Goal orientations in sport: a causal model

Abstract

The study is based on research work relating goal orientation in sport with contextual variables and personal variables. The sample was 511 professional athletes. A “causal” model is proposed in which task and goal ego orientations are the dependent variables. A hypothetical model is obtained using structural equations modelling, supporting that: a) athletes who find satisfaction experimenting mastery, who perceive a motivational climate that rewards hard work and who believe that success depends on their effort, develop task goal orientation; and b) athletes who get satisfaction demonstrating greater capacity than the rest, who live a motivational climate that leads them to be better than the others and that only rewards the best players, and whose main motive for practising sport is to achieve certain social status and popularity, will have an ego goal orientation.