Student’ Goals Orientations and Their Emotions in Physical Education and Life

Theofanis Simou & Athanasios Papaioannou

Department of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, University of Thessaly, Trikala, Hellas

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the relation between students’ goals orientations and their emotions in physical education and in life generally. Six hundred and fifty eight pupils (n=658), boys and girls, participated in this study. Two hundred and seven pupils (n=207) attended the 6th grade of the elementary school, two hundred and thirty one (n=231) attended the 8th grade of high school and the remaining two hundred and twenty (n=220) attended the 10th class. The study was held through properly adapted questionnaires, which was successfully tested in the past. The internal consistency of the subscales was at an acceptable level (.67 < α < .88). Furthermore, the results confirmed the construct validity of the questionnaires. Four factors appeared concerning the goals orientations (personal development, ego-strengthening, ego-protection and social acceptance) and three factors appeared concerning the emotions (positive, negative-passive emotions and negative-active emotions). Correlational analyses showed that the personal development goal in physical education was correlated more positively than the other goals with positive emotions in life (r=.40, p< .01). On the contrary, the personal development goal was negatively correlated with negative-passive emotions in life (r =-.11, p< .01), while the ego-protection goal was positively correlated with negative-passive emotions in life (r =.26, p< .01). Finally, the ego-protection (r =.24, p<.01) and the ego-strengthening goal (r =.20, p< .01) were positively correlated with the negative-active emotions. The results of this study lead to the conclusion that the goal orientations in physical education are correlated with children’s emotions in life. They also suggest that physical education could be a factor of enhancing positive emotions and forming an optimistic way of life. This could be probably carried out, only if physical education strengthens children’s personal development.

Key words: goal orientations, emotions, achievement goals, physical education