Abstract
Research conducted in a natural sport context has shown that goal involvement states can undergo some abrupt variations (Gernigon, d’Arripe-Longueville, Delignières, & Ninot, 2004). Based on the dynamical systems perspective, the purpose of the present study was to experimentally investigate the influence of the historicity of scoring on the flow of goal involvement states in table tennis. Twenty-three male table tennis players, either regional or national level, had to empathize with a highly important contest by watching two video scenarios of a table tennis game in two sessions separated by one month. The videos pre-sented two inverted and symmetrical scenarios in which score gaps gradually varied in increasing versus decreasing ways. Based on Elliot and McGregor’s (2001) model, goals of performance-approach (PAp), performance-avoidance (PAv), mastery-approach (MAp), and mastery avoidance (MAv) were assessed through single items before each point. Multivari-ate and univariate analyses of variance (p < .05) revealed some abrupt changes according to the score gaps for MAv, thus allowing to class this goal as a psychological content of momentum in sport (e.g., Perreault, Vallerand, Montgomery, & Provencher, 1998). Only PAp and MAv goals were sensitive to the historicity of scoring, displaying their highest scores in the increasing scenario and in the decreasing scenario, respectively. Moreover, MAv goals displayed a hysteresis pattern. These findings encourage further research on psychological momentum in sport based on the dynamical systems approach.