PERCEIVED LOCUS OF CAUSALITY, GOAL ORIENTATIONS, AND PERCEIVED COMPETENCE IN SCHOOL PHYSICAL-EDUCATION CLASSES

Ryan & Connell (1989) have demonstrated that different types of behavi oural regulation can be located on a continuum of perceived autonomy o r perceived locus of causality. The present study applied their formul ation in the context of school physical education (PE) and examined th e relationships of perceived autonomy, perceived competence and goal o rientations with intrinsic interest across two PE activities. School s tudents aged 12-14 years (N=85) completed an adapted version of the Se lf-Regulation Questionnaire (Ryan & Connell, 1989) and measures of per ceived competence and intrinsic interest separately for two PE activit ies. They also completed the British version of the Task and Ego Orien tation in Sport Questionnaire (Duda, Fox, Biddle & Armstrong, 1992). S tudents appeared to be differentially motivated for the two activities due to different perceptions of autonomy. Structural equation modelli ng analysis showed that perceived autonomy and task orientation had di rect effects on intrinsic interest for both the activities. Perceived competence, however, was positively associated with intrinsic interest only for one of the activities. The implications of the results for t he practice of physical education are discussed.