Sport And Exercise Psychology: A Critical Introduction

business; second, goal-setting is a paradox because this simple technique is somewhat
more complicated than it looks” (Burton et al., 2001, p. 497). Overall, such research
indicates that although goal-setting affects performance, many of its principles derived
from organisational contexts do not generalise to athletic domains. For example, setting
specific goals is not always more effective in sport than is the practice of exhorting
people to do their best. Having summarised the main principles and findings in this field,
let us conclude this section by evaluating some unresolved issues in goal-setting research.
One of the most contentious issues in this field is the fact that goal-setting seems to be
more effective in business settings than in sport. In an effort to explain this anomaly,
Locke (1991) suggested that methodological factors may be involved. Specifically, he
claimed that perhaps participants in the “no goal” and the “do your best” goal conditions
actually set goals for themselves spontaneously. Also, there are many important
conceptual differences between the fields of work and sport. For example, consider the
issue of choice. To explain, Hall and Kerr (2001) noted that whereas most athletes have
chosen to invest time and effort in pursuit of their sporting goals, the decision about
whether or not to work is far less influenced by personal factors. In short, people choose
to play sport—but they have to work, for economic reasons. This is why Weinberg and
Weigand (1996) suggested that as they have chosen to participate in their chosen
activities, sports performers are usually more motivated than average workers. Another
problem with goal-setting studies in sport is that they are rather atheoretical. To explain,
few researchers in this field have attempted to find out why people set the goals that they
do. As Hall and Kerr (2001) observed, few investigators have studied “the causes
underlying the particular goals an individual might adopt” (p. 186).
Having outlined relevant theory and research on goal-setting in sport, we should now
consider some practical applications.

Practical application: motivational properties of goals

As we indicated earlier, goal-attribute research suggests that certain properties of goals
should energise the behaviour of athletes. In particular, three characteristics of goals have
been deemed to be especially motivational. These properties concern goal specificity,
goal challenge and goal proximity (Bandura, 1997).

Goal specificity

Evidence suggests that goals which are stated in clear, specific and attainable terms tend
to elicit more effort and better performance than do goals which are in more vague terms.
For example, a golfer who is told to “drive the ball straight down the fairway—but don’t
worry about the distance you achieve” should try harder than someone who is told simply
to “do your best”. In this regard, Weinberg, Stitcher and Richardson (1994) found that
college lacrosse players who had been given specific tasks to achieve during a season
performed significantly better than did counterparts assigned to “do your best” goals.

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