Premium
Counterfactual Production and Achievement Orientation in Competitive Athletic Settings 1
Author(s) -
Grieve Frederick G.,
Houston David A.,
Dupuis Susan E.,
Eddy Deborah
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1999.tb02301.x
Subject(s) - counterfactual conditional , counterfactual thinking , psychology , reading (process) , basketball , outcome (game theory) , orientation (vector space) , social psychology , achievement orientation , developmental psychology , economics , microeconomics , linguistics , philosophy , geometry , mathematics , archaeology , history
Two studies examined the impact of achievement orientation on counterfactual production in competitive sporting situations. In Study 1, participants created counterfactuals after reading 4 vignettes. Results indicated that participants reading about winners created more subtractive and downward counterfactuals than did participants reading about losers, while participants reading about losers created more additive and upward counterfactuals than did participants reading about winners. In Study 2, using participants in 3‐on‐3 basketball games, achievement orientation interacted with game outcome to produce adaptive responses for participants who held a mastery orientation and maladaptive responses for participants who held an outcome orientation. In addition to achievement orientation, the margin of victory played an important role in determining the type of counterfactual produced. The implications of these findings are discussed.