A Preliminary Examination of Adding the Approach-Avoidance Distinction to Achievement Goal Theory

126 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2001.Results from the first throwing task indicated that participants did not differ in their levels of enjoyment, effort, threat appraisals, or task involvement based on goal involvement. Although achievement goals did not influence participants' responses, participants did differ in their achievement responses based on their perceived success following the first throwing task, levels of perceived ability and performance expectancies. Results from the second throwing task indicated that participants' adoption of avoidance goals were not predicted by their levels of perceived ability or performance expectancies. Additionally, participants adopting avoidance goals did not differ from participants adopting approach goals in their reported enjoyment or effort. Participants adopting avoidance goals did report greater threat appraisals than participants adopting approach goals. In conclusion, the current study does not suggest that avoidance goals are always de-motivating for sport participants. In fact, the findings of the current study suggest that avoidance goals may be very motivating in certain instances.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD