The Effects of Achievement Goals on Emotions and Performance in a Competitive Agility Task

The link between achievement goals and emotions has received much attention in the sport psychology literature. However, experimental studies are lacking. In this experiment, we investigated the effects of achievement goals on (a) emotions experienced before and after a competitive agility task and (b) perceived and actual agility performance. Male (n = 60) and female (n = 60) undergraduate students were assigned to a task, ego, or control group and following a practice session, they competed in a speed agility quickness ladder drill. Participants completed questionnaires measuring excitement and anxiety at prepractice and precompetition, happiness and dejection at postpractice and postcompetition, and perceived performance for practice and competition. Actual performance was also measured. ANCOVAs controlling for pre- and postpractice emotions and LSD comparisons showed that the ego group reported greater precompetition excitement than the task and control groups and higher precompetition anxiety than the task group. The task and ego groups also reported higher postcompetition perceived performance than the control group. The results suggest that ego involvement could influence excitement, and both achievement goals could affect perceived performance.