Goal Setting in Sports
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Goal Setting in Sports
A goal is simply something you are trying to accomplish; it is the object or aim of an action. Although goals can function at an unconscious level, the process of goal setting represents the deliberate establishment and refinement of goals and the evaluation of goal progress. The concept of goals and the practice of goal setting are well known and established within settings where performance enhancement is the objective. It is important to understand goals because they have such a broad function in terms of affecting the thoughts and behaviors of those to whom participation, productivity, and performance are important.
In the broader field of performance psychology where the objective is to enhance productivity in its varying forms, the effectiveness of goal setting as a strategy has consistently been verified across tasks, groups, methods for setting goals, and performance indicators. Although it was assumed that the positive effects of goals would be replicated within sport and exercise settings, research in sport has failed to illustrate unequivocally that goals function as effectively in this domain. The reasons why have been debated widely, with the consensus being that sample and task characteristics were markedly different in sport. Despite this, studies that have described the goal-setting practices in sport performers have confirmed that almost all athletes do set goals and the majority find them to be effective. This entry provides a brief overview of the current state of play with regard to goal setting in sport, and critiques, where appropriate, the transfer of goal-setting concepts to sport and to performers in that domain. The intention is not to present an exhaustive review, but rather to highlight those aspects of goals and goal setting that are most pertinent to the advancement of knowledge in this area from both a theoretical and an applied perspective. The following sections cover definitions and types of goals, proposed mechanisms of effects, parameters of goals, and dispositional and situational antecedents of goals, and the final section addresses future research potential.
Types of Goals
The definition of goals as an aim of action serves to portray goals as the drivers (or cognitive regulators) behind goal-directed behavior. Consequently, within the multilayered domain of sport, where the nature and level of engagement varies so much, these underlying drivers of behavior can take many different forms. For example, antecedents of behaviors (goals) might range from winning a gold medal at the next Olympics, through the bending of an injured leg an extra two degrees during a physiotherapy session, to maintaining form through a high knee lift in sprinting.
The sport psychology literature consistently distinguishes between three broad goal types: outcome goals, performance goals, and process goals. Outcome goals describe intentions relative to the performance of others involved in the activity. The key delineator of these to other goal types is the notion of social comparison. The objective of winning represents the predominant outcome goal; however, the objective of placing in a race, reaching a final, or simply beating a teammate in an individual race, also represent examples of outcome goals. Unlike outcome goals, performance goals are based onlevels of personal achievement and are entirely self-referenced (subjective). Typical performance goals are to run a race in a certain time, to jump a certain distance, to lift a specific weight, or to do a number of repetitions in a training situation—perhaps within a certain time; they refer to products of performance. These goals are normally based on numeric criteria (e.g., to jump one meter and sixty five centimeters) and refer to a predetermined subjective performance standard. Process goals are similarly self-referenced but are distinguished from performance goals because their focus is on the process of performing rather than a product of performance. The variation in process goals is subsequently far broader than that of outcome and performance goals. For example, they might range from the breathing techniques designed to regulate heart rate in a pistol shooter, to imaging in the mind’s eye the flight of a golf ball before taking a shot, to focusing on maintaining position while executing a half-court press in basketball. In essence, process goals center on the execution of behaviors regarded as contributing to effective performance.
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