The what, why, and how of goal setting: A review of the goal-setting process in applied sport psychology practice

Figures & data

Table 1. Professional practice literature goal setting process context, stages, and stated underpinning theory.

Author(s) (Year)	Botterill (1983)	Martens (1991)	Widmeyer and Ducharme (1997)	Burton et al. (2001)	Tod and McGuigan (2001)	Harwood (2004)	Winter (1995)	Weinberg et al. (2005)	Vealey (2005)	Burton and Raedeke (2008)	Tod (2014)	Weinberg and Gould (2015)	Symonds and Tapps (2016)	Vysochina and Vorobiova (2017)	Gano-Overway and Carson Sackett (2021)
Practitioner	Coach	Coach	SPP	Unclear	S&C Coach	Coach	Coach or SPP	Coach or SPP	Coach	Coach	Coach or SPP	Coach	Coach	Unclear	SPP
Client	Individual +  team	Individual +  team	Team	Individual	Individual	Individual	Individual	Individual +  team	Individual +  team	Individual +  team	Individual	Individual +  team	Individual	Individual +  team	Individual
Stated under pinning theory	Unclear	Unclear	GST	GST	Unclear	AGT	Unclear	GST SRL	GST	Unclear	Unclear	GST	Unclear	Unclear	GST
Needs analysis	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Motives	X	X	X	X	Purpose of strength and conditioning	X	Identify career accomplishments	Mission statement	Develop purpose	Long term vision Mission statement	X	X	X	Goal Motives	X
Education	X	✔	X	X	X	✔	X	X	X	✔	X	✔	✔	X	X
Measurability	✔	✔	X	✔	✔	✔	X	✔	✔	✔	X	✔	✔	X	✔
Types/Focus	Technical Tactical Physical Mental Environmental Controllable	Performance	Outcome Performance Process	Outcome Performance Process	Outcome Performance Process	Task Outcome Performance	Performance Process Technical Tactical Physical Psychological	Outcome Performance Process	Outcome Performance Process	Performance Process	Unclear	Outcome Performance Process	Outcome Performance Process	X	Performance Process Learning
Context	X	X	X	Practice Competition	X	Practice Competition	Practice Competition	Practice Competition	X	Practice Competition	X	Practice Competition	X	Competition Career Material Self-esteem Social	X
Difficulty	Achievable	Challenging and realistic	Difficult but realistic	Challenging for practice Realistic for competition	Challenging but realistic	X	Challenging but achievable	Challenging and realistic	Aggressive but achievable	Moderately difficult	X	Moderately difficult but realistic	Realistic	X	Challenging but realistic
Specificity	Specific	Specific	Specific	X	Specific	X	Specific	Specific	Specific	Specific	X	Specific	Specific	Specific	Specific
Valence	X	X	X	✔	X	X	X	X	X	X	✔	X	X	X	X
Proximity	Intermediate + Long	Short	Short + Long	Short + Long	Short + Long	Short	Short + Medium + Long	Short + Long	Short + Long	Short + Long	Short + Long	Short + Long	Time-related	Short + Medium + Long	Short + Long
Prioritization	✔	✔	X	X	X	✔	✔	X	X	✔	X	✔	✔	X	X
Commitment	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	X	✔	✔	✔	✔
Strategies	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	X	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	X	✔	✔
Barriers	✔	X	X	✔	X	X	X	X	X	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Feedback	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	X	✔
Revision	✔	X	X	X	✔	X	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	X	✔
Reinforcement	✔	✔	✔	✔	X	X	X	X	X	✔	X	X	X	X	✔

SPP: Sport psychology practitioner; S&C: Strength and conditioning; AGT: Achievement goal theory; SRL: Self-regulated learning.

Table 2. Applied research goal setting process context, stages, and stated underpinning theory.

Author(s) (Year)	Burton (1989)	Wanlin et al. (1997)	Pierce and Burton (1998)	Gregg et al. (2004)	South (2004)	McCarthy, Jones, Harwood, and Davenport (2010)	Hampson and Harwood (2016)
Practitioner	SPP	SPP	SPP	SPP	Coach and SPP	SPP	SPP
Client	Individual	Individual	Individual	Individual	Individual	Individual	Individual
Stated under pinning theory	AM	Unclear	Unclear	Unclear	AM, GST	AGT, GST, CMT	GST
Needs analysis	X	X	✔	X	✔	X	✔
Motives	X	Mission statement	X	Mission statement	X	X	X
Education	✔	✔	✔	X	✔	✔	X
Measurability	✔	X	✔	X	X	✔	X
Types/Focus	Performance	X	Performance	Performance Process	Process	Performance Process	Performance Process
Context	X	X	X	X	Practice Competition Lifestyle	Practice	X
Difficulty	X	Challenging	Challenging	X	X	Realistic	Realistic
Specificity	Specific	X	Specific	X	X	Specific	X
Valence	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Proximity	Short	Short + Weekly + Long	Daily + Weekly + Long	Short + Long	Short + Intermediate + Long	Short + Long	Short
Prioritization	X	X	X	X	✔	X	X
Commitment	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Strategies	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	X	✔
Barriers	X	X	X	X	✔	✔	X
Feedback	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Revision	X	✔	X	✔	X	X	X
Reinforcement	X	X	X	X	X	X	✔
MST Package	X	✔	X	✔	X	X	X

SPP: Sport psychology practitioner; MST: Mental skills training; AM: Achievement motivation; AGT: Achievement goal theory; CMT: Competence motivation theory.

Figure 1. A synthesized goal setting process for applied sport psychology practice.

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