Reversal theory conceptualizes that telic-dominant individuals tend to be more serious-minded and anxiety-avoidant than paratelic-dominant individuals who tend to be more playful and excitement-seeking. Previous reversal theory research has shown that telic/paratelic metamotivation plays an important role in the way individuals experience their sport involvement. This study was undertaken given the fact that no known effort has been made to comprehensively examine the influence of motor task conditions (favorable vs. unfavorable) on motor performance and related affective states for individuals who differ in their metamotivational dominance. The main purpose of this research was to experimentally examine whether motor performance, affect, self-efficacy, and telic/paratelic state vary as a function of task condition (favorable vs. unfavorable) and telic/paratelic dominance. It was hypothesized that paratelic-dominant individuals would show better motor performance, more pleasant feelings, and higher efficacy perceptions under unfavorable task conditions (i.e., losing) compared to telic-dominant individuals. On the other hand, telic-dominant individuals would show better motor performance, and more pleasant feelings under more favorable task conditions (i.e., winning) compared to paratelic-dominant individuals. Furthermore, it was predicted that telic-dominant individuals would reverse to a paratelic state of mind while performing under favorable condition, whereas paratelic-dominant individuals would tend to maintain a paratelic state of mind for a longer period of time until they reverse to the telic state under unfavorable conditions. Participants (n = 40) were divided into three dominance groups (telic, nondominant, and paratelic) based on their paratelic dominance scale (PDS) total scores. Two main tasks were employed in the current study. The first task required participants to throw darts from short (1.37m) and long (3.37m) distances from the dartboard. The second task required participants to compete against each other under positive (win), variable (win/lose), and negative (lose) feedback conditions. The dependent variables included dart-throwing accuracy, pleasantness, arousal, self-efficacy, and telic/paratelic state. Repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were utilized to test the study's hypotheses. Although the hypothesized condition-by-dominance interaction effects did not achieved statistical significance, the main effects of the dart-throwing condition on the dependent variables were evidenced. Results for dart performance, pleasantness, and efficacy perception in the competitive task revealed that the effects of receiving variable and negative feedback were relatively more negative for telic-dominant participants than for their paratelic counterparts. Under variable and negative feedback, paratelic-dominant participants demonstrated better dart accuracy performance, more pleasant feelings, and higher efficacy perceptions compared to the telic-dominant participants. The results further showed that several reversals from telic-to-paratelic state and from paratelic-to-telic state occurred between and within conditions. Participants were more serious-minded under the long throwing distance and negative feedback conditions (more unfavorable conditions), whereas they tended to be more playful-minded under the short throwing distance and the positive feedback conditions (more favorable conditions), with significant differences between conditions. Furthermore, the results showed that the pleasant feelings and efficacy perceptions experienced in the short throwing distance and the positive feedback conditions were more pronounced than in the long throwing distance and negative feedback conditions. These differences between conditions were found to be significant. Furthermore, overall results of this study revealed that participants were more paratelic-minded and reported the highest pleasant scores in the short throwing distance and positive feedback conditions. Their efficacy perceptions were also the highest in these conditions. This suggests that the perception of self-efficacy is important in elevating feelings of pleasantness, as well as inducing the paratelic state while performing. These results might therefore clarify previously reported findings. Moreover, results showed that although paratelic-dominant participants performed better and felt more self-efficacious under the short throwing condition; they felt less pleasant compared to their telic counterparts. In accordance with reversal theory, this suggests that paratelic-minded participants might have interpreted their high efficacy as an indication of task competence and, thus, such a non-challenging task is less likely to be appealing to them. Overall, the study's findings provide some evidence that supports previously reported research findings that assert that task condition interact with metamotivational dominance to determine feelings and motivations. The current study emphases the importance of including metamotivational dominance in future reversal theory research. Importantly, this study adds efficacy perceptions to the existent reversal theory literature on telic/paratelic dominance. Telic and paratelic-dominant individuals' difference in efficacy perceptions might be valuable to consider in order to more fully understand their sport behavior and experience (e.g., affect, physical activity preference, risk taking). Thus, forthcoming reversal theory studies need to consider both telic/paratelic dominance and efficacy perceptions in studying sport and exercise experiences. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2004. / November 13, 2003. / Sport, Emotion, Affect / Includes bibliographical references. / Gershon Tenenbaum, Professor Directing Dissertation; Aubrey Kent, Outside Committee Member; David Pargman, Committee Member; Akihito Kamata, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_182009 |
| Contributors | Bindarwish, Jamal S. (authoraut), Tenenbaum, Gershon (professor directing dissertation), Kent, Aubrey (outside committee member), Pargman, David (committee member), Kamata, Akihito (committee member), Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
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