Implicit Theories of Ability in Sports and 2x2 Achievement Goals

Background/Purpose: Students’ ability conceptions are a strong predictor of their engagement in PE. According to implicit theories of ability (Dweck, 2002), there exist two dimensions: Entity/fixed and malleable through effort. These ability beliefs determine what goals students would adopt in an achievement context. Students endorsing entity views of ability would pursue ego goal orientations where social comparisons are focused, while students with incremental views would pursue task goal orientations where task mastery are emphasized. Elliot and colleagues (Elliot, 2005; Elliot and McGregor, 2001) has advanced the traditional dichotomous goal perspective by amalgamating the approach and avoidance forms of motivation. They propose a 2x2 achievement goal model: mastery-approach goals (developing self-referent competence), mastery avoidance goals (avoiding developing self-referent incompetence), performance-approach goals (demonstrating normative competence), and performance-avoidance goals (avoiding demonstrating normative incompetence). The previous research has mainly examined the relationship between implicit theories of ability and achievement goals from a dichotomous perspective. The purpose of this study was to examine implicit theories of ability and achievement goals under the 2x2 model.

Method: Participants were 272 5^th Chinese graders. They completed a demographic survey, implicit theories of ability in sports, 2x2 achievement goals, and other questionnaires for research purposes in their classroom. All the surveys were translated into Chinese and back-translated into English by the second author (bilingual and affluent in Chinese and English). The translations were also checked by three experts who are affluent in Chinese and English.

Analysis/Results: Correlational analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between implicit theories of ability in sports and 2x2 achievement goals. The entity subscale was dropped from analysis due to low Cronbach’s alpha of .55. The standardized cronbach’s alphas for other scales ranged from .68 to .88. Participants held high incremental views, mastery-approach and performance approach goals. The correlational analysis showed that incremental views were positively related to mastery-avoidance, r(272)=.21, p<.0004, mastery-approach, r(272)=.53, p<.0001, and performance-approach, r(272)=.22, p<.0002.

Conclusions: The findings of this study supported the previously established link between incremental views of ability in sports and dichotomous achievement goals. Additionally, we found that participants with incremental views were likely to adopt performance-approach goals. It is suggested that students who believe in the efficacy of effort can focus themselves on developing both self-referent and normative competence. This study is significant as it lays a foundation to further explore how students who endorse incremental views and pursue performance-approach goals would respond in the face of difficulties.