In the present research, we conducted 4 studies designed to examine the hypothesis that perceived competence moderates the relation between performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals. Each study yielded supportive data, indicating that the correlation between the 2 goals is lower when perceived competence is high. This pattern was…

In their commentary, D. W. Johnson, Johnson, and Roseth (2012) provided some laudatory statements about our article, but they also expressed a number of concerns. The concerns focus on the following issues: types and definitions of competition, our choice of control group, the nature of performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals, the…

What is the relation between competition and performance? The present research addresses this important multidisciplinary question by conducting a meta-analysis of existing empirical work and by proposing a new conceptual model--the opposing processes model of competition and performance. This model was tested by conducting an additional…

In the present research, a 3 x 2 model of achievement goals is proposed and tested. The model is rooted in the definition and valence components of competence, and encompasses 6 goal constructs: task-approach, task-avoidance, self-approach, self-avoidance, other-approach, and other-avoidance. The results from 2 studies provided strong support for…

In the literature on achievement goals, performance-approach goals (striving to do better than others) and performance-avoidance goals (striving to avoid doing worse than others) tend to exhibit a moderate to high correlation, raising questions about whether the 2 goals represent distinct constructs. In the current article, we sought to examine…

The psychometric properties of scores from the Achievement Goal Questionnaire were examined in samples of Japanese (N = 326) and Canadian (N = 307) postsecondary students. Previous research found evidence of a four-factor structure of achievement goals in U.S. samples. Using confirmatory factor-analytic techniques, the authors found strong…