The aim of this diploma thesis is to describe the role of the goals in coaching with focus on their form and their possible impact on the coaching process. The topic of the goals is presented from the several perspectives that are confronted each other. The thesis has two parts - the theoretical one and the empirical one. In the theoretical part of the work are defined the concepts that are related to the topic, described psychological principles and essence of coaching, clarified the role of the goals in coaching, summarized the psychological approaches in coaching, discussed possible negative consequences of the goals in coaching and at the end of the theoretical part is given a brief overview of current research of this topic. The second, empirical part is following by theoretical part. The research design is characterized by the quantitative research, where is mapped the goal orientation of the coaches and then their attitudes to work with the goals. The target group of the research are certified professional coaches in the Czech republic. The data collection is realized by the administration of a self- assessment questionnaire. Questions in the questionnaire are related to how coaches set the goals with coachees, how do they evaluate the goals during the cooperation and how do they percieve...

Achievement motivation theory suggests there are two primary approaches to achievement tasks: to appear competent or to develop a skill. These two different approaches to performance yield different affective and behavioral responses. Athletes holding a performance goal orientation tend to respond to challenges with behaviors exemplifying learned helplessness and increased anxiety. Athletes holding a mastery goal orientation tend to respond to challenges with greater effort and experience less sport-related anxiety. Individual athlete factors, such as grit, mindfulness, and achievement orientation may influence how athletes experience their environment and their levels of sport anxiety, and may interact with athletes' achievement motives to influence performance. I used hierarchical multiple regressions to test the main effects of feedback and mindfulness, and feedback and goal orientation, to determine if either mindfulness or goal orientation moderated the effects of feedback on performance. I also used simple regression to determine the relative predictive strength of mindfulness, grit, and goal orientation on athletes' experience of sport anxiety. Mindfulness, but not goal orientation, was a significant moderator of the feedback-shooting performance relationship, but particularly for athletes low in mindfulness; mastery-goal orientation, independently of feedback, was also a significant predictor of task performance. Mindfulness also emerged as the strongest predictor of reduced sport anxiety. These results suggest that, for athletes low in mindfulness, mastery-involving feedback may be especially helpful. Further, mindfulness may also reduce athlete's sport-related concentration disruption, worry, and somatic anxiety.

The aim of the thesis is to investigate the readiness characteristics that determine risk for either failure or withdrawal before students enter university. These relationships are investigated and explained with a literature discussion that includes readiness for university education, student transition, retention and withdrawal theory. The motivation for this research emanates against the challenges that the South African Higher Education in general faces as well as the demands placed on the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences to supply for the high demand for well equipped financial service professionals. The research project was completed in three phases. In the first phase a structured questionnaire was developed to measure the non-cognitive factors relating to readiness for university education. The purpose of the ‘Academic Readiness Questionnaire’ is to function as a screening test for first-year students that enter university. The Academic Readiness Questionnaire went through a scientific process of test development and standardisation. The overall Cronbach’s alpha for the questionnaire is 0.87, which indicates good internal consistency reliability for the scale with this sample. In the second phase the Academic Readiness Questionnaire was administered to the 2008 cohort of first-time entering students from the faculty of Economic and Management Sciences during the first-year orientation week. The total number of students in the sample is 829 students. In the third phase the students who withdrew from their studies were interviewed telephonically. A total of 42 students were interviewed to determine the salient reasons for withdrawal. Quantitative data were analysed using various descriptive and inferential statistical methods. These include factor analysis, regression analysis and multiway frequency analysis. The telephonic interviews were analysed with content analysis. The main findings reveal that the readiness characteristics show a direct relationship with academic success and intention to withdraw. The number of variables able to predict risk for either failure or withdrawal differ. More variables show a significant relationship with risk for failure than for withdrawal. Furthermore, the research results show that African students have higher academic achievement and are less likely to withdraw, when compared to white students. African students also tend to have higher academic success, compared to white students. The differences in academic success and withdrawal rates among African and white students are due to high school achievement and the number of credits the students register for. White students are also more likely to withdraw voluntarily, mostly within the first couple of weeks or months mainly due to choosing an incorrect study choice. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Psychology / unrestricted

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Mentoring relationships can have both costs and benefits for mentors and their proteges. The present research examined the degree to which mentors' perceived costs and benefits affect the functional and dysfunctional mentoring they provide to their proteges. Additionally, I investigated whether mentor-perceived costs and benefits were associated with the mentors' own goal orientation and the goal orientation of their proteges. Data were collected from 86 proteges and their current supervisory mentors. Consistent with expectations, when mentors reported greater costs of embarrassment associated with their relationship, the proteges reported receiving greater dysfunctional mentoring. Proteges who reported receiving greater functional mentoring tended to have mentors who perceived greater benefits of mentoring them. Both proteges and mentor goal orientations demonstrated significant correlations with mentor-perceived costs and benefits of their relationships. Implications for training and reinforcing functional mentoring will be discussed.

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Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka sambanden mellan variablerna psykologisk trygghet, motivationsklimat, målorientering och upplevd förmåga hos idrottare genom att variablerna upplevt motivationsklimat, upplevd målorientering och upplevd förmåga studeras utifrån hur de predicerar (uttalar sig om) psykologisk trygghet. Studien utgick från en kvantitativ forskningsmetod och samlade in data med hjälp av ett digitalt frågeformulär. Sammanlagt deltog 109 aktiva idrottare i studien med ett åldersspann mellan 18-56 år (M = 27.21, SD = 8.54). Deltagarna var aktiva på elitnivå (professionell-/yrkesmässig nivå), semi-elitnivå (inte elit- eller yrkesmässig nivå men tävlar och satsar mot elitnivå) eller som motionär (aktivt idrottar någon/några gånger i veckan för nöjes skull). Resultatet utifrån en multipel regressionsanalys visade att ett upplevt uppgiftsorienterat motivationsklimat och upplevd förmåga var statistiskt signifikanta prediktorvariabler till psykologisk trygghet med positiva samband, samt att en upplevd ego-orienterad målorientering var en statistiskt signifikant prediktorvariabel till psykologisk trygghet med ett negativt samband. Ett upplevt resultatorienterat motivationsklimat och en upplevd uppgiftsorienterad målorientering visade sig inte vara statistiskt signifikanta prediktorvariabler till psykologisk trygghet. Resultatet visade även utifrån en tillhörande korrelationsanalys att det förekom flertalet statistiskt signifikanta korrelationer mellan variablerna med positiva respektive negativa samband. Slutsatsen som kan dras utifrån ovanstående resultat är att om idrottarna upplever ett uppgiftsorienterat motivationsklimat och en hög egen förmåga kan det bidra till en ökad upplevd psykologisk trygghet, och om idrottarna upplever en ego-orienterad målorientering och en låg upplevd förmåga kan det leda till en minskad upplevd psykologisk trygghet. / The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between the variables psychological safety, motivational climate, goal orientation and perceived ability in athletes, by studying how the variables motivational climate, goal orientation and perceived ability predicts psychological safety. The study was based on a quantitative research method and gathered data using a digital questionnaire. In total 109 active athletes participated in the study with an age span between 18-56 years (M = 27.21, SD = 8.54). The participants were active on elite level (professional level), semi-elite level (non-professional but competes and aims for elite level) or as an exerciser (actively sport some times a week for fun). The results of a multiple regression analysis revealed that a perceived task oriented motivational climate and perceived ability were statistically significant predictor variables to psychological safety with positive connections, and that a perceived ego oriented goal orientation was a statistically significant predictor variable to psychological safety with a negative connection. A perceived result oriented motivational climate and a perceived task oriented goal orientation showed not to be statistically significant predictor variables to psychological safety. The results also showed from a belonging correlation analysis that a majority of statistically significant correlations occurred between the variables with positive respective negative connections. The conclusion that can be drawn from the result above is that if the athletes perceives a task oriented motivational climate and a high own ability, it may contribute to an increased perceived psychological safety, and if the athletes perceives an ego oriented goal orientation and a low own ability it may lead to a decreased perceived psychological safety.

Det finns ett kunskapsgap i mellanstadieelevers matematikprestationer mellan elever med låg socioekonomisk status och resterande elever i Sverige. Lärarens förväntningar visar sig även vara en viktig faktor när det kommer till elevers prestationer i matematik och inte minst för skolor med låg socioekonomisk status. Av den anledningen är det intressant att undersöka hur lärarens förväntningar och elevens prestation korrelerar i socioekonomiskt utsatta områden. Syftet med studien är att belysa hur lärarens förväntningar korrelerar med elevens matematikprestationer för årskurs 6, i socioekonomiskt utsatta områden i en svensk medelstor kommun. Syftet besvaras genom frågorna: hur upplever elever lärarens förväntningar i ämnet matematik och hur ser sambandet ut mellan lärarens förväntningar, elevens motivation och elevens matematikprestationer i en svensk skolkontext? Studien använder Expectancy-Value-Theory som teoretisk utgångspunkt för att undersöka hur elevernas prestationer påverkas av lärarens förväntningar, både direkt och indirekt genom motivation. Studien använder en kvantitativ metod och data samlas in via en enkät som besvaras av 67 elever i årskurs 6. Det insamlade materialet analyseras med hjälp av korstabeller och Chi2-test. Resultatet i studien visar att majoriteten av eleverna upplever höga förväntningar, self-efficacy och uppgiftsinriktade mål, oavsett vilket betyg eleven har. Lärarens förväntningar visar inte ett direkt samband med elevernas matematikprestationer, men har ett signifikant samband med elevens self-efficacy och uppgiftsinriktade mål. / There is a knowledge gap in middle school students' mathematics performance between students with low socioeconomic status and other students in Sweden. Teachers' expectations also prove to be an important factor in students' performance in mathematics, particularly in schools with low socioeconomic status. For this reason, it is interesting to investigate how teachers' expectations and students' performance correlate in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas.  The purpose of the study is to highlight how teachers' expectations correlate with students' mathematics performance in grade 6, in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas in a medium-sized Swedish municipality. The purpose is addressed through the following questions: how do students perceive teachers' expectations in the subject of mathematics, and what is the relationship between teachers' expectations, students' motivation, and students' mathematics performance in a Swedish school context? The study uses Expectancy-Value Theory as a theoretical framework to examine how students' performance is influenced by teachers' expectations, both directly and indirectly through motivation. The study employs a quantitative method and data is collected via a questionnaire answered by 67 students in grade 6. The data is analyzed using cross-tabulations and Chi-square tests. The results of the study show that the majority of students perceive high expectations, self-efficacy, and mastery goal orientation. regardless of their grades. Teachers' expectations do not show a direct correlation with students' mathematics performance but have a significant correlation with students' self-efficacy and mastery goal orientation.