Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

An examination of the relationship among TARGET structures, team motivational climate, and achievement goal orientation

Public Deposited

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/6969z2971

Descriptions

Attribute NameValues
Creator
Abstract
  • Current research on sport motivation has focused primarily on goal perspective approaches in an attempt to understand behavior in achievement situations (Ames, 1984; Nicholls, 1984). According to Nicholls' (1984) theory, the achievement goal orientation an individual develops may be influenced by both individual differences and situational factors. Relative to situational factors, the team motivational climate may promote either a task-involved or an ego-involved orientation dependent upon which goal orientation is emphasized by the coach. In addition, Ames (1992a) argued that environmental structures influence the motivational climate which ultimately impact the athlete's achievement orientation. Educational research (Epstein, 1988) has identified specific environmental structures (TARGET structures) as being salient to the development of a mastery climate. Little research has been conducted on athletes' perceptions of their coaches' behavior, in regard to specific environmental structures, and how this may ultimately influence athletes' achievement goal orientation. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among TARGET structures, team motivational climate, and achievement goal orientation. The subjects consisted of 186 high school softball players and 171 high school baseball players, ranging in age from 14 to 18 years. The TEOSQ, PMCSQ, and TARGET questionnaires were administered to subjects at the beginning of a sport practice. LISREL8, a structural equation modeling program, was the statistical analysis employed. Results indicated that a positive linear relationship existed, linking task and reward/evaluation components of the TARGET structures to mastery climate to task orientation. These two structures may be the most salient structures within a sport setting. This finding suggests there is a positive association between coaches' promotion and employment of task-involved goals in their practices and athletes' perception of a mastery-oriented team motivational climate. Direct relationships linking three TARGET structures to performance climate to ego orientation were also reported. Grouping and authority components of the TARGET structures were found to have a significant inverse relationship with performance climate, while task structure and performance climate were positively related. Additionally, the results confirmed that there was a significant positive relationship between mastery climate and task orientation and between performance climate and ego orientation.
Resource Type
Date Available
Date Issued
Degree Level
Degree Name
Degree Field
Degree Grantor
Commencement Year
Advisor
Academic Affiliation
Non-Academic Affiliation
Subject
Rights Statement
Publisher
Peer Reviewed
Language
Digitization Specifications
  • File scanned at 300 ppi (Monochrome) using Capture Perfect 3.0 on a Canon DR-9050C in PDF format. CVista PdfCompressor 4.0 was used for pdf compression and textual OCR.
Replaces

Relationships

Parents:

This work has no parents.

In Collection:

Items