FW279 Goal Setting

Chapter 15: Goal Setting
15
Goal SettingGoal Setting
C H A P T E R

Session Outline
• Defining goals and types of goals
• Why goal setting works
• Principles of goal setting
• Group goals
• Designing a goal-setting system
• Common problems in goal setting

Defining Goals and Types of Goals
• Subjective goals: General statements of intent
such as having fun or doing your best
• Objective goals (scientific definition):
Attaining a specific standard of proficiency on a
task, usually in a specified time
• Outcome goals: Focus on a competitive result
of an event (e.g., beating someone)
(continued)

Defining Goals and Types of Goals
(continued)
• Performance goals: Focus on achieving
standards of performance or objectives
independently of other competitors—usually
making comparisons with one’s own previous
performance
• Process goals: Focus on the actions an
individual must engage in during performance
to execute or perform well

Goal Types and Behavior Change
• Outcome, performance, and process goals
all play roles in behavior change. The key is
knowing where to focus each goal.
• Don’t focus all your attention on outcome
goals.
• Use a combination of all three types of
goals.
(continued)

(continued)
• Outcome goals can facilitate short-term
motivation but often lead to anxiety before
and during competition.
• Performance and process goals are more
precise than outcome goals and less
dependent on the behavior of others.
(continued)

(continued)
• Performance and process goals are
particularly useful before or during
competition (on rare occasions).
• Too much focus on a specific performance
goal (e.g., running a personal best) can
create anxiety.
• Process goals have all the advantages of
performance goals.

Importance of Subjective Goals
• Subjective goals are not the focus of sport
and exercise psychology research, but they
are useful.
• Considerable attention has been paid to
subjective goals in the literature on
personal productivity and applied business
management.
(continued)

Importance of Subjective Goals
(continued)
• Identify and clarify personal values and
priorities via subjective goals.
• Then link subjective goals to specific
objective goals.

Is Goal Setting Effective?
• Research in business and general
psychology has shown that goal setting
works extremely well in enhancing
performance.
• Goal-setting effectiveness has been
demonstrated in studies with more than
40,000 participants using over 90 tasks and
across 20 countries.

Goal-Setting Research
• Meta-analyses (statistical reviews of the
literature) show that goal setting works.
• In sport and exercise psychology, goal
setting has been shown to work well,
although not quite as well as it does in
business.
(continued)

Goal-Setting Research (continued)
• Almost all athletes use some type of goal
setting to enhance performance.
• Top three goals for athletes:
– Improving performance
– Winning
– Enjoyment
• Athletes prefer moderately difficult, difficult,
and very difficult goals.
(continued)

• Major goal barriers for college athletes: Lack
of time, stress, fatigue, academic pressure, and
social relationships
• Major goal barriers for Olympians: Lack of
confidence, lack of goal feedback, too many
goals or conflicting goals, lack of time, work
commitments, and family and personal
relationships
(continued)

• Females set goals more often and find them
more effective than men do.
• Athletes do not systematically write down
goals.
• The more experience athletes have with
goal setting, the better they are at
developing effective goal-setting strategies.
(continued)

• Athletes set goals to provide direction and
help them stay focused.
• Athletes using multiple goal strategies
exhibit the best performance.
• Individual differences must be considered.

Why Goal Setting Works
• Indirect thought process view: Goals
influence performance indirectly by affecting
psychological factors, such as anxiety,
confidence, and satisfaction.
• Direct mechanistic explanation: Goals
– direct attention to the important elements of the skill,
– mobilize performers’ efforts,
– prolong performers’ persistence, and
– foster the development of new learning strategies.
(continued)

Why Goal Setting Works (continued)
• Goals influence psychological states:
Athletes who set performance (rather than
outcome) goals have less anxiety and more
confidence and satisfaction.

Principles of Goal Setting
• Set specific goals.
• Set moderately difficult but realistic goals.
• Set long- and short-term goals.
• Set performance and process goals as well
as outcome goals.
• Set practice and competition goals.
• Record goals.
(continued)

Principles of Goal Setting (continued)
• Develop goal achievement strategies.
• Consider participants’ personalities and
motivations.
• Foster an individual’s goal commitment.
• Provide goal support.
• Provide evaluation of and feedback about
goals.
(continued)

• Set specific goals.
– Specific goals, as compared with general “do your
best” goals, are most effective for producing
behavioral change.
– General goal: Reduce cholesterol.
– Specific goal: Reduce cholesterol from 290 to 200
by… [how].
• Set moderately difficult but realistic goals.
– Specific goal: Reduce cholesterol from 290 to 200
by… [how].
(continued)

• Set long- and short-term goals.
– Use goal staircases that link long- and short-term
goals.
• Set performance and process goals as well
as outcome goals.
– For every outcome goal, set several performance
and process goals that will lead to the desired
outcome.
(continued)

• Set practice and competition goals.
• Record goals.
– “Ink it, don’t think it.”
• Develop goal achievement strategies.
– Strategies include how much and how often things
will be done in an effort to achieve a goal. Be
flexible, however.
(continued)

• Consider participants’ personalities and
motivations.
– Consider factors such as achievement motivation
(high versus low achievers), stages of achievement
motivation, social comparison, task or ego
orientation, and dispositional hope when setting
goals.
– Motivational climate also influences goal-setting
effectiveness.
(continued)

• Foster an individual’s goal commitment.
– Promote goal commitment by encouraging progress and
providing consistent feedback. Solicit the athlete’s or
exerciser’s input.
• Provide goal support.
– Enlist support from significant others to make goal setting
effective.
• Provide evaluation of and feedback about
goals.
– Goal evaluation and feedback are essential parts of
facilitating behavioral change via goal setting.

Hope
• Hope involves the thinking process whereby
people have an overall perception that goals
can be met and the skills to go about
achieving those goals.
• People high in hope have a sense of goal-
directed determination or agency and
planning of ways to meet goals or labeled
pathways.
(continued)

Hope (continued)
• Trait and state measures of hope have been
found to correlate to psychological
adjustment, achievement, problem solving,
and health.

Hope-Based Power 4W
Goal-Setting System
• Wish power: Identifying dream goals
• Want power: Realistic short- and long-term goals
that lead to one’s dream goal
• Way power: Developing multiple plans and
strategies for achieving one’s goals
• Will power: The determination and discipline
required for working toward goals and overcoming
obstacles that arise while achieving them

Group Goals
• The future state of affairs desired by enough
members of a group to work toward its
achievement
• Attaining specific standards of group
proficiency, usually within a specified time

Group Goal-Setting Principles
• Establish long-term goals first.
• Establish clear paths of short-term goals en route
to the long-term goals.
• Involve all members of the team in establishing
team goals.
• Monitor progress toward team goals.
• Reward progress made toward team goals.
• Foster collective team confidence or efficacy
concerning team goals.

SMARTS Goals
• Specific
• Measureable
• Action oriented
• Realistic
• Timely
• Self-determined

Designing a Goal-Setting System
• Instructor’s preparation and planning
– Assess abilities and needs.
– Set goals in diverse areas.
– Identify influences on goal-setting systems (athlete’s
commitment, potential, and opportunity for practice).
– Plan goal achievement strategies.
(continued)

Designing a Goal-Setting System
(continued)
• Education and acquisition
– Schedule meetings.
– Focus on one goal (initially).
• Implementation and follow-up
– Identify appropriate goal evaluation strategies.
– Provide support and encouragement.
– Plan for goal reevaluation.

Outcome Goals in Behavior Change
• Goals can be set in many areas, including
individual, team, and psychological skills.
• See table 15.2 on p. 356 of text for sample
goals.

Common Problems in Goal Setting
• Convincing students, athletes, and
exercisers to set goals
• Failing to set specific goals
• Setting too many goals too soon
• Failing to adjust goals
• Failure to recognize individual differences
• Not providing goal follow-up and evaluation

FW279 Goal Setting

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