Sport And Exercise Psychology: A Critical Introduction

second type of motivation is called an “ego orientation” and stems from a view of success
that is normative or defined in relation to the attainments of other people. For example,
an ego-oriented athlete regards herself or himself as successful only if s/he performs
better than others. In other words, such a person is interested only in demonstrating
superior ability to others. Therefore, winning and beating others are the main
preoccupations of ego-oriented athletes. These goal orientations are assumed to be
independent. Therefore, a person may achieve a high or a low score on either goal
orientation or both at the same time. What does research reveal about the correlates of
these two motives?
According to Lemyre, Roberts and Ommundsen (2002), task-oriented athletes
perceive achievement in sport in self-referenced terms involving skill improvement/
mastery and technical development. As a consequence, they tend to be intrinsically
interested in the task, willing to expend effort in persisting with it and, above all, guided
by personal standards of achievement rather than by prevailing social norms. Conversely,
ego-oriented athletes strive to “demonstrate superior normative ability, or avoid the
demonstration of incompetence at the task at hand” (p. 122). In other words, they judge
their own success by the degree to which they can perform better than others. Thus
winning and defeating others is their primary concern in athletic situations. This
description of ego-oriented performers brings to mind a quotation attributed to the writer
Gore Vidal: “it’s not enough to succeed—others must fail!” (cited in McErlane, 2002, p.
3).
Having outlined briefly what these two goal orientations involve, let us now consider
how they can be measured psychologically before sketching some general findings in this
field.

Measuring achievement goal orientations

Task and ego goal orientations may be assessed using questionnaires such as the ‘Task
and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire” (TEOSQ; Duda and Nicholls, 1992; see also
review by Duda and Whitehead, 1998) and/or the “Perceptions of Success Questionnaire”
(POSQ; Roberts, Treasure and Balague, 1998). The TEOSQ consists of thirteen items—
seven of which measure a task orientation and six of which assess an ego orientation.
Participants are required to respond to the generic stem “I feel most successful in my
sport when...” using a five-point Likert scale. Responses range from 1 (strongly
disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Typical items in the task orientation scale are “I learn a
new skill by trying hard” or “I do my very best”. Similarly, typical items on the ego
orientation scale include ‘The others can’t do as well as me” or “I’m the best”.
Psychometric research indicates that these scales possess adequate reliability (Duda and
Whitehead, 1998). The POSQ is a twelve-item test of task and ego orientation with six
items in each sub-scale. In this test, the stem item is “When playing my sport, I feel most
successful when...”. Typical items in the task orientation sub-scale include: “I work
hard” (item 1) or “I master something I couldn’t do before”. Meanwhile, the ego
orientation sub-scale comprises items such as “I am the best” or “I accomplish something
others can’t do”. As with the TEOSQ, there is evidence of acceptable validity and
reliability for the POSQ (Harwood, 2002).

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