The study is based on responses among 128 male high school students who were tested for achievement motives, randomly assigned to three experimental conditions, i.e., goal and training conditions 1 mo. and 1 yr. from goal, and performed a task of 1500 m running on a treadmill. Based on Miller's and Gjesme's theoretical models and research, it was predicted that (i) success-oriented individuals should increase and (ii) failure-oriented individuals should decrease their heart rates and energy consumption (i.e., in percent of individual maximum of oxygen uptake) during 1500 m running as a distant goal approaches in time. (iii) As a consequence of the foregoing, success-oriented individuals should work with higher heart rates and energy consumption than failure-oriented individuals in the goal situation. The hypotheses were confirmed. In addition, from the situation where the goal was 1 month away to the goal situation, failure-oriented individuals had a steeper slope of negative goal gradient than the positive goal gradient of success-oriented individuals, i.e., the former group had a more rapid decrease in oxygen consumption than the increase shown by the latter group. Results are discussed in relation to Gjesme's (1981) theory of achievement motivation, Raynor and Entin's (1983) research and step-path theory of action, and Kohl's (1984) theory of action control.
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