SELF-EFFICACY, PERSONAL GOALS, AND WRESTLERS SELF-REGULATION

Goal theory (Locke & Latham, 1990) and social cognitive theory (Bandur a, 1986) converged on a single model describing the relationships amon g prior performance, self-efficacy, personal goals, and individual per formance. The model, portraying self-regulatory processes, guided an i nvestigation of the performance of 216 wrestlers competing at a wrestl ing camp. Two hypotheses were rested. First, general support was expec ted for the self-regulatory model. Second, self-efficacy was predicted to be especially relevant for performance under extremely competitive conditions (i.e., overtime match performance). Both hypotheses were s upported. Analyses using LISREL VI supported the relationships posited by the self-regulatory model. Also, self-efficacy was found to be the only significant predictor of wrestlers' performance in overtime matc hes.