Kine 266 L4

How is motivation defined in sport psychology?

Motivation is the direction, intensity, and persistence of effort:

Motivation literally means “to move”
👉 Amotivation = no movement or drive

Motivation: Direction

(choice): what you choose to do

Motivation: Intensity

• (effort): how hard you try

Motivation: Persistence

• Persistence: how long you continue, especially through adversity

What does SEP focus on when studying motivation?

Three key questions:

1. Initiation: Why people start

2. Sustaining participation: Why people continue

3. Discontinuation: Why people quit

REMEMBER: What gets you into a sport ≠ what keeps you there

Studying Motivation: Initiation

Why people start

Studying Motivation: Sustaining Participation

Why people continue

Studying Motivation: Discontinuation

Why people quit

What are the three approaches to studying motivation in SEP and how do they differ?

• Trait approach: Motivation = personality (“you have it or you don’t”) → ❌ too simplistic

• Situation approach: Motivation = environment → ❌ ignores the person

• Interactional approach: Motivation = personality + environment → ✔ MOST accurate

Approach to Studying Motivation: Trait Approach

Motivation is a function of personality

—> either you have it or you don’t

• too simplistic

Approach to Studying Motivation: Situation Approach

Motivation is a function of environment

• ignores person, says person doesn’t bring anything to it

Approach to Studying Motivation: Interactional approach

motivation is a function of personality & environment/situation!

—>Most accurate/most widely used

In the interactional approach, what factors combine to influence motivation?

• Personal factors: personality, goals, needs, interests

• Situational factors: coach style, team success, environment

• Motivation = interaction between person + situation

Interactional Approach to Studying Motivation: Personal factors

personality, goals, needs, interests

Interactional Approach to Studying Motivation: Situational factors

• coach style, team success, environment

• (facilities, teammates)

What is Guideline 1 for building motivation and why is it important?

Consider both traits and situation
—> Avoid assuming “they aren’t trying”
—> Behavior may be caused by the environment (e.g., boredom), not personality

What is Guideline 2 for building motivation and how does it apply?

Understand multiple motives for participation
👉 Motives differ by age, level, and context

Building Motivation: Youth motives

• Fun (MOST important)

• Friends/belonging

• Skill improvement

• Fitness

• Self-esteem

• Winning (LOW importance)

Building Motivation: Youth Motives KEY INSIGHT

Kids prefer playing and losing > sitting and winning

Why youth quit:

• Negative experiences (often coach-related)

• Social issues (cliques)

• Coaches not understanding sampling years! —> deliberate play vs deliberate practice

Why Youth Quit: Sampling Years

• Deliberate Play: creating game like situations, maximum involvement —> more effective

• Deliberate Practice: constant practical application, lots of drill/rules —> Not as effective

Youth Sport “Dropout” Misinformation 1

1. Sport Withdrawal is permanent

Youth Sport ‘Dropout” Misinformation 2

2. Discontinuing activities is atypical of growing youth

Youth Sport “Dropout” Misinformation 3

3. Reasons for attrition are tied to initial reasons for participation —> unmet expectations, changing circumstances, or dissatisfaction with the original value proposition drive disengagement

What is Guideline 3 for building Motivation?:

• CHANGE THE ENVIRONMENT TO ENHANCE MOTIVATION

• Modify practices, coaching style, team culture

What is Guideline 4 for building Motivation?

INFLUENCE MOTIVATION

Focus on effort (not just outcome)

• Process > outcome

• Builds long-term motivation

What is Guideline 5 for Building Motivation?

• USE BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION to CHANGE undesirable participant movtives

• Rewards/reinforcement (especially for younger athletes)

Fun Integration Theory (Avoiding Youth Disengagement)

1. Cohesion —> social fundamentals

2. Mastery Climate —> Internal/contextual fundamentals

3. Supportive environments & team distinction belonging

Fun Integration Theory: 1. Cohesion

• Social Fundamentals

• Friends!

• supporting need to have & make friends

Fun Integration Theory 2: Mastery Climate

• Internal/contextual fundamentals

• focus on improvement !

• focus on process over outcome

• allows for gaining of confidence & skill

Fun Integration Theory 3: Supportive Environments & Team Distinction/Belonging

• External Fundamentals: keeping a finger on parents, the sidelines that influence motivation of Youth athletes

• Support affiliation & sense of belonging

Motivation: Two Key Constructs (related but not identical)

1. Achievement Motivation

2. Competitiveness

Motivation Key Construct 1: Achievement Motivation

A person’s effort to:

• master a task

• achieve excellence

• overcome obstacles

• perform better than others

• take pride in exercising talent

Motivation Key Construct 2: Competitiveness

• the drive to strive for satisfaction when making comparisons with a standard of excellence

• think of having a standard out in the public/public goal/record to be met

Motivational theories in sport

1. Need Achievement Theory

2. Attribution Theory

3. Achievement Goal Theory

4. Competence Motivation theory

Motivational theories in sport 1: Need Achievement Theory

• Interactional view of how 5 components intersect (AFFECT) & what achievement looks like

1. Personality Factors (Motives)

2. Situational Factors

3. Resultant Tendencies

4. Emotional Reaction

5. Achievement-related behaviors

Motivational theories in sport 1: Need Achievement Theory is essentially…

• Motivation = interaction of: Personality + situation

People are motivated by either:

• Achieving success

• Avoiding failure

High vs Low Achievers:

High achievers:

• Seek challenges

• Focus on success

• Feel pride

Low achievers:

• Avoid risk OR choose impossible tasks

• Focus on failure

• Feel shame

Motivation Theory in Sport: 1: Need Achievement Theory: PERSONALITY FACTORS

Personality can affect motives:

1. TO ACHIEVE SUCESS

OR

2. TO AVOID FAILURE

Motivation Theory in Sport: 1: Need Achievement Theory: SITUATIONAL FACTORS

• The probability of success in the situation affects motivation

• The incentive value of success in the situation —> what do I get out of it? How much is at stake?

• Athletes trying to be successful vs avoid failure look at situational factors differently

Motivation Theory in Sport: 1: Need Achievement Theory: RESULTANT TENDENCIES

• an individual’s achievement motive levels in relation to situational factors

• HIGH ACHIEVERS: seek out optimally challenging situations, focus on probability of success & incentive value is not as important —> will try their best regardless

• LOW ACHIEVERS: seeking out easy situation to AVOID FAILURE, would choose something very hard because failure is expected, competency not at risk

Motivation Theory in Sport: 1: Need Achievement Theory: RESULTANT TENDENCIES of HIGH ACHIEVERS

• seek out optimally challenging situations, focus on probability of success & incentive value is not as important —> will try their best regardless

Motivation Theory in Sport: 1: Need Achievement Theory: RESULTANT TENDENCIES of LOW ACHIEVERS

• seeking out easy situation to AVOID FAILURE, would choose something very hard because failure is expected, competency not at risk

Motivation Theory in Sport: 1: Need Achievement Theory: EMOTIONAL REACTIONS

• How much pride or shame a person experiences: Where do they focus?

• high achievers: will find pride in most situation

• low achievers: will be stuck on mistakes & shame

Motivation Theory in Sport: 1: Need Achievement Theory: EMOTIONAL REACTIONS of HIGH ACHIEVERS

• will find pride in most situations, even if goal is not met

• can pick out moment they did well/what they did well

Motivation Theory in Sport: 1: Need Achievement Theory: EMOTIONAL REACTIONS of LOW ACHIEVERS

• will be stuck on what they didn’t do well

• focusing on feelings of shame for making mistakes

Motivation Theory in Sport: 1: Need Achievement Theory: ACHIEVEMENT BEHAVIOR

• How do the other 4 components interact to influence behavior?

• High achievers: typically have higher & more consistent performance outcomes

• Low achievers; usually don’t reach potential & performances all over the board

Motivation Theory in Sport: 1: Need Achievement Theory: ACHIEVEMENT BEHAVIOR of HIGH ACHIEVERS

• typically have higher & more consistent performance outcomes

Motivation Theory in Sport: 1: Need Achievement Theory: ACHIEVEMENT BEHAVIOR of LOW ACHIEVERS

• usually don’t reach potential & performances all over the board

Motivation Theory in Sport 2: Attribution Theory

• What are attributions?: HOW PEOPLE EXPLAIN THEIR SUCCESS & FAILURE

• Relativity to sport participation/performance: either influences or reveals motivation & impacts future expectancy of success & failure

Motivation Theory in sport 2: Attribution Theory: What Types of Attributions are there? ex)

• Winning: hard work, training, dedication, coaching, easy competition, spiritual, team work etc.

• Losing: bad game, tired, ref/bad call, weather/field (conditions essentially)

• Research shows oftentimes, losses are externalized

Motivation Theory in sport 2: Attribution Theory: What Types of Attributions are there?

• Internal (effort, ability)

• External (luck, refs)

• Stable (ability)

• Unstable (effort)

• Controllable vs uncontrollable

Motivation Theory in sport 2: Attribution Theory: Key Takeaway

Motivation is strongest when athletes:

• Attribute outcomes to internal + controllable factors (like effort)

Motivation Theory in Sport 3: Achievement Goal Theory

• People seek to demonstrate high ability (success) & avoid demonstrating low ability (failure)

• People define success differently depending on their GOAL ORIENTATION

• Essentially, people are motivated by how they define success

Motivation Theory in Sport 3: Achievement Goal Theory Orientations

• Task: process, mastery —> person with this goal orientation define success on personal improvement “Am I getting better?”

• Outcome: Ego oriented —> definition of success is outdoing others, generally winning

Motivation Theory in Sport 3: Achievement Goal Theory Task Orientation

• process, mastery —> person with this goal orientation define success on personal improvement “Am I getting better?”

Motivation Theory in Sport 3: Achievement Goal Theory Ego Orientation

• Ego oriented —> definition of success is outdoing others, generally winning

• not best/ideal for lower level sports

Motivation Theory in Sport 3: Achievement Goal Theory in action: TASK APPROACH Oriented

• Best

• I want to swim a personal record in this race

Motivation Theory in Sport 3: Achievement Goal Theory in action: TASK AVOIDANCE Oriented

I don’t want to swim slower than my personal record in this race

Motivation Theory in Sport 3: Achievement Goal Theory in action: EGO APPROACH Oriented

I want to score on that goal keeper & win the game

Motivation Theory in Sport 3: Achievement Goal Theory in action: EGO AVOIDANCE Oriented

• Worst

• I don’t want that goal keeper to stop my shots & loose the game

Motivation Theory in Sport 3: Achievement Goal Theory: Impact of Goal Orientations

WHAT ASPECTS OF SPORT WILL A PERSON’S GOAL ORIENTATION IMPACT?

•Attributions: people who are task oriented are more likely to contribute success and failures to things in their control, ego orientated put failures on something else

•Enjoyment: ppl/ who are task oriented report higher levels of enjoyment, ppl who are ego oriented report higher levels of anxiety

•Injury rehabilitation: ppl w/ego orientation more likely to go into catastrophic thinking

•Task choice: ppl/who have task orientation are more likely to pick optimally challenging situations, ego oriented ppl will pick task that will be more likely to win

•Perceived competence: ppl w/task orientation report higher levels of perceived confidence & believing they can grow/change

•Intrinsic motivation: task motivation is connected to higher levels of intrinsic motivation (personal satisfaction)

•Purpose of sport: ppl w/task orientation see sport as holistic thing, PART of who they are, pp w/ego orientation define themself as an athlete in a detrimental way

• Legitimacy of poor sportsmanship: task orientation person will justify it in quest to beat someone/win (more likely to cheat)

Motivation Theory in Sport 3: Competency Motivation Theory

• The basic human need is to demonstrate competence

• Perceptions of control, self-worth, & competence evaluations influence affective/emotional states

• “I can produce this outcome” —> feelings of this affected by how we feel we can control/level of control etc

Motivation Theory in Sport 3: Competency Motivation Theory: Important Constructs

•Self-esteem

•Perceived competence

•Perceived control

•Motivational orientations (Task or ego oriented)

•Affect (enjoyment/stress)

•Feedback/reinforcement from significant others

•Success/failure

Motivation Theory in Sport 3: Competency Motivation Theory: Perceptions of control work w/self worth & competence

high self esteem + competence + high percieved control = increased motivation!

What Theories of Motivation Tell Us: Motivational Orientation: High Achiever

•High motivation to achieve success

•Low motivation to avoid failure

Focuses on pride of success

What Theories of Motivation Tell Us: Motivational Orientation: Low Achiever

•Low motivation to achieve success

•High motivation to avoid failure

•Focuses on shame and worry resulting from failure

What Theories of Motivation Tell Us: Attributions: High Achiever

•Attributes success to stable and internal factors w/in one’s control

• Ascribes failure to unstable and external factors outside of their control

What Theories of Motivation Tell Us: Attributions: Low Achiever

•Attributes success to unstable and external factors outside of their control

•Ascribes failure to stable and internal factors w/in one’s control

What Theories of Motivation Tell Us: Goals adopted: High achiever

• incremental or task goal

• approach goals

What Theories of Motivation Tell Us: Goals adopted: Low achiever

• entity or outcome goal

• avoidance goals

What Theories of Motivation Tell Us: Perceived Competence & Control: High Achiever

•High perceived competence and believes that achievement is within one’s control

What Theories of Motivation Tell Us: Perceived Competence & Control: Low Achiever

•Low perceived competence and believes achievement is outside one’s control

What Theories of Motivation Tell Us: Task Choice: High Achiever

•Seeks out challenges and able competitors and tasks

What Theories of Motivation Tell Us: Task Choice: Low Achiever

•Avoids challenges, seeks out very easy or very difficult tasks or competitors

What Theories of Motivation Tell Us: performance conditions: High achiever

performs well in evaluative conditions

What Theories of Motivation Tell Us: performance conditions: Low Achiever

performs poorly in evaluative conditions