效应,而对学习目标定向与学业适应之间没有中介作用;(3)社会自我效能感对学业适应无显著性影响。