A cross-cultural analysis of goal orientation in American and Japanese physical education students

This study compared physical education college students from Japan (n = 374) and the United States (n = 216) on four goal orientations. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire and sport-specific measures of task and ego orientation and individual and social orientation. Results indicated that relative to American participants, Japanese participants scored significantly higher on ego orientation and individual orientation and significantly lower on task orientation and social orientation. Female participants scored significantly higher than male participants on social orientation, and individual sport participants scored significantly higher than team sport participants on task orientation and individual orientation. Unique patterns of correlations among the four goal orientations were ohserved for the Japanese participants and the American participants. These findings, which are counter to the hypotheses generated from the perspective of cultural self (Markus & Kitayama, 199 1), highlight the importance of examining cultural and other sociodemographic factors when studying sport-related motivation.