A few weeks ago the lab dressed in green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day! During a day full of lucky celebrations, Zoe Adams, a first semester undergraduate research assistant at the FF-TIP Lab, presented for the first time in our weekly lab meeting! Zoe shared the findings of a research article about the dual pathways that predict team performance. The article titled “Dual pathways to high performance: Team achievement goals, cooperation, and competition in elite sports team” by Heleen Van Mierlo and Edwin A. J. van Hooft, integrated achievement goal and social interdependent theories to examine how team goals and within-team interactions related to performance outcomes.
Zoe began her presentation by laying out the different theories that guided the research. She explained that, according to achievement goal theory in sports-contexts, teams have goals related to their mastery of skills and performance during competitions which help them guide their collective achievement behaviors. These goals not only drive behavior but also influence how teams cooperate or compete among their members. Thus, the authors aimed to explore how each set goals shaped within team interactions, and the resulting performance outcomes.
As Zoe described the methods and explained how authors collected data. They contacted several sports clubs that, after giving their consent, responded to several surveys on their achievement goals, levels of cooperation and competition, as well as points obtained during competitions. Overall, the study found that mastery goals improved performance through cooperation, while performance goals improved performance through competition. She concluded her presentation by talking about how cooperation and competition can coexist within a sport, and how this information can be used to help sports teams.
After such an amazing presentation, we look forward to seeing what Zoe will do in the future and how her research interests develop!
FF-TIP LAB 