Sport mindsets: An exploration of the multivariate relationships among ability beliefs, achievement goal orientations, and dimensions of sport perfectionism

This dissertation describes three studies, all based on data collected from two online surveys. Study 1 is concerned with assessing the factorial validity of three sport psychology-related instruments. Study 2 develops a preliminary version of the Perfectionism in Sport Questionnaire. Study 3 examines the relationship among ability beliefs, goal orientations, and dimensions of sport perfectionism.; The findings of Study 1 suggested that online and traditional administrations of the Task and Ego Orientations in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ), Social Motivational Orientations in Sport Scale (SMOSS), and Almost Perfect Scale - Revised (APS-R) appear to provide a similar pattern of responses from a psychometric and factorial validity perspective. In Study 2, five dimensions of sport-related perfectionism emerged, and appeared consistent across two independent samples of responses. The dimensions also appeared equally valid for male and female respondents. The results of Study 3 suggested that the five sport-perfectionism dimensions identified in Study 2 may be used to categorize sport participants into four sport perfectionism profiles: positive achievers, non-achievers, negative self-discrepancy perfectionists, and negative parental-discrepancy perfectionists. Furthermore, these four groups differed on goal orientation dimensions in a manner consistent with Dweck's (1999) Meaning System Self-Theory. Study 3 also indicated that social goal orientations are related to performance goal orientations as was predicted by Achievement Goal Theory (Nicholls & Maehr, 1980), and that learning beliefs about ability are positively related to task-based goal orientations.