Abstract

An exploratory investigation was carried out to study the effects of participation in goal-setting and ability and effort instructions on the behaviour and cognitions of children involved in a ball throw for distance. Prior research suggested that children who were allowed to set their own goal, as opposed to having a goal set for them by the experimenter, would perform better. Similarly, it was hypothesised that performance would be enhanced following instructions related to personal effort, as opposed to throwing ability. The results showed that participation in goal-setting had no effect on throwing performance, but there was a superior effect on task improvement for ability instructions. This was explained in terms of the individualistic goal structure of the task and the high saliency of effort in such situations. Ability instructions, therefore, were seen to enhance the already high effort orientations of the children. Results also showed that effort attributions, rather than ability attributions, were related to task satisfaction. The results are discussed in terms of achievement attribution theory and recent conceptualisations of achievement motivation. Verf.-Referat