Borrowing the dynamical systems perspective, two studies aimed to examine the potential properties of nonlinearity and history dependence of psychological momentum. Male regional-level table tennis players were asked to empathize with players in a very important contest by watching two video scenarios of a table tennis game in two separate sessions. The videos presented two inverted scenarios in which score gaps gradually increased or decreased. Competitive anxiety, self-confidence (Study 1), and goal involvement states (Study 2) were measured before each point. Cognitive and somatic anxieties decreased linearly during the increasing scenario, but increased nonlinearly in the decreasing scenario. Mastery-avoidance goals decreased nonlinearly in the increasing scenario, increased nonlinearly in the decreasing scenario, and displayed a negative hysteresis pattern. These findings offer new insights into the dynamics of psychological momentum and suggest new avenues of research.

Two studies were conducted among elite young judokas to examine (a) whether those who persisted in national training centers (n=52) were different from dropouts (n=52) in their perceptions of coach-, parent-, and peer-induced motivational climates, goal orientations, self-perceptions, perceived competence, and intention of dropping out, and (b) whether these variables varied during the persisting athletes' (n=82) first 2 years in these centers. Compared with persisting athletes, dropouts perceived the roles of coaches, parents, and peers as less task-involving, were less task-oriented, and intended more to drop. The association of peer-, coach-, and parent-induced task-involving climates predicted athletes' persistence. During the 2 years, persisting athletes' perceptions of coach-, parent-, and peer-induced task-involving climates decreased, while perceptions of a coach-induced ego-involving climate and the intention of dropping out increased in spite of more positive self-perceptions. Gender differences favoring males were observed for self-perceptions only. These results stress the importance for all the agents of the athletes' social environment to promote task-involving climates, because such climates appear to be naturally prone to degradation in the context of elite competition. The results also shed light on some high-level athletes' characteristics regarding motivational dispositions and self-concept.

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The influence of an unexpected outcome in a first sprint trial on athletes’ selfefficacy and performance, and the relationships between outcome, causal attribution, self-efficacy, and performance were examined. Sixty-two national level competition sprinters assessed self-efficacy, ran a first 60 m trial with manipulated time feedback (success vs. failure), expressed causal attributions, assessed self-efficacy again, and ran a second 60 m trial. Success and failure, respectively, increased and decreased self-efficacy. Stability of causes mediated the feedback, self-efficacy relation for males. Personal control predicted self-efficacy for females. Performance was not influenced by feedback but was weakly predicted by self-efficacy. This study sheds light on some of the cognitive and motivational processes that are involved in serial sports events.

In business and sports, teams often experience periods of positive and negative momentum while pursuing their goals. However, researchers have not yet been able to provide insights into how psychological and behavioral states actually change during positive and negative team momentum. In the current study we aimed to provide these insights by introducing an experimental dynamical research design. Rowing pairs had to compete against a virtual opponent on rowing ergometers, while a screen in front of the team broadcasted the ongoing race. The race was manipulated so that the team’s rowing avatar gradually progressed (positive momentum) or regressed (negative momentum) in relation to the victory. The participants responded verbally to collective efficacy and task cohesion items appearing on the screen each minute. In addition, effort exertion and interpersonal coordination were continuously measured. Our results showed negative psychological changes (perceptions of collective efficacy and task cohesion) during negative team momentum, which were stronger than the positive changes during positive team momentum. Moreover, teams’ exerted efforts rapidly decreased during negative momentum, whereas positive momentum accompanied a more variable and adaptive sequence of effort exertion. Finally, the interpersonal coordination was worse during negative momentum than during positive momentum. These results provide the first empirical insights into actual team momentum dynamics, and demonstrate how a dynamical research approach significantly contributes to current knowledge on psychological and behavioral processes.

Based on the dynamical systems perspective, the present study aimed to explore how states of involvement toward mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals (Elliot & Church, 1997) flow, are interrelated, and are activated during a practice judo combat. Using a retrospective video recall method, two male national level judo competitors expressed on a computer their moment-to-moment level of involvement toward each goal. Self-confrontation interviews also based on the video were immediately conducted. Analyses of variance revealed differences in levels of each goal between periods of the combat. Windowed cross-correlation analyses showed that the patterns of relationships between the time series of the different goals considered two-by-two included either high positive, high negative, or zero correlations, depending on the moment. Qualitative data analyses supported these findings and suggested that goal involvement states emerged and fluctuated according to the ecological constraints of the situation, such as the initial contextual conditions and the course of action.

The aim of this study was to examine (1) the temporal structures of variation in rowers’ (natural) ergometer strokes to make inferences about the underlying motor organization, and (2) the relation between these temporal structures and skill level. Four high-skilled and five lower-skilled rowers completed 550 strokes on a rowing ergometer. Detrended Fluctuation Analysis was used to quantify the temporal structure of the intervals between force peaks. Results showed that the temporal structure differed from random, and revealed prominent patterns of pink noise for each rower. Furthermore, the high-skilled rowers demonstrated more pink noise than the lower-skilled rowers. The presence of pink noise suggests that rowing performance emerges from the coordination among interacting component processes across multiple time scales. The difference in noise pattern between high-skilled and lower-skilled athletes indicates that the complexity of athletes’ motor organization is a potential key characteristic of elite performance.

Recently, Elliot and Murayama (2008 ) pointed out a number of theoretical and methodological shortcomings among the instruments assumed to measure achievement goals. This research aimed to develop and validate a French Achievement Goals Questionnaire for Sport and Exercise (FAGQSE). In a first study, factor analyses conducted on a 20-item preliminary version supported the existence of four factors corresponding to the four types of goals of Elliot and McGregor’s (2001 ) framework (mastery-approach, performance-approach, mastery-avoidance, and performance-avoidance). A second study examined a more parsimonious 12-item version of the FAGQSE, which was found to be valid among samples of athletes, exercisers, and physical education students. The temporal stability of the questionnaire was evidenced by a satisfactory test-retest over a 1-month period, and its theoretical validity was supported by correlations between achievement goals and entity/incremental theories of sports ability, perceived sports competence, and sports anxiety. The FAGQSE is a valid and reliable French instrument for achievement goal motivation. This instrument can be used for theoretical and applied purposes in various sports and exercise settings.