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Predicting occurrence of and responsesto psychological difficulties: Theinterplay between achievement goals,perceived ability, and motivationalclimates among Korean athletesMi-Sook Kim a , Joan L. Duda b & Lori Gano-Overway ca Department of Kinesiology , San Francisco State University ,1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco, CA, 94132-4161, USAb School of Sport and Exercise Sciences , The University ofBirmingham , Edgbaston, B15 2TT, Birmingham, UKc Health and Exercise Science , Bridgewater College , 402 E.College St., Bridgewater, VA, 22812, USAPublished online: 20 May 2011.

To cite this article: Mi-Sook Kim , Joan L. Duda & Lori Gano-Overway (2011) Predicting occurrenceof and responses to psychological difficulties: The interplay between achievement goals, perceivedability, and motivational climates among Korean athletes, International Journal of Sport andExercise Psychology, 9:1, 31-47, DOI: 10.1080/1612197X.2011.563125

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Predicting occurrence of and responses to psychological difficulties:The interplay between achievement goals, perceived ability, andmotivational climates among Korean athletes

Mi-Sook Kima∗, Joan L. Dudab and Lori Gano-Overwayc

aDepartment of Kinesiology, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco, CA94132-4161, USA; bSchool of Sport and Exercise Sciences, The University of Birmingham, EdgbastonB15 2TT, Birmingham, UK; cHealth and Exercise Science, Bridgewater College, 402 E. College St.,Bridgewater, VA 22812, USA

(Received 4 January 2009; final version received 16 September 2009)

The present study investigated the interrelationship of goal orientations, perceived ability, andperceived motivational climate to the experience of stress, perceived controllability, and choiceof coping strategies. A total of 404 Korean intercollegiate athletes participated in the study. Theresults from moderated multiple regression analyses revealed that the experience ofpsychological difficulties was positively predicted by a perceived ego-involving climate andnegatively predicted by perceived ability. The perceived controllability over stress washighest among athletes who had higher levels of task and ego orientation in a more task-involving atmosphere. Athletes used more approach coping as they perceived a higher levelof task orientation regardless the level of perceived ability, and when they indicated highertask orientation scores in a low ego-involving environment. The avoidance/withdrawalcoping strategies were positively related to an ego-involving climate. The findings impliedthat an examination of cultural variations in motivational factors and coping process amongsport participants in a different culture may further extend theoretical applicability acrossdiverse populations.

Keywords: goal orientation; motivational climate; stress; coping strategies

Stress and coping strategies are major constructs in sport psychology and have been considered tobe an important determinant of sport performance (Lazarus, 2000). Despite the frequency withwhich stress and coping strategies (often used as psychological skills) have been examined inthe literature, the theory-based research on how athletes may cope with the stress encounteredin competitive sport is a more recent area of inquiry (Crocker, Kowalski, & Graham, 1998;Nicholls & Polman, 2007).

The majority of recent coping research in the sport domain adopts Lazarus’ transactionalapproach to stress and coping in which coping is considered a process (Lazarus, 1999;Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). According to this theory, coping is defined as a “constantly chan-ging cognitive and behavioral effort to manage stress, that is, specific external and/or internaldemands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person” (Lazarus &Folkman, 1984, p. 141). As reflected in the definition, the nature of the coping process

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# 2011 International Society of Sport PsychologyDOI: 10.1080/1612197X.2011.563125

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∗Corresponding author. Email: kimms@sfsu.edu

International Journal of Sport and Exercise PsychologyVol. 9, No. 1, March 2011, 31–47

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relates to the cognitive appraisal that occurs at the onset of a stressful response and mediates thereaction to the stress. The cognitive appraisal is the method through which a person cognitivelyevaluates a particular stressful encounter focusing on how much control she/he has over thestress encountered and what can be done to improve the troubled situation. It is believed thatwhen the person feels more controllability over stress he or she is more likely to implementproblem-focused coping strategies such as planning, information seeking, learning new skills,and increasing efforts to change the problem causing the distress. On the other hand, whenthe person feels that there is nothing to do to remedy the troubled situation (i.e., a threateningcondition), he or she is more prone to use emotion-focused coping strategies which involvestrategies used to regulate emotional arousal and distress. Mental and behavioral withdrawal,denial, wishful thinking, and venting of emotions are examples of emotional coping. Thiscoping process, that is, stress response, cognitive appraisal, and coping strategies, is believedto be shaped by personal factors (e.g., beliefs, values, competence, and commitments) and situa-tional factors (e.g., social support). These factors are different for each person and result indiverse conclusions and interpretations that serve as the foundation for the coping process(Folkman, 1992; Lazarus, 1991, 1999; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).

One possible theoretical framework that would aid our understanding of athletes’ copingprocess stems from achievement goal theory (Nicholls, 1984, 1989). This theory assumes thatthere are two predominant goal orientations operating in achievement settings, that is, task andego orientation (Nicholls, 1989). It is suggested that these two goal orientations correspond tohow people define success and judge their competence in particular sports or activities. It isbelieved that task-oriented people rely on self-referenced conceptions of success and competence,and focus on learning, improving their performance, and mastering a task. For ego-oriented indi-viduals, however, task mastery or the refinement of their own skill is not sufficient to determinecompetence or success. Thus, their assessment of proficiency (i.e., success and competence)depends on comparison of their own performance with that of others.

Along with dispositional goal orientations, two contrasting situationally prevalent motiva-tional climates (i.e., task- or ego-involving) perceived by the person have been identified(Ames & Archer, 1988). In a task-involving climate an emphasis is placed on cooperative learn-ing, trying hard to master or improve skills, and basing rewards on individual progress.Ego-involving climate, on the other hand, is characterized by public evaluation of skills, interper-sonal competition, valuing of high ability to succeed, and linking rewards to successful perform-ance outcomes. Theoretically, Nicholls (1984) contended that goal involvement, stemming eitherfrom one’s dispositional tendency or motivational climate, would influences one’s cognitions,emotional responses, and behavioral patterns. For example, when ego involvement predominates,athletes are more likely to doubt their competence and attribute their success to factors outside oftheir control (Duda & Whitehead, 1998; Walling, Duda, & Chi, 1993). This cognitive appraisalwould, in turn, influence their use of coping strategies.

Previous research has found that a person’s goal orientation (i.e., task or ego) and the percep-tion of motivational climate (i.e., task- or ego-involving) were associated with the athletes’ experi-ence of stress and use of diverse coping strategies and psychological skills (Hall & Kerr, 1997;Harlow & Cantor, 1995; Harwood, Cumming, & Fletcher, 2004; Kristiansen, Roberts, &Abrahamsen, 2008; Notumanis, Biddle, & Haddock 1999; Pensgaard & Roberts, 1997).Harlow and Cantor (1995) indicated that individuals focusing on specific goals during taskpursuits utilized different types of coping behaviors in seeking emotional and informationalsupport following task complications. In other words, when their social pursuits went poorly,ego-oriented people, who focused on outcomes in their task pursuits, were more likely to beemotionally distressed and spend time with emotional supporters. Whereas, task-orientedpeople, who focused on improvement in their social lives, responded to poor social well-being

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by spending more time with informational supporters who provided information to facilitate theirimprovement in his/her task pursuits. Recently, Harwood et al. (2004) found that athletes with ahigh task orientation and moderate level of ego orientation implemented more psychologicalskills such as imagery, goal setting, and positive self-talk than combinations of other goalorientations. Researchers have also found that a task orientation and task-involving climatewere positively linked with problem-focused coping strategies, such as suppression of competingactivities, effort and seeking social support, whereas ego orientation and ego-involving climatepositively corresponded to the use of avoidance and emotional-focused coping strategies, suchas behavioral disengagement and venting negative emotions (Kim & Duda, in progress; Kristian-send et al., 2008; Ntoumanis, Biddle, & Haddock., 1999; Pensgaard & Roberts, 1997). Overall, itappears that research has supported the conceptual link between achievement goal theory and thecoping process.

Achievement goal theory also reflects an interactionist approach to achievement motivation,that is, components of both the individual and the situation and perceived competence are thoughtto interact to impact the goal perspective adopted and resultant motivated behavior (Nicholls,1984, 1989). The theory predicts that the motivational responses of ego-oriented individuals(especially in an ego-involving climate) will be adaptive only if perceived competence is high.If perceived competence is low, then maladaptive motivational responses are hypothesized tooccur for ego-oriented athletes or individuals in an ego-involving environment. In contrast, forpredominately task-oriented individuals, regardless of their level of perceived competence,highly adaptive coping responses are expected to result. The same pattern is predicted for individ-uals in a task-involving climate. That is, for individuals who base their success in terms ofself-referenced criteria, and/or participate in environments that emphasize effort and skillimprovement positive reactions and behaviors should be observed. Although previous studieshave looked at the interaction effects of goal orientation, motivational climates, and competenceon different cognitions, emotions, and behaviors, no research has attempted to examine how theseinteractive effects would influence the coping process (i.e., stress response, cognitive appraisal,and coping strategies) in sport psychology.

Cross-cultural researchers have suggested that different cultures vary with respect to environ-mental demands, social structure, resources, and cultural norms and values which, in turn, mayalso affect the coping process (Ahmoiessau & Trommsdorff, 1996; Chung, Moos, & Cronkite,2006). Mechanic (1974) also indicated that coping responses are influenced not only by aperson’s appraisal of the situation he or she is faced with, but also by the resources available,the use of which may be approved of or censured by cultural values and norms.

According to the limited cross-cultural studies conducted to date in mainstream psychology,in collectivistic cultures, such as The Philippines, South Korea, Malaysia, and Taiwan, peoplemore often utilize emotional-focused coping strategies such as projection (i.e., blame externalforces), acceptance (i.e., accept one’s plight as destiny or a god’s will), religion (i.e., turn toprayer and other religious rituals), and perseverance (i.e., endure and persevere in the face ofproblems). In individualistic cultures, on the other hand, people seem more prone to employproblem-focused coping strategies (e.g., self-action) such as tension reduction and activecoping (i.e., the use of social resources to solve the problems) when encountering adversity(Ahmoiessau & Trommsdorff, 1996; Chataway & Berry, 1989; Seiffge-Krenke & Schulman,1990). Research with regard to cultural variations in the coping process is very sparse in sport(Anshel, 1990; Puente-Diaz & Anshel, 2005).

Given the limited work that has considered potential cultural variations in the coping processand the potential insight that can be gained from exploring the interactive effects of achievementgoal theory on the coping process, the purpose of the present study was to examine the main andinteraction effects of dispositional goal orientation, perceived ability, and perceptions of the

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motivational climate on athletes’ experience of psychological difficulties, perception of controll-ability over such stress, and coping strategies during competitive events among Korean athletes.In the present study, main effects of all five predictors (i.e., task and ego orientation, perceivedability, and task- and ego-involving climate) and selective interaction terms among predictors per-tinent to the major tenets of achievement goal theory were examined as suggested by previousresearch (Standage, Duda, & Ntoumanis, 2003).

Consonant with the theoretical assumptions of achievement goal theory, it was hypothesizedthat task orientation, perceived ability, and the perception of task-involving climate would nega-tively predict the experience of psychological difficulties, but positively correspond to the percep-tion of controllability over stress, and use of approach coping strategies during competitiveevents, whereas, ego orientation and a perceived ego-involving climate, would be positivelyrelated to the experience of psychological difficulties and avoidance/withdrawal coping strat-egies, and negatively link to perceived controllability. In the present study, it was of particularinterest to test interaction effects of orthogonal relationship between task and ego goal orientation,goal orientations and perceived ability, and goal orientations and motivational climates on predict-ing experience of stress, perception of controllability, and the use of different coping strategies.Given the limited work in this area no specific hypotheses were proposed. Last, in order to testthe role of perceived ability, achievement goals, and motivational climates in the copingprocess five three-ways interaction terms between goal orientations, perception of motivationalclimate, and perceived ability were explored (ego orientation × perceived ability × task-involving climate; ego orientation × perceived ability × ego-involving climate; taskorientation × ego orientation × task-involving climate; task orientation × ego orientation ×ego-involving climate; task orientation × ego orientation × perceived ability). Given theexploratory nature of these analyses no specific hypotheses were set.

Method

Participants and procedures

A total of 404 Korean intercollegiate athletes (male, n ¼ 314; female n ¼ 90) from various sports(e.g., soccer, basketball, baseball, handball, archery, tennis, golf, and swimming) participated inthe study. The mean age of the participants was 20.28 + 1.27 years.

Permission to collect data with the athletes was received from the athletic department admin-istrators and/or coaches. The athletes were then administered a multi-section questionnaire in ateam setting without the coaches being present. Before responding to the questionnaires, athleteswere informed about the nature of the research project and that participating in the study wasvoluntary and they could withdraw at any time. In addition, the athletes were told that their con-fidentiality would be maintained. Informed consent of the athletes was then obtained. The athleteswere orally provided the directions for completing the survey and emphasized that there were noright or wrong answers. The overall procedure took approximately 25 minutes.

Instruments

Goal orientations. The athlete’s dispositional goal orientation was measured by the Task andEgo Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ) developed by Duda and Nicholls (1992).The TEOSQ contains 13 items assessing two goal orientations, that is, task and ego orientation,which reflect a dispositional proneness for task and ego involvement in the athletic realm.When completing the TEOSQ, athletes were requested to think of when they felt most success-ful in their particular sport (e.g., “I learn a new skill by trying hard” for task orientation and

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“I can do better than other players” for ego orientation). The athletes responded to the items ona 5-point Likert type scale (1 ¼ Strongly Disagree to 5 ¼ Strongly Agree). In previousresearch, the TEOSQ has been shown to be reliable and valid (see Duda & Whitehead,1998 for more details concerning the psychometric characteristics of this instrument). Theinternal reliability of the TEOSQ in the present study was .80 for task orientation and .75for ego orientation.

Perceptions of the motivational climate. To assess perceptions of the perceived situationallyemphasized goal perspectives operating on their team, the Perceived Motivational Climate inSport Questionnaire-2 (PMCSQ-2) (Duda & Whitehead, 1998; Newton, Duda, & Yin, 2000)was utilized. The PMCSQ-2, which is hierarchically structured, consists of six subscales andtwo major dimensions, which measures the degree to which the prevailing atmosphere onone’s team is deemed more or less a task- and/or ego-involving climate. When responding toeach item, athletes were asked to report how they felt each item sufficiently describes theirparticular sport team on a 5-point Likert type scale (1 ¼ Strongly Disagree to 5 ¼ StronglyAgree). Example items include “Players feel good when they try their best.” for task-involvingclimate and “The coach gives most of his/her attention to the ‘stars’.” for ego-involvingclimate. In the present study, the two overriding climate dimensions were utilized. These twoclimate dimensions showed acceptable internal reliabilities (a¼.81 for task-involving, a ¼ .84for ego-involving).

Perceived ability. Four items developed by Duda and Nicholls (1992) were used to measureperceived ability relative to sports. Participants responded on a 5-point scale (1 ¼ StronglyAgree to 5 ¼ Strongly Disagree) to such items as “I am one of the best athletes” and“I am very good at my sport.” The internal consistency of these items was .87 in the presentstudy.

Experience of psychological difficulties. Five items were created to examine five psychologicaldifficulties (i.e., over arousal, performance worries, concentration lapse, low confidence, and frus-tration) that debilitate performance during important competitions. Responses were indicated on a5-point scale (1 ¼ Never Experienced to 5 ¼ Experienced Always). To avoid any confusion inthe athletes’ understanding of each type of psychological difficulty considered in this study,the definitions1 of each psychological/affective state were provided before completing the sub-sequent questions. The composite score of all five psychological difficulties was used in the analy-sis. The internal reliability of this measure reached an acceptable level, a ¼ .84.

Cognitive appraisal of stress experienced. To assess the athletes’ appraisal of stress and beliefsabout each stressor (Folkman, 1984; Thoits, 1991), they were asked to indicate the extent to whichthey felt each psychological difficulty was controllable. This appraisal was reported on a 5- pointscale (1¼ No Control At All to 5 ¼ Complete Control) and the composite score of the five cog-nitive appraisals was utilized in the subsequent analyses. The cognitive appraisals of stress wasinternally reliable, a ¼ .71.

Coping strategies. The coping strategies employed by athletes to counter negative psycho-logical feelings and thoughts during sport competition were assessed via the Approach toCoping in Sport Questionnaire (ACSQ; Kim, Duda, & Ntoumanis, 2003). When completingthe ACSQ, the athletes respond on a 5-point scale (1 ¼ Never Used to 5 ¼ Did Always) interms of how often they used each coping strategy to immediately deal with psychological dif-ficulties which could result in performance impairment during competition. The ACSQ containssix subscales, that is, Active Planning/Cognitive Restructuring (“I thought a lot about whatsteps to take next.”), Emotional Calming (“I breathed deeply to relax.”), Mental Withdrawal(“I accepted my feelings and realized that the situation could not be changed.”), SeekingSocial Support (“I talked to someone such as a coach, teammates, or parents who could dosomething concrete about the problems.”), Turning to Religion (“I prayed more than

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usual.”), and Behavioral Risk (“I attempted even more difficult plays, techniques or strat-egies.”). To reduce the complexity of the tests in this study, the six subscales were reducedinto two higher-order constructs using exploratory factor analyses with maximum likelihoodmethods to extract factors followed by a varimax rotation. A scree test suggested two higherorder meaningful factors, that is, an Approach coping dimension (i.e., Emotional Calmingand Active Planning/Cognitive Restructuring) and an Avoidance/Withdrawal coping dimen-sion (i.e., Turning to Religion, Mental Withdrawal, Seeking Social Support). The BehavioralRisk coping strategies were not included in either higher order dimensions because of cross-loading in both dimension. The first factor accounted for 47% of variance and the secondfactor accounted for 18 % of the total variance.2

Results

Descriptive statistics

The descriptive statistics including means, standard deviation, and internal reliabilities of allinstruments used in the study are presented in Table 1. The internal consistency of all instrumentsdemonstrated acceptable internal reliability ranging from .71 to .90 (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994).The participants were moderate in task and ego orientations and perceived ability. The athletesperceived the climate to be both moderately task- and ego-involving. They also reported moderatescores for the experience of psychological difficulties, perceived controllability, and use ofapproach coping strategies. Low scores were observed for the use of avoidance/withdrawalcoping strategies.

Table 2 presents Pearson Product Moment correlation coefficients among the observed vari-ables. As shown, the relationship between task and ego orientation was relatively moderate andpositive. Perceived ability was positively correlated with both task and ego orientation and thesethree variables were positively associated with the perceptions of task-involving climate. Asfound in previous research, perceptions of a task-and ego-involving climate were negativelyrelated to each other (Newton et al., 2000; Reinboth & Duda, 2004).

Both task and ego orientations were positively related to the use of approach coping strategies.The task-involving climate appeared to be positively related with perceived ability, perception ofcontrollability, and use of approach coping strategies and negatively associated with experience ofpsychological difficulties. Additionally, the ego-involving climate positively corresponded to the

Table 1. Means, standard deviations, and internal reliabilities of observed variables.

Variables Mean SD Min.–Max a’s

Goal orientationsTask orientation 3.68 0.55 1.0–5.0 .80Ego orientation 3.62 0.60 1.0–5.0 .75

Motivational climateTask-involving 3.71 0.45 2.4–4.8 .81Ego-involving 3.31 0.62 1.3–4.9 .84

Perceived ability 3.38 0.70 1.0–5.0 .87Psychological difficulties 14.81 3.53 5.0–25.0 .84Perceived controllability 13.55 3.17 5.0–22.0 .71Coping strategies

Approach coping 3.16 0.57 1.3–4.8 .87Avoidance/withdrawal coping 2.36 0.64 1.1–4.3 .90

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experience of psychological difficulties and both approach and avoidance/withdrawal copingstrategies and negatively associated with perceived ability. Last, there was a positive and moder-ate correlation between the two different coping strategies.

Moderated multiple regression analyses

Moderated multiple regression analysis was performed to determine whether goal orientations,perceived ability, and perceptions of the motivational climate predicted changes to the experienceof psychological difficulties, perceived controllability over such stress, and different types ofcoping strategy use as postulated by theoretical tenets of achievement goal theory. Two goalorientations (i.e., task and ego), perceived ability and the two perceived motivational climates(i.e., task- and ego-involving) and their interaction terms were entered as predictors of thedependent variables (i.e., the experience of psychological difficulties during competition, per-ceived controllability over psychological difficulties encountered, and approach and avoidance/withdrawal coping strategies).

Following the suggestion of literature, all predictor variables were centered (i.e., the standarddeviation of each predictor was subtracted from the mean of the same predictor) prior to the ana-lyses to avoid any potential multicollinearity among predictors and their interaction terms. (Aiken& West, 1991; Jaccard, Turrisi, & Wan, 1990). Variance-inflation factor (VIF) indices revealed nocollinearity issues among predictors and interactions terms showing all values less than 4.0 in VIFindices and the range of 1.0–3.7 condition indices (Fox, 1991).

In a series of moderated multiple regression analyses, the five predictors were entered in thefirst step to test main effects on dependent variables. Then, except the interaction between task-and ego-involving climate, which is a contrasting construct, all possible two-way interactionterms between predictors were entered in the second step. It was necessary to include all ninelower-order interaction terms so that the interaction coefficient represented a unique effect inthe three-way interaction terms as suggested in Aiken and West (1991). Last, five theoreticallypertinent three-way interaction terms were entered in the last step. Significant interactioneffects were determined by a significant increment in R2 when interaction terms were enteredinto the equation in each step. The results of moderated multiple regression analyses are summar-ized in Table 3.

Drawing from the guidelines in the literature (Aiken & West, 1991; Cohen, Cohen, West, &Aiken, 2003; Jaccard et al., 1990), all significant interaction terms were graphically representedusing simple slopes, that is, the slope of the regression line of a dependent variable on each

Table 2. Simple correlations among observed variables.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1. Task orientation 12. Ego orientation .481∗∗ 13. Perceived ability .277∗∗ .292∗∗ 14. Task-involving climate .222∗∗ .161∗∗ .228∗∗ 15. Ego-involving climate .011 .019 2.102∗ 2.218∗∗ 16. Psychological difficulty .011 .041 2.162∗∗ 2.113∗ .213∗∗ 17. Controllability .042 .038 .158∗∗ .212∗∗ 2.081 2.068 18. Approach coping .238∗∗ .155∗∗ .177∗∗ .204∗∗ .109∗ .030 .172∗∗ 19. Avoidance/ withdrawal

coping.031 .002 .025 2.055 .208∗∗ .225∗∗ .134∗∗ .401∗∗ 1

Note: ∗p , .05, ∗∗p , .01.

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predictor at a conditional value of each predictor. In order to test the hypothesis that a simple slopeis significantly different from zero, post hoc probing t-tests were conducted. This procedureinvolves calculating standard errors of simple slopes to compute t-tests for the significance ofeach simple slope.

The experience of psychological difficulty. Two main effects emerged as significant to predictthe experience of psychological difficulties during competitive events accounting for 27% ofthe variance. More specifically, the reported psychological difficulties during competition werepositively predicted by perceptions of an ego-involving team atmosphere and negatively pre-dicted by the perceived ability in their sports. No interaction terms were found to be significantin the prediction of psychological difficulties experienced during competition.

Table 3. Summary of moderated hierarchical regression analyses for predicting reported psychologicaldifficulties, perceived controllability, and the use of coping strategies.

Regression coefficients

Variable B b t R2 DR2

Psychological difficultiesStep 1 0.27 .075∗∗∗

Task orientation 0.149 0.02 0.41Ego orientation 0.497 0.09 1.50Task-involving climate 20.444 20.06 21.09Ego-involving climate 1.049 0.19 3.72∗∗∗

Perceived ability 20.777 20.15 22.95∗∗

ControllabilityStep 1 0.25 0.06∗∗∗

Task orientation 20.159 20.03 20.48Ego orientation 20.073 20.01 20.24Task-involving climate 1.132 0.19 3.55∗∗∗

Ego-involving climate 20.132 20.03 20.16Perceived ability 0.584 0.13 2.45∗

Step 3 0.33 0.03∗

Task orientation 20.215 20.37 20.62Ego orientation 0.017 0.00 0.05Task-involving climate 0.917 0.13 2.30∗

Ego-involving climate 20.068 20.01 20.25Perceived ability 0.688 0.15 2.67∗∗

TO∗EO 0.540 0.09 1.11TO∗PA 20.161 20.03 20.33EO∗PA 20.401 20.07 20.86TI∗TO 0.500 0.04 0.64TI∗EO 20.021 20.00 20.32EI∗TO 20.470 20.05 20.77EI∗EO 20.259 20.04 20.64TI∗PA 20.726 20.08 21.41EI∗PA 20.680 20.10 21.72TO∗EO∗PA 20.056 20.02 20.17TO∗EO∗TI 3.124 0.23 3.09∗∗

TO∗EO∗EI 0.319 0.05 0.47EO∗PA∗TI 21.654 20.14 22.01∗

EO∗PA∗EI 20.025 0.00 0.04

(Continued)

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Perceived controllability. There were two main effects significantly predicting the perceivedcontrollability over psychological difficulties encountered during competition accounting for25% of the variance. Both task-involving climate and perceived ability were positively linkedto perceived controllability. Moreover, two 3-way interactions (i.e., task orientation ×ego orientation × task-involving climate, and ego orientation × perceived ability × task-invol-ving climate) were found to be significant contributors to the prediction of the perceivedcontrollability.

The first three-way interaction is graphically represented in Figure 1. The result of thesimple slope tests revealed that one regression slope in the interaction between task orien-tation × ego orientation × task-involving climate emerged as statistically significant, b ¼1.178, t ¼ 1.95, p ¼ 0.05. The slope indicated that as athletes, with higher levels of ego orien-tation and perceptions of a task-involving climate, experienced an increase in task orientation sodid they perceive greater controllability over their stress (see Figure 1). Although the secondthree-way interaction between ego orientation × perceived ability × task-involving climate

Table 3. (Continued)

Regression coefficients

Variable B b t R2 DR2

Approach coping strategiesStep 1 0.33 1.12∗∗∗

Task orientation 0.017 0.16 2.88∗

Ego orientation 0.016 0.02 0.30Task-involving climate 0.229 0.18 3.48∗∗∗

Ego-involving climate 0.146 0.16 3.19∗∗

Perceived ability 0.086 0.10 2.02∗

Step 2 0.39 0.04∗

Task orientation 0.180 0.17 3.02∗∗

Ego orientation 0.006 0.06 0.11Task-involving climate 0.233 0.18 3.54∗∗∗

Ego-involving climate 0.166 0.18 3.60∗∗∗

Perceived ability 0.100 0.12 2.35∗

TO∗EO 0.125 0.11 1.65TO∗PA 20.292 20.27 23.55∗∗∗

EO∗PA 0.141 0.13 1.73TI∗TO 0.057 0.02 0.42TI∗EO 20.193 20.10 21.64EI∗TO 20.267 20.16 22.67∗∗

EI∗EO 0.068 0.05 0.17TI∗PA 0.117 0.08 1.29EI∗PA 0.026 0.02 0.39

Avoidance/withdrawal coping strategiesStep 1 0.22 0.05∗∗

0.05∗∗

Task orientation 0.040 0.03 0.60Ego orientation 20.032 0.03 20.52Task-involving climate 20.035 20.24 20.46Ego-involving climate 0.214 0.21 4.09∗∗∗

Perceived ability 0.046 0.50 0.94

Note: ∗p , .05, ∗ ∗p , .01, ∗ ∗ ∗p , .001. TO ¼ task orientation; EO ¼ ego orientation; TI ¼ task-involving; EI ¼ ego-involving; PA ¼ perceived ability.

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emerged as significant, none of regression slopes were significantly different from zero at p ¼0.05 in post hoc tests.

Approach coping strategies. Both perceptions of a task- and ego-involving climate, task orien-tation and perceived ability positively predicted the use of approach coping strategies to deal withpsychological difficulties accounting for a total of 33% of the variance. Two significant two-wayinteractions (i.e., task orientation × perceived ability and task orientation × ego-involvingclimate) also emerged as significant in predicting the use of approach coping strategies. Thetwo 2-way interactions are shown in Figures 2 and 3.

The simple slope post hoc tests of the interaction between a task orientation and the perceptionof ability showed that the slope of low-perceived ability was statistically significant, b ¼ 0.38,t ¼ 8.11, p , 0.001. As shown in Figure 2, this result indicates that as athletes’ task orientationrises so does their use of approach coping strategies in spite of the lower perception of ability.

Figure 2. Two-way interaction effect of task orientation and perceived ability on the use of approachcoping strategies.

Figure 1. Three-way interaction effect of task and ego orientation and task-involving climate on perceivedcontrollability over reported psychological difficulties.

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However, no change is seen in higher perceptions of ability. For the interaction between taskorientation and ego-involving climate, the slope of low ego-involving climate was significant,b ¼ 0.35, t ¼ 6.65, p , 0.001. Based on these results, the athletes, with lower perceptions ofan ego involving climate, tended to implement more approach coping strategies to deal withtheir psychological difficulties encountered during important competition as their task orientationincreased (see Figure 3).

Avoidance/withdrawal coping strategies. The use of avoidance/withdrawal coping strategieswas positively predicted by ego-involving climate accounting for 22% of the variance. No inter-action terms were found to be statistically significant. Based on the results, the athletes were morelikely to use avoidance/withdrawal coping strategies as they perceived the team atmosphere to bemore ego involving.

Discussion

It has been proposed that the social contextual factor of cultural perspective influences peoples’attitudes, beliefs, values, and characteristics via a shared language, historical period, and geo-graphic regions (Maehr & Nicholls, 1980; Triandis, 1995). As a result, it is assumed thatcross-cultural research may contribute important insights into aspects of basic human functioningnot otherwise available (Gauvin & Russell, 1993). One approach to cross-cultural research entailsconducting theoretically based investigations. In this case, researchers try to explain and predictbehaviors among individuals from various cultures with respect to a conceptual framework,instead of descriptively comparing one group of people to the other groups in the mainstream(Duda & Hayashi, 1998). This type of approach is called a “top-down” approach where research-ers commence with a conceptual framework and then integrate dimensions of culture to broadenits theoretical applicability. This approach can be accomplished by comparing a psychologicalconcept between two cultures within a study or applying a concept or theory established inone culture to empirical findings in another cultures (e.g., testing Achievement Goal Theorywhich emanated from Western cultures to an Eastern culture). Congruent with the “top-down”strategy, the present study examined possible cultural variations in coping processes within thecompetitive athletic setting stemming from the transactional model of stress and coping(Lazarus, 1999; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) and achievement goal theory (Nicholls, 1984,1989) among Korean athletes. More specifically, the present study examined the

Figure 3. Two-way interaction effect of ego-involving climate and task orientation on the use of approachcoping strategies.

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interrelationships between individual differences (i.e., dispositional goal orientations and percep-tions of ability) and situational factors (i.e., the perceptions of the motivation climate created bythe coach) with respect to the experience of stress, cognitive appraisals of such stress, and copingstrategies among Korean intercollegiate athletes.

Interrelationships between goal orientations, perceived ability, and perceptions of themotivational climate

Exploration of the relationship between goal orientations and perceptions of the motivationalclimate revealed several interesting findings. First, the simple correlations revealed a moderateassociation between task and ego orientation (r ¼ .481, p , .01) among the Korean athletes imply-ing these two constructs may not be independent in this population. Kim and Gill (1997) also foundthat Korean junior high school athletes indicated similar moderately high levels of both task andego orientation mean scores (task M ¼ 3.96 + .54; ego M ¼ 3.46 + .63) with r ¼ .28, p , .01between two orientations. As Kim and Gill (1997) contended, the Korean athletes, may use multiplesources from both intra-and inter-individual comparisons to determine their success and compe-tence in sports. In addition, an ego-oriented attitude toward learning is not an inadequate approachin Korea because of the major emphasis on better performance than others in educational systems orsport settings. Further research is needed to investigate different criteria Korean athletes use todetermine their success and competence.

Second, the perception of task-involving climate was positively associated with taskorientation and perceived ability. These results are aligned with previous findings in literature(Ntoumanis & Biddle, 1998; Seifriz, Duda, & Chi, 1992; Theeboom, Knopp, & Weiss, 1995;Treasure, 1997). In contrast, the perception of an ego-involving climate was not significantlyrelated with athletes’ ego orientation. The Korean athletes may not be strongly influenced bythe immediate situationally emphasized ego goal structures such as intra-team rivalry, punishmentfor mistakes, and unequal recognition. There may be other situational influences, immediatelyoutside the athletic arena or previously within the sport experiences of Korean athletes, whichwere more salient to their degree of ego orientation. What determines one’s ego orientation inthe Korean culture could be different which should be further explored in the future research.

Perceived ability was also highly associated with both dispositional goal orientations. Thisfinding is not surprising since the two goal constructs were highly correlated in this sample (althoughthe observed mean score for task orientation among the athletes was moderate, M ¼ 3.68 + .55).Moreover, both task and ego orientations have been found to be significantly and positively corre-lated with perceived ability in other studies (e.g., Duda & Nicholls, 1992). Duda and Nicholls (1992)suggested that, in voluntary activities like competitive sport, it makes sense that individuals whohave a strong ego orientation would have high perceived ability. Otherwise, they would havedropped out of sports previously. It is also important to remember that ego orientation coupledwith high perceptions of ability is not regarded as maladaptive to achievement, especially in theshort-term (Duda, 1992; Nicholls, 1984). Although overall findings through inter-correlationsamong goals orientations, perceived ability, and perceptions of motivational climate partiallysupported previous research findings, how achievement cognitions vary as a function of culturalcontexts and their similarities and differences found in this study is worthy of further investigation.

The influence of goal orientations, perceived ability, and perception of motivational climateon the coping process

The main purpose of this study was to examine personal and situational factors that may influencethe coping process. Specifically, it was the intent of this study to explore how athletes’ goal orien-tations, perceptions of ability, and perceptions of the motivational climate may influence

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psychological difficulties experienced during athletic competition, perceived controllability ofthese psychological difficulties, and coping strategies. The findings partially supported theresearch hypotheses.

The experience of psychological difficulties during important competition was positively pre-dicted by the perception of an ego-involving climate and negatively with perceived ability. Asfound in previous research, when outperforming others is encouraged and mistakes are punishedin a sport environment, we would expect athletes to doubt their competence and experience moreperformance-related problems (Ommundsen & Pedersen, 1999; Pensgaard & Roberts, 1997;Walling et al., 1993). Further, stress and psychological difficulties are likely to result when per-ceptions of ability are low (Hall & Kerr, 1997; Ntoumanis & Biddle, 1998). However, ego orien-tation was not predictive of the experience of psychological difficulties as hypothesized. Giventhe significant correlation between ego orientation and the perceived ability this may not be sur-prising. Although the athletes are ego oriented, if they perceive greater ability in their sport, theywould be less likely to question their ability and experience psychological difficulties. Ommund-sen and Pedersen (1999) also found that both somatic and cognitive trait anxiety in sports were notassociated with high ego orientation among wrestlers.

Additionally, task orientation or the task-involving climate did not emerge as precursors ofstress. The athletes indicated their psychological difficulties during an important competition inwhich stress experienced can be more immediate and acute. In such competitive situation, theathlete goal state would be more ego-involved which could have undermined their predisposedtask orientation and perception of task involving climate created by his/her coaches in general.

The findings that athletes’ perceived controllability over stress experienced was positivelyrelated with perceived ability and the perception of a task-involving climate are consistent withtheoretical assumptions and findings in previous studies (Duda, 1993; Nicholls, 1989; Treasure,1997). When individuals have high-perceived ability, they should feel more efficacious in hand-ling their difficulties.

Results from the three-way interaction (task orientation × ego orientation × task-involvingclimate) revealed that the greater perception of task-involving climate with both higher taskand ego orientation scores contributed to greater controllability over stress whereas when taskorientation declined to the low range, the perception of controllability was lessened, even withhigh task-involving climate. Therefore, the combined effect of both task orientation and task-involving climate enhanced the perception of controllability in spite of the high ego orientation.Nicholls (1989) contended that task involvement focuses on feeling successful when an individ-ual personally improves, a factor that is very much under one’s personal control. Therefore, whenfaced with a psychological difficulty, task-involved persons would intuitively seek ways toimprove their situation by exerting personal control over this situation. Thus, it would belogical that these individuals would note a strong sense of control over their psychological diffi-culties as their task orientation increased within a high task-involving climate.

Coping strategies were also influenced by achievement goal theory constructs. Approachcoping strategies were positively associated with task orientation, perceived ability and both atask- and ego-involving climate. It is understandable that when a person perceives an encouragingteam atmosphere that recognizes effort/improvement and each person’s personal contribution tothe team, he or she is more likely to approach a stressful situation and actively deal with it. Inter-estingly, Korean athletes used approach coping strategies under both motivational atmospheres(that is, task- and ego-involving climate). However, the main effect for the ego-involvingclimate was superseded by a two-way interaction (task orientation × ego-involving climate)which may shed light on this discrepancy. That is, when athletes perceived a higher ego-involvingclimate there was no significant difference as individuals task orientation increased. However,when athletes perceived a lower ego-involving climate approach coping strategies significantly

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increased as task orientation increased. It therefore appears that the ego-involving climate is onlypredictive of approach coping strategies when the levels are low and when it coincides with anincrease in an athlete’s task orientation. Although perceived ability and task orientation positivelypredicted approach coping strategies a two-way interaction between these two variables was alsoobserved indicating that when the athlete’s perceived ability was high, approach coping strategieswould be used, but when their perceived ability was low, their task orientation facilitated use ofapproach coping. Thus, Nicholls’ contention that a high task orientation will result in positivecognitive and behavioral outcomes regardless level of perceived competence was supportedwithin this study (Nicholls, 1984, 1989). In contrast, the use of avoidance/withdrawal copingstrategies was positively predicted only by ego-involving climate, but not by the ego orientation.When the athletes perceived the atmosphere on the team to be focused more on normative com-parison and punished for mistakes they may have perceived that little could be done other thanengage in avoidance/withdrawal coping strategies. As found in the simple correlations, theego orientation was positively associated with the task orientation among the Korean athletes.Unlike the theoretical assumptions, the Korean athletes’ focus on doing better than othersseems less influential in their coping process. Future research is needed to investigate the questionof what are major criteria for Korean athletes to define their success and competence in sports andthe impact they have on coping strategies.

In conclusion, as discussed above Korean athletes’ goal orientations, perceived ability in theirsports, and the perceptions of the motivational climate and their interrelationships emerged asinfluential in terms of athletes’ experience of psychological difficulties, perceived controllabilityover such difficulties, and the choice of coping strategies.

Future directions

Although some of findings in the present study were consonant with previous findings in the lit-erature, it is clear that Korean athletes’ coping process and the motivational mechanisms differ.Thus, further investigation would aid in our understanding of Korean athletes’ experience. Forinstance, further cross-cultural research on the interplay between dispositional goal orientationand the perception of motivational climate should consider a “bottom-up” strategy (i.e.,observe its own culture and then examine cross culturally) as suggested by Duda and Hayashi(1998). This “bottom-up” strategy should advance awareness of motivational processes to under-stand coping process in diverse cultural groups. Future research also needs to investigate the mod-erate correlations found between both goal orientations which may imply a facilitative aspect ofego orientation among Korean athletes. The somewhat low task orientation score reported in thissample may be indicative of other possible motivational orientation in this culture. Like other col-lectivistic cultures, the Korean culture is more group oriented where group goals are more impor-tant than individual goals (Choi, Kim, & Choi, 1993). Urdan and Maehr (1995) also contendedthat social goals and motives including people’s desires to be popular, socially responsible,altruistic, obedient, and accepted, play major roles in achievement motivation, particularly in col-lectivistic cultures where the definition of “self” includes immediate significant others’ in-group.Future research needs to examine social orientation in this culture and its impact on cognitive andbehavioral consequences in Korean culture.

Conclusion

In practice, these findings can be used to aid sport psychologists and practitioners who deal withcompetitive Korean athletes. According to the findings in the present study, Korean athletes, asrepresented in this collective sample, tended to define their feelings of success both through

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personal improvement/skill mastery and obtaining normatively high ability which could certainlybe interpreted as a culturally unique orientation in their culture. However, it appears that thestronger individual factors that predicted aspects of the coping process were task orientationand perceived ability. Specifically, to help Korean athletes reduce levels of psychological difficul-ties and enhance controllability over stress practitioners should consider ways to enhance per-ceived ability. Additionally, encouraging the adoption of a task orientation would facilitate theuse of approach coping strategies when perceptions of ability are low. Yet, situational factors,that is, perceptions of the motivational climate, should not be ignored. For instance, Korean ath-letes’ sense of control over stress was not only a function of the athletes’ task and ego orientationbut also dependent upon the task-involving climate. So when athletes experience higher levels ofego orientation and perceive higher levels of the task-involving climate there appears to be anincrease in controllability as task orientation increase. Additionally, approach coping wasenhanced as levels of task orientation increased only when the ego-involving climate was atlower levels. These findings suggest that coaches and practitioners should not only be aware ofthe individual factors that an athlete brings to the sport but also how they may intersect with situa-tional factors. Additionally, perceptions of the motivational climate had an independent influenceon the coping process. A task-involving climate was positively related to approach coping strat-egies while under an ego-involving climate Korean athletes reported greater stress and mental dif-ficulties and were more likely to use avoidance/withdrawal coping strategies. Thus, it appearsthat changing aspects of the motivational climate to endorse task-involving aspects and reduceego-involving features may be conducive to enhancing Korean athletes’ coping process.Overall, based on the findings, although goal orientations and perceived ability were strongly pre-dictive of coping process among the athletes, the influence from coaches played a significant rolein the athletes’ motivational and coping process in sport. Therefore, the practitioners should ident-ify motivational orientations and perceived ability of players and how it interplays with differentmotivational climates to provide a better understanding of the athlete’s occurrence of andresponses to psychological difficulties in sports.

Notes1. Over arousal: Physical feelings such as rapid heart rate, shortness of breath, tense muscles, dry mouth,

etc., and/or being mentally too intense and/or excited.Performance worries: Feeling extremely worried and concerned about the competition and/or your per-formance.Distraction/loss of concentration: Feeling that you are unable to concentrate on what you have to do,and/or that you are easily distracted.Low confidence: Not believing you possess the ability to be successful or perform well in the compe-tition.Frustration: A negative mood that is a result of making mistake(s), the inability to meet your goals andexpectations, and/or the feeling that “things are not going your way.”

2. Contact the first author for further details of EFA results of ACSQ.

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