Martínez-González Natalia, Atienza Francisco L, Duda Joan L, Balaguer Isabel
Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Speech Therapy, University of Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain.
Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment, Faculty of Psychology and Speech Therapy, University of Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2025 May 12;15(5):661. doi: 10.3390/bs15050661.
Goal Contents Theory (GCT) postulates that the goals people pursue not only direct their perceptions of and behaviors relevant to goal pursuit, but also hold implications for their well- and ill-being. Extending past sport work grounded in this theory, this study explored athletes' self-generated goals and examined whether these goals were differentially aligned with goal-related processes and well- and ill-being. A total of 414 university team athletes (206 women and 208 men) completed a questionnaire at the beginning of the sport season. The results showed that intrinsic goals, assessed in an open-ended format, were more heterogeneous in terms of content, and more common among athletes than extrinsic goals. In addition, women reported more intrinsic goals and fewer extrinsic goals than men. MANCOVA revealed that athletes who pursued extrinsic goals reported significantly lower self-efficacy and greater perceptions of goal difficulty than athletes with intrinsic goals. No differences in goal motives and well- and ill-being indicators emerged. Finally, two models were tested that illustrate how goal content is related to self-efficacy for goal attainment, goal motives, and well- and ill-being. Overall, the findings were largely congruent with GCT and indicate that the quality of athletes' goal-related processes and their well- and ill-being vary as a function of whether they are pursuing intrinsic or extrinsic goals.
目标内容理论（GCT）假定，人们追求的目标不仅引导他们对与目标追求相关的事物的认知和行为，还对他们的幸福和不幸有着影响。本研究在这一理论基础上拓展以往的体育研究工作，探索了运动员自我设定的目标，并考察这些目标是否与目标相关过程以及幸福和不幸存在差异关联。共有414名大学运动队运动员（206名女性和208名男性）在赛季开始时完成了一份问卷。结果显示，以开放式形式评估的内在目标在内容上更加多样化，并且在运动员中比外在目标更为常见。此外，女性报告的内在目标比男性更多，外在目标比男性更少。多变量协方差分析显示，追求外在目标的运动员比追求内在目标的运动员报告的自我效能感显著更低，且对目标难度的感知更强。在目标动机以及幸福和不幸指标方面未出现差异。最后，测试了两个模型，以说明目标内容与目标达成的自我效能感、目标动机以及幸福和不幸之间的关系。总体而言，研究结果在很大程度上与目标内容理论一致，表明运动员与目标相关过程的质量及其幸福和不幸会因他们追求的是内在目标还是外在目标而有所不同。
