Motivational Climate, Personal Goal Perspectives, and Cognitive and Affective Responses in Physical Education Classes

The purpose of this study was to assess the motivational climate, personal goal perspectives, and cognitive and affective responses in physical education lessons. A total of 118 male and female secondary school physical education students from the United Kingdom were involved in the study. The students completed a survey assessing the class motivational climate, their personal goal perspectives, beliefs about the causes of success, satisfaction and boredom, self‐rated improvement and effort exertion, and attitude toward athletics. Students who viewed the climate as mastery‐oriented evidenced a more motivationally adaptive pattern of responses. They were more task‐involved, believed success was due to effort, experienced greater satisfaction and less boredom, rated their improvement higher, and had a positive attitude toward athletics. In comparison, students who viewed the climate as performance‐oriented were more ego‐involved, believed success was due to deception, and rated their improvement as low. Based on the findings of this study, physical educators need to emphasize mastery‐oriented cues and de‐emphasize performance‐oriented cues.

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Paul J. Carpenter

Paul J. Carpenter and Kevin Morgan are with the School of Physical Education, Sport and Leisure, De Montfort University, UK.