The Effects of Achievement Goal Orientations and Goal-setting Styles on Motivational Behavior and Sport Performance

The Purpose of the study was to examine the effects of goal orientations and goal-setting styles on motivational behavior and bowling performance. The study also tested the causal relationship of motivational behavior to bowling performance. The subjects were 80 male college students. They were systematically assigned to four different goal setting conditions. Each group was given different goals by researchers. On a weekly performance check the subjects individually responded to an Achievement Process Test which was composed of goal commitment and motivational behavior items. The 3-way ANOVA revealed that the task involved subjects who were given performance goals had the highest goal commitment score. The task-involved subjects with performance goals also showed the highest effort, strategy, and motivational behavior. Structural equation modeling revealed that the models for the task-oriented subjects with goal-oriented and ego-oriented subjects in competition adequately represented the relationships among the observed variables.