Effects on archery performance of manipulating metamotivational state and felt arousal

This study investigated the effect of the four different combinations of metamotivational state and felt arousal level (telic-low, paratelic-low, telic-high, paratelic-high) on archery performance. Skilled, average, and novice archers (n = 28) were voluntary subjects, randomly divided into 2 groups, balanced for ability. Each group performed 2 out of the 4 experimental conditions. In this reversal theory-based field experiment, telic and paratelic metamotivational states and arousal level were manipulated prior to archery performance. The hypothesis that archery performance would be superior under telic-low arousal conditions was rejected, but evidence pointed to the possible importance of hedonic tone in performance. Post boc analysis showed differences between combined high (telic-low, paratelic-high) and combined low (telic-low, paratelic-high) hedonic-tone groups which fell short of significance. This observation is taken as justification for further exploration of the relationship between hedonic tone and sports performance.