Goal setting and performance in sport and exercise settings: a synthesis and critique

Although goal setting research in industrial and organizational settings has been proliferating rapidly over the past 20 yr, it is only recently that sport psychologists begun to systematically test its effects in sport and exercise settings. However, the recent empirical literature in sport and exercise examining the relationship between goals and performance has been equivocal. Thus, the purposes of the present review are fourfold: (a) briefly review the industrial/organizational literatures concerning the relationship between goals and task performance; (b) review the literature testing the relationship between goals and performance in sport and exercise settings; (c) discuss methodological and interpretive limitations including the impact of mediating variables; (d) offer future directions for research.