The Influence Of Social Agents In Students Goal Orientations In Physical Education Setting
Integra
Introduction
Recently, Papaioannou (1999) proposed a multidimensional hierarchical model for the following four goal orientations:
personal development, ego-strengthening, ego-protection and social acceptance. Central to this model is the hierarchical
structure of goal orientations at different levels of generality. Four levels of generality are proposed, that is, goal
orientations operate at the global higher order level (life in general), global lower-order level (human action domain
irrespective of life context), contextual level (life domain), and situational level of generality. It is also suggested that at
each level of generality the social factors effect on people’s goal orientations. Specifically, researchers have found that,
individually, mothers [2], peers [5] and teachers [1] can mediate children’s motivation in school and sport settings. The
purpose of this study was to examine how these four students’ goals are being affected by the social agents (mother,
Physical Education teacher, best friend) in one life contexts that is Physical Education, in one domain of human action, that
is, achievement.
Methods
Participants were 2365 students (boys and girls) of the last grade in Elementary and first grade of senior high school from
schools in Drama, Xanthi, and Thessalonica. Four instruments were developed assessing the 4 goal orientations and the
perceptions of social agents’ emphasis on students’ goal orientations in the achievement domain in school physical
education [4].
Results
Factor and reliability analysis supported the psychometric properties of the instruments; and verified the existence of 4 goal
orientations and 4 perceptions the social agents’ emphasis on goal orientations in Physical Education. Regression analysis
showed that all social agents affected students’ goal orientations. Moreover, the perceptions of mother’s and best friend’s
emphasis on goal orientations had the greatest contribution in the explained variance of students’ goal orientations (Table 1).
Discussion
The results support the validity of the hierarchical model and confirm the important role of specific social agents on
students’ goal orientations.
References
[1]. Christodoulidis, T., Papaioannou, A., & Digelidis, N. (2001). European Journal of Sport Science, vol. 1, issue 4.
[2]. Gonzalez, A. R., Doan Holbein, M. F., & Quilter, S. (2002). Contemporary Educational Psychology, 27, 450-470.
[3]. Papaioannou, A. (1999). Proceedings of the 10th European Congress of Sport Psychology, Prague.
[4]. Papaioannou, A., Milosis, D., Kosmidou, E., & Tsigilis, N. (2002). Psychology, 9(4), 494-513.
[5]. Smith, A. L. (1999). Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 21, 329-350.
NOTA: O texto com a iconografia está no anexo.
