Goal Orientation, Motivation, and Competitive Anxiety in Players of Domestic Cricket in Pakistan

The present research was conducted to examine the relationship between goal orientation, motivation, and competitive anxiety in players of domestic cricket in Pakistan. The sample comprised of 105 male domestic cricketers aged between 18 to 35 years (M = 20.02, SD = 2.75). Correlational research design and purposive sampling strategy was used to draw sample from different cricket clubs and academies in Lahore and the permission to collect data was taken from the authorities of Pakistan Cricket Board. Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (Duda & Nicholls, 1992), Sport Motivation Scale-II (Pelletier, Rocchi, Vallerand, Deci, & Ryan, 2013), Sport Anxiety Scale-2 (Smith, Smoll, Cumming, & Grossbard, 2006), Beliefs About the Causes of Sport Success Questionnaire (Duda & Nicholls, 1992) and Multidimensional Inventory of Perfectionism in Sport (Stober, Otto, & Stoll, 2006) were administered to the participants. Pearson product moment correlation revealed that ego orientation was positively correlated with external regulation, whereas task orientation was positively correlated with intrinsic regulation. Also, intrinsic regulation was negatively correlated with competitive anxiety. Regression analysis revealed that intrinsic regulation was a negative predictor of competitive anxiety and somatic anxiety after controlling the effects of perfectionism and beliefs about success.