Goal Profiles in Sport Motivation: A Cluster Analysis

Abstract

This investigation compared cluster analysis with the mean-split procedure for examining goal-orientation profiles and examined whether the goal-profile groups revealed differences in athletes’ perceptions of their physical abilities. Rugby players (N = 257, mean age = 20.62 years, SD = 3.64) completed a questionnaire assessing goal orientation, perceived rugby ability and competence, and self-concept of physical ability. Unlike the mean-split procedure, in which scores are forced into high/high, high/low, low/high, or low/low groups, cluster analysis revealed groups that varied in low-, moderate-, and high-task and -ego goals. Moreover, no extreme group profiles (high-ego/high-task or low-ego/low-task) emerged when cluster analysis was used. Multivariate results from the cluster analysis revealed that Cluster 4 (low-ego/moderate-task) reported significantly lower levels of perceived rugby ability/competence than did Cluster 3 (high-ego/moderate-task), indicating that ego might be the determining orientation in adaptive or maladaptive goal profiles. The Cluster 3 goal-profile group (high-ego/moderate-task) scored highest on all 3 dependent measures related to perception of physical abilities.

Interactive Effects of Goal Orientation and Perceived Competence on Enjoyment among Youth Swimmers

“…In contrast, other studies (Hodge & Petlichkoff, 2000;Smith et al, 2006) did not determine the same profiles as we did in our study. In the studies of Hodge and Petlichkoff (2000) and Smith et al (2006), only one of four clusters in each study was replicated in our study.…”

“…The mean responses for task and ego orientation show that young swimmers were more task-than ego-oriented and that the mean responses for ego orientation were somewhat higher (M=3.55) than those found by Hodge and Petlichkoff (2000) (M=2.84) and Smith et al (2006) (M=2.11) for team sport athletes. This is not surprising given the individual nature of the sport of swimming.…”

“…As expected, little correlation was found between ego orientation and perceived competence, and there was no relation between ego orientation and enjoyment in swimming ( In order to classify the respondents based on their results in the subscales of task and ego orientation, k-means or non-hierarchical method cluster analysis with a simple Euclidean distance was used. In this case, a four-cluster solution was chosen based on prior studies (Hodge & Petlichkoff, 2000). However, in a solution specifying three, five and six clusters, it was found that the four clusters structure is the cleanest and most robust.…”

“…Some researchers used a cutoff criterion of 0.5 standard deviation above or below the mean but, unfortunately, this approach eliminates a significant number of participants from the analysis. Thus, these methods force the data into high or low groupings, eliminating the possibility of examining the effects of average responses on either the task or ego orientation scale (Hodge & Petlichkoff, 2000). As an alternative, Hodge and Petlichkoff (2000) proposed the use of cluster analysis for determining goal orientation profiles.…”

“…Thus, these methods force the data into high or low groupings, eliminating the possibility of examining the effects of average responses on either the task or ego orientation scale (Hodge & Petlichkoff, 2000). As an alternative, Hodge and Petlichkoff (2000) proposed the use of cluster analysis for determining goal orientation profiles. Cluster analysis is an analytical procedure, the main purpose of which is to classify objects into groups based on their characteristics.…”