Dimensions of achievement motivation in schoolwork and sport.

Abstract

Both sport and academic work play large roles in school life, yet there is little comparativeevidence on the nature or generality of achievement motivation across these domains. In thisstudy, beliefs about the causes of success in school and sport of 207 high school students werefound to be related in a logical fashion to their personal goals. The ego-involved goal of superioritywas associated with the belief that success requires high ability, whereas task orientation (the goalof gaining knowledge) was associated with beliefs that success requires interest, effort, andcollaboration with peers. These goal-belief dimensions, or theories about success, cut across sportand schoolwork. However, little cross-domain generality was found for perceptions of ability andintrinsic satisfaction. Intrinsic satisfaction in sport primarily related to perceived ability in thatsetting. Task orientation, not perceived ability, was the major predictor of satisfaction inschoolwork.