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.     

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。     

两种亚型ADHD儿童的促进和抑制加工

采用图片Stroop任务,对两种亚型ADHD儿童的促进和抑制加工进行了研究。结果发现,不论在反应时还是错误率上,ADHD儿童和正常儿童在促进效应上的表现模式相似,但ADHD儿童在错误率上比正常儿童表现出更大的抑制效应,混合型ADHD儿童的抑制效应更大于注意缺陷型儿童。由于ADHD儿童仅选择性地在抑制加工上受损,而促进加工正常,这一结果提示,促进和抑制可能是具有不同机制的、分离的加工过程。     

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.     

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     

The facilitative effect of positive stimuli on 3-year-olds’ flexible rule use

This study examined the effect of emotional stimuli on 3- to 4-year old children's flexible rule use, as measured by the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS). In Experiment 1, children in two countries (Canada and China) were given 2 versions of the DCCS. The Standard version required children to sort red and blue boats and rabbits first by shape and then by color (or vice versa); the Emotional Faces version required children to sort happy and sad male and female faces first by emotion and then by gender (or vice versa). Children performed significantly better on the Emotional Faces version, and performance on the 2 versions was related. Order in which dimensions were presented had no effect. Experiment 2 examined which aspects of the emotional faces were responsible for the facilitation of children's performance. Performance on the Standard version was compared to performance on three contextual faces versions, in which children were shown happy, sad, or neutral faces and required to sort them by age (child versus adult) and then by gender (or vice versa). Facilitation was only seen in the context of happy faces. Results are consistent with the suggestion that positive stimuli promote cognitive flexibility, perhaps by increasing dopamine levels in prefrontal cortex.     

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.     

The role of attentional biases in PTSD: is it interference or facilitation?

Although attentional biases have been demonstrated in individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the cognitive methodologies used have not allowed for disambiguation of two types of attentional biases. It remains unclear if PTSD involves difficulty disengaging attention from threatening stimuli (interference) or facilitated detection. To differentiate between attentional interference and facilitation, 57 male Vietnam-era veterans (30 High PTSD and 27 Low PTSD) completed a visual search task with a lexical decision component. High PTSD veterans who engaged in the interference task first showed increased interference to threat-relevant words relative to Low PTSD veterans. However, no evidence was found for facilitated detection of threatening stimuli in PTSD.     

Using goal setting, task clarification, and feedback to increase the use of the hands-free technique by hospital operating room staff

We evaluated the effects of a behavioral treatment on the safe passing of sharp instruments using the hands-free technique among hospital operating room personnel during surgical procedures. Treatment consisted of participative goal setting, task clarification, and feedback. The average percentage of sharp instruments passed safely increased from 32% to 64% and 31% to 70% between baseline and treatment phases in the inpatient and outpatient surgery units, respectively. Five-month follow-up data suggested maintenance of treatment effects. These findings suggest the utility of organizational behavior management strategies in reducing risky behavior in hospital settings.