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The purpose of this study was to determine whether an athlete's tendency to define success in a particular way (i. e., achievement goal orientation) related to his or her tendency to perceive competition as threatening (i. e., competitive trait anxiety). It was hypothesized that athletes endorsing primarily an ego orientation (i.e., norm-referenced criteria for success) would report higher levels of competitive trait anxiety (CTA) than athletes with a stronger task goal orientation (i. e., self-referenced criteria for success). Participants included college-age male (n = 200) and female (n = 129) athletes participating in intercollegiate, intramural and recreational sport. The use of multiple data-analytic techniques revealed that (a) no goal-orientation profile (or cluster combination of task and ego) differentiated athletes on measures of CTA, and (b) task orientation, rather than ego orientation, contributed most strongly to the multivariate relationship between goal orientations and CTA. Polynomial multiple regression analysis revealed that the association between ego orientation and cognitive anxiety was curvilinear and varied as a function of task orientation. These results indicate that further theory development is needed regarding the relationships between goal orientations with competitive trait anxiety., The independent and parallel lines of research aimed at understanding achievement goal orientations and competitive anxiety are among the most prolific in the sport psychology field. Although there is an [...]

Purpose of the present study was to examine the influence of preference and tolerance for strenuous physical activity as well as self-reported participation in intense (strenuous) exercise, on physical performance as a function of the hierarchical model of achievement motivation framework. Participants were 286 men (n = 155) and women (n = 131) enrolled in their university's fitness and wellness courses. They completed appropriate survey measures, as well as a maximal shuttle run performance. The results indicated that the performance-approach goal mediated strenuous physical activity history, and preference for strenuous physical activity on shuttle run performance among for men, but not women (p < .05). The results suggest that future research is needed to examine goal saliency using the hierarchical model of achievement motivation., Achievement behavior is defined as exerted effort or behavioral intensity, persistence of such effort, choice of actions (e.g., choosing task difficulty level), and performance-based outcomes (Ames, 1992; Dweck, 1986; Nicholls, [...]