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Research Brief
Examining The Control-Value Theory of Achievement Emotions in
Competition and Practice Settings
We would like to thank the 250 Canadian participants on Prolific for completing our
survey on achievement emotions in sport settings. In the survey, we collected data from
athletes currently participating in a competitive sport. We assessed perceived control,
value, achievement emotions, and perceived success in sport settings. The measures were
adapted from the shortened AEQ scale (Bieleke et al., 2021; Pekrun et al., 2011) to reflect
self-reports of these measures from both sport practices and competitions. Please see
below for some general findings from the study!

Who participated?
On average, participants were 31 years old.
125 identified as women, 121 as men, 2 as nonbinary, 2 did not disclose.
Ethnicity: 118 White, 35 East Asian, 32 South Asian,
20 Black, 17 Middle Eastern, 6 South East Asian, 6
Latinx, 4 East Asian and White, 3 Latinx and White,
1 Black and White, 1 South East and East Asian, 1
Black and South Asian, 2 Métis, 1 Métis and White,
1 did not disclose, and 2 preferred not to disclose.

40% of the sports
individuals competed
in were individual and
60% were team sports!

Mean

Competition vs. Practice Achievement Emotions

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Research Brief
Examining The Control-Value Theory of Achievement Emotions in
Competition and Practice Settings
Negative emotions were reported higher when reflecting on
competitions relative to practices. Positive emotions were
reported higher in practices vs. competitions (with the exception of
enjoyment)!

Competition vs. Practice
Perceived Control

Mean

Mean

Mean

Competition vs. Practice
Value

Notably, reports of perceived control over
practice outcomes and value of practicing
were significantly greater than perceived
control and value related to competing.
Report prepared by Monty Armstrong, November 2024
For more lab updates, please visit the MAT-Lab website:
https://sites.google.com/view/mat-laboratory/