Introduction

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the importance of goals within the sporting context. In particular it is the area of outcome goals and achievement/performance goals, which will be under discussion. Goals such as these come under the broader heading of Motivation.

Although not always called motivation, it has been the use of motivation that has inspired, or other wise, for thousands of years. The kings and great generals of the past realised that they had to motivate their followers in order to win battles and survive. In more recent times leaders such as Hitler and Churchill made great speeches to encourage (motivate) others. Even more recently, the American candidates for the White House have delivered motivational speeches in order to gain votes and therefore win the presidency. In the sporting world, the 2000 Olympics saw thousands of athletes motivating themselves, or being motivated by their trainers, in order to perform their best at their event. The training, which led to this, would be equally dependent upon motivational activities to promote success.

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What is Motivation?

A dictionary definition of motivation is “either a motivating force or incentive”. To apply this definition it would be safe to assume that an incentive or motivating force is needed in order to encourage people to do something. In the case of doing housework the motivation is not to have a dirty house.

The first area is known as the outcome variable. This is usually measured or is operationalised by form of choice, effort and persistence behaviour. Alderman (1978), Carron (1984) and Gill (1986a), state that the individual character differences and physical and social environmental ...

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