SOCIAL LOAFING AND IDENTIFIABILITY - THE MEDIATING ROLE OF ACHIEVEMENT GOAL ORIENTATIONS

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if differences in t he tendency to exhibit social loafing is a function of achievement-goa l orientation and identifiability. Ninety-six males drawn from 10th-gr ade physical education classes responded to the Task and Ego Orientati on in Sport Questionnaire (Duda, 1992) prior to completing a 30-meter sprint task under three separate conditions: as an individual, in a te am with individual performance identified, and in a team with individu al performance not identified. Following a median split of the task an d ego values reported subjects were divided into high and low groups f or both orientations. Sprint times were compared by means of a 2 x 2 x 3 ANOVA (task x ego x sprint condition) with repeated measures on the third factor. Findings revealed that individuals with a combined low task/high ego orientation were significantly slower in the nonidentifi able team condition than in the other two conditions, whereas high-tas k/low-ego-oriented individuals demonstrated consistent performance acr oss all three conditions. While confirming that identifiability of per formance is an important situational variable, the findings suggest th at the dispositional factor of achievement orientation may interact to provide a more detailed explanation of the social loafing phenomenon.