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Predicting precompetitive state anxiety: using the 2 x 2 achievement goal framework.
Perceptual and Motor Skills
|March 12, 2014
Summary
Athletes pursuing mastery goals show higher self-confidence and lower anxiety. Conversely, avoidance goals in sports are linked to increased anxiety and reduced confidence, impacting performance.
Area of Science:
- Sport Psychology
- Performance Psychology
- Achievement Goal Theory
Background:
- Understanding the psychological factors influencing athletic performance is crucial.
- Achievement goals significantly shape athletes' confidence and anxiety levels.
- Differentiating between approach and avoidance motivations is key in sports psychology.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the predictive relationship between achievement goals and key psychological states in athletes.
- To analyze how different achievement goals influence self-confidence, cognitive anxiety, and somatic anxiety.
- To provide insights into the motivational underpinnings of anxiety and confidence in competitive sports.
Main Methods:
- A prospective design was employed with 160 high school athletes.
- Participants completed the 2x2 Achievement Goals Questionnaire for Sport and the Revised Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2.
- Hierarchical regression analyses were utilized to examine the predictive relationships.
Main Results:
- Mastery-approach goals positively predicted self-confidence and negatively predicted cognitive and somatic anxiety.
- Performance-avoidance and mastery-avoidance goals positively predicted cognitive and somatic anxiety.
- Performance-avoidance goals were also negative predictors of self-confidence.
Conclusions:
- Pursuing task mastery and competence improvement correlates with lower anxiety and higher self-confidence in athletes.
- Endorsing avoidance-oriented achievement goals is associated with increased tension, worry, and decreased confidence.
- Achievement goal orientations play a significant role in regulating athletes' psychological states during competition.
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