How do goal orientations and motivational climate interact to affect short-term performance and self-confidence in sport? A test of the matching hypothesis across three studies

Achievement Goal Theory (AGT) is an interactionist theory that predicts that motivation is determined by the interaction of dispositional goals and the motivational climate. The ‘matching hypothesis’ predicts that that motivation is optimal when there is congruency between dispositional goal orientation (DGO) and motivational climate (MC). The matching hypothesis is tacitly accepted as an important element in goal setting interventions by many practitioners, but few studies have tested the short-term motivational effects of matching on sport tasks. This issue was addressed by examining the interaction between DGO and MC on objective measures of performance of 138 advanced athletes (Experiment 1) and 139 recreational athletes (Experiment 2) on a 400m run, and on 154 recreational athletes’ ability to shoot basketball free-throws (Experiment 3). Moderated hierarchical regression revealed that the ego MC improved performance of more advanced athletes by 2 seconds, irrespective of their DGO (Experiment 1) and improved performance of recreational athletes by 2.4 seconds, unless the athletes had both high task and low ego DGO (Experiment 2). The MC had no effect on free-throw performance, but the ego MC significantly reduced confidence (Experiment 3). The facilitatory effect of ego climate on performance was mediated by the value athletes attached to ego goals, such that bigger improvement was seen in athletes who most valued ego goals. The parsimonious interpretation of these data is that aligning MC with DGO does not optimize short-term motivation. However, an ego MC can elicit enhanced performance in short duration tasks that rely on cardiovascular effort.