The role of task- and ego-involving goals and perceived ability on self-regulatory factors during a simple motor task

Athletes engage in a variety of self-regulatory actions, however, upon observation of any sport practice, one will notice that individual athletes differ in their use of self-regulatory processes. In the face of failure, these self-regulation differences can become even more pronounced. There are many reasons that can account for differentiation in self-regulatory behavior among athletes; however, one important reason is the motivational goals adopted by the individual (Covington, 1998; Duda & Hall, 2001; Garcia & Pintrich, 1994). Therefore, this study set out to examine experimentally the influence of ego- and task-involving goals on athletes' self-regulation when experiencing failure at a motor task. Additionally, it was of interest to examine how perceived ability may interact with achievement goals to influence self-regulation failure. Individuals in the task-involving condition, regardless of perceived ability, were hypothesized to engage in more effective self-regulatory responses than ego-involved participants. Differences, however, were expected among high and low ability individuals in the ego-involving condition. The participants in this study were 95 male and 76 female high school age athletes (M age = 15.79, SD = 1.44) enrolled in physical education classes from several Midwest schools. The student-athletes were asked to complete a short questionnaire and participate in a computer task under either task- or ego-involving conditions. The task outcome was manipulated to elicit a failure response. The participants then completed a set of self-regulation measures and were debriefed. The failure manipulation was successful; however, the goal involvement manipulation was not as effective as anticipated. The manipulation check items revealed that the two achievement goal conditions only differed on their level of ego involvement with those in the ego-involving condition having higher levels of ego involvement. This was further supported by those in the ego-involving condition having a greater frequency of normatively based sources of self-efficacy. However, examination of these two achievement goal conditions revealed no support for the hypotheses. However, partial support was achieved for excuse making, in that task-involved males were found to make fewer excuses than ego-involved males. Given the ineffectiveness of the achievement goal manipulation, alternative analyses were also conducted examining whether the likelihood of adopting the task- or ego-involving goal influenced self-regulatory outcomes. These results revealed that athletes who were more likely to adopt the task-involving goal had higher levels of enjoyment during the task and made fewer self-defeating thoughts. Additionally, athletes who were more likely to endorse the ego-involving goal were more likely to set unrealistic goals. Further, exploratory analyses involving the athletes' goal orientation revealed that a task orientation positively predicted strategy use and enjoyment. This research provides some initial tentative support that emphasizing a task-involving goal may help athletes effectively self-regulate following failure.