Goal Setting

Martin I. JonesBSc MSc PhD CPsychol CSci AFBPsS SFHEABASES accredited Sport and Exercise Scientist (Psychology)HCPC registered Sport and Exercise Psychologist

Intended Learning Outcomes On successfully completing this week’s study you will be able to...

Discuss goal setting theory within the context of sport

Describe how knowledge of goal setting theory might be applied to improve performance

Explain how specific interventions might be used maximise performance

Goals definedA goal is an “objective or aim of action” defined as attaining “a specific standard of proficiency on a task, usually within a specified time limit”

(p. 705, Locke & Latham, 2002).

HistoryEdwin Locke and Gary LathamI/O psychologyBased on over 400+ lab and field based studiesThe theory is one of accepted or internalized goals

How the level of intended achievement is related to actual level of achievement

Based on Ryan’s (1970) premise that conscious goals influence action

Why should we study

goal setting?

Time for an experimen

t

IT WORKS

Kyllo and Landers (1995) concluded goal-setting was a successful technique for improving performance

Burton and Weiss (2008) found 80% (of 88) studies showed moderate-strong positive effects

Ulmer and Burton (2010) found goal-setting interventions were moderately effective for enhancing motivation,

confidence, and performance

(active) break timein pairs discuss what you already know about goal setting theory

S.M.A.R.T.

Is that it?So why don’t people achieve their goals?

Content & Intensity

Goals have two major attributes—content and intensity.

Content refers to the nature of the activity or end sought.

Intensity relates to the level of importance of the goal to the person

Content: The right type of goalsGoal FocusProcess / performance

Goal TemporalityShort term, intermediate term, long term

Goal specificity

More specific = better performance?

SpecificityWhen athletes have specific goals or standards of performance to meet, the performance effects would be more pronounced than when specific goals were lacking (i.e., to do my best)

Can result in myopic focus on outcome rather than learning

Tunnel visionA focus on reaching the goal rather than on acquiring the skills required to reach it.

In such cases, the best results are attained if a learning goal is assigned—that is, a goal to acquire the requisite task knowledge

Locke & Latham, (2006)Learning goals facilitates metacognition namely, planning, monitoring, and evaluating progress toward goal attainment.

Metacognition is particularly necessary in environments in which there is minimal structure or guidance

Mediators

of goals and performance

Mediators are explaining variablesWhat causes the relationship?

Mediator variables -

In general, a given variable may be said to function as a mediator to the extent that it accounts for the relation between the predictor and the criterion. Mediators explain how external physical events take on internal psychological significance. Whereas moderator variables specify when certain effects will hold, mediators speak to how or why such effects occur. 

(p. 1176 Baron & Kenny, 1986)

Goal setting Performance

Difficulty Motivation Attention Self-efficacy

Goal difficultyMore difficult = better

performance?

High goals lead to greater effortand/or persistence than do moderately difficult, easy, or vague goals

High, or hard, goals are motivating because they require people to attain more in order to be satisfied than do low, or easy, goals

Goal difficultyAll about acceptance

Very difficult goals might well fail to achieve acceptance, and if this were the case, the positive relationship between goal difficulty and performance would no longer be expected to hold.

On almost any task there is a hypothetical level of difficulty beyond which goal acceptance will not occur. At this point a boundary condition of the theory has been reached

So long as a person is committed to the goal, has the requisite

ability to attain it, and does not have conflicting goals, there is a positive, linear relationship between goal difficulty and

task performance

(Locke & Latham, 2006, p 265)

Framing goalsDifficulty can be perceived as a threat

Gains vs. losses

Focus on success and the usefulness of effort

MotivationGoals may simply motivate people to use their existing ability, may automatically ‘‘pull’’ stored task-relevant knowledge into awareness, and/or may motivate people to search for new knowledge. The latter is most common when people are confronted by new, complex tasks

Goals and attentionGoals serve a directive function

They direct attention and effort toward goal-relevant activities and away from goal irrelevantactivities

Goals direct attention, effort, and action toward goal-relevantactions at the expense of non- relevant actions

Goals and self-efficacy

People with high self-efficacy are more likely than those with low self-efficacy to develop

effective task strategies

Self-Efficacy“people’s judgements of their capabilities to organise and execute courses of action”

Bandura (1977, 1986, 1997)

task-specific confidence

(Bandura, 1997)

Self efficacySelf-efficacy is a dynamic, fluctuating property. It’s not a static trait

Masteryexperiences

Verbal persuasion

Vicarious experiences

Physiologicaland affective

states

COGNITIONGoals

AttributionsDecisions

Problem solving

BEHAVIOURChoice /selection

EffortPersistence

AFFECTAnxietyArousal

DepressionConfidence

Flow

Efficacybeliefs

Moderated meditation?Self-efficacy often mediates the effects of other potentially motivating variables, such as personality traits, feedback, participation in decision making, job autonomy, and monetary incentives

Moderatorsof goals and performance

Affect the direction of size of the relationship

The boundary conditions of an effect

Moderator variablesIn general terms, a moderator is a qualitative (e.g., sex, race, class) or quantitative (e.g., level of reward) variable that affects the direction and/or strength of the relation between an independent or predictor variable and a dependent or criterion variable. Specifically within a correlational analysis framework, a moderator is a third variable that affects the zero-order correlation between two other variables. ... In the more familiar analysis of variance (ANOVA) terms, a basic moderator effect can be represented as an interaction between a focal independent variable and a factor that specifies the appropriate conditions for its operation.

 (p. 1174 Baron & Kenny, 1986)

Goal setting Performance

Feedback Commitment

Task complexi

ty

Situational constraint

s

Feedback and goalsPeople need summary feedbackthat reveals progress in relation to their goals

FeedbackVerbal Performance FeedbackVisual Feedback Relative to

Goal

Goal commitmentCommitment is most important and relevant when goals are difficult

Goals that are difficult require high effort and are associated with lower chances of success than easy goals

Commitment, self efficacy, and goal importance?

Self efficacy

Com

mitm

ent

Two key categories of factors facilitating goal commitment are a) Importance, for example outcomes that they expect as a result of working to attain a goal

b) their belief that they can attain the goal (self-efficacy)

Practical methods of increasing goal commitment?

Commitment

Public

Inspirational leadership

Democratic goals

Extrinsic reward

Increasing mastery

Role modelling

Persuasive communicatio

n

Inspirational messages

Task Complexity The extent that task knowledge is harder to acquire on complex tasks

Goal effects aredependent on the ability to discover appropriate task strategies

Meta-analysis of task complexity as moderatorIt was generally found that goal-setting effects were strongest for easy tasks (reaction time, brainstorming), and weakest for more complex tasks (business game simulations, scientific and engineering work, faculty research productivity)

Wood, Mento & Locke, 1987

Situational constraintsRole overload (excess work without the necessary resources to accomplish a task) moderates goal effects; goals affected performance only when overload was low

Should I set my own goals? Or should my coach set them for me?

Assigned goal effects are mediated by personal or self-set goals that people choose in response to the assignment, as well as by self-efficacy (and probably goal commitment)

Assigned goal Performance

Self-efficacy

Personal goals

Goal commitmen

t

Assigning a challenging goal alone raisesself-efficacy because this is an implicit expression of confidence by a leader that the employee can attain the goal

Individual differencesTraitsCore self-evaluations

TraitsDo people have a

disposition for a particular type of goal?

(E.g., process vs. outcome)

Seijts, Latham, Tasa, and Latham (2004)People with a learning goal orientation tend to choose tasks in which they can acquire knowledge and skill.

Those with a performance goal orientation tend to avoid tasks where others may judge them unfavourably due to possible errors they might make. Hence they tend to choose easy tasks in which they can look good in the eyes of others

Core- self evaluationsSelf-esteem

Emotional stabilityInternal locus of control

Self-efficacy

Erez and Judge (2001)

Core self evaluations

Goal setting motivation

Rated performance

Productivity

Activity level

0.15*

0.70** 0.31**

0.57**

0.34**

0.32**

0.16*

What goes in a goal?

Goal choicePast performanceSocial influencesIndividual differences

Athletes create discrepancies between past performance and future goals by setting current goals higher than their best previous performances.

Coming full circle

High core self evaluations lead to higher performance because

individuals adopt hard goals and are committed to them

Goal Core:SpecificityDifficulty

Performance

MediatorsEffort

AttentionSelf efficacy

Moderators:Goal

commitmentFeedback

Task ComplexitySpecificityDifficulty

Satisfaction with performance and

rewards

Willingness to commit to new

challenges

Key SummarySpecific, high (hard) goals lead to a higher level of task performance than do easy goals or vague, abstract goals such as the exhortation to ‘‘do one’s best.’’ So long as a person is committed to the goal, has the requisite ability to attain it, and does not have conflicting goals, there is a positive, linear relationship between goal difficulty and task performance.

Key Summary PointsThe relationship between goal setting and performance is complexThink about mediators and moderators when considering goal setting interventionsIndividual differences are important so must be addressed

How will this week’s content be assessed?

Martin I. JonesBSc MSc PhD CPsychol CSci AFBPsS SFHEA

BASES accredited Sport and Exercise Scientist (Psychology)HCPC registered Sport and Exercise Psychologist

E: m.i.jones@exeter Tw: @drmijones