Relations of Women Exercisers' Mastery and Performance Goals to Traits, Fitness, and Preferred Styles of Instructors

This study addressed the influence of both mastery and performance goals of 144 women (M = 21.8 yr.) exercising at a campus fitness center. Five goal patterns were compared: mastery alone, performance alone, both-low, mastery-performance, and, performance-mastery. These five patterns were compared in terms of optimism, social physique anxiety, and fitness as well as preferences for instructors' mastery, performance, or supportive responses. Those with dual motivational goals (mastery-performance and performance-mastery) preferred instructors to emphasize mastery and supportive responses, and they had higher fitness than the mastery or low groups. However, the performance-mastery group endorsed significantly lower optimism than all other groups. There were no group differences on the measure of anxiety about physique. Results support the importance of addressing both mastery and performance goals when seeking to understand and influence the attitudes of women who work out in a fitness center. Instructors would do best to emphasize autonomy and supportiveness and avoid comparisons among women exercisers.