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Sport Psychology (PSY407)

Lesson 07

MOTIVATION IN SPORT

Motivation is basically something that energizes, direct, and sustains behaviors. There are two kinds of

motivation in sports i.e. intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation, but at the fundamental core,

intrinsic motivation is little more than taking part in an interesting activity simply because of love for

the activity or the game. Intrinsic motivation is basically the internal desire of the players to perform a

particular task, to do certain activities because it gives them pleasure, develops a particular skill, or it's

morally the right thing to do. Whereas extrinsic motivation are the motivational factors external to the

individual and unrelated to the task they are performing or in other words extrinsic motivation refers to

motivation that comes from an external as opposed to an internal source. Examples include money, and

other rewards. Intrinsically motivated players are bound to do much better in their fields, because they

are willing and eager to learn new stuff. Their learning experience is more meaningful.

Integrated Theory of Motivation

The integrated theory of motivation includes the notions of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The

theory is based upon the centerpiece of self-determination. Self-determination is the unifying

psychological construct that brings meaning to the overall concept of motivation.

Social factors and psychological mediator are seen as determinants of motivation that lead to certain

consequences.

Social Factors

Social factors facilitate or cause feelings of competence, autonomy, and relatedness. The specific social

identified in the model include experiences of success and failure, experiences with competition and

cooperation, and coaches' behaviors.

Success and Failure

As athletes participate in a sport they have many opportunities to experience i.e. to say they may have to

face failure or negative feedback or success or positive feedback. Successful experiences on one hand

leads to the belief that one is competent and efficacious relative to skills being learned and performed.

Whereas, failure feedback on the other hand leads to a reduction in the belief that one is competent and

efficacious.

Competition and Cooperation

Achievement situations tend to focus upon either competition or cooperation. Putting the emphasis

upon defeating the opponent is an ego or competitive goal orientation that is associated with a loss in

intrinsic motivation. Also, consistent with self determination theory is the observation that competition

reduces feelings of autonomy, as the focus is external and not internal. Just as competition relates to an

ego goal orientation, cooperation relates to a task or mastery goal orientation.

Coaches' Behavior

The third social factor that can influence an athletes' perception of competence, autonomy and

relatedness is the Coaches' behavior. The coach could insists on being in complete control and

determining, even down to the last detail, exactly what transpires on the playing field or practice field.

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Sport Psychology (PSY407)

Or the coach be more democratic in nature and is willing to share the perception of control with athletes.

The controlling coach risks destroying the intrinsic motivation of the athlete for the sake of personal control or

even perhaps more wins.

Psychological Mediators

There are three psychological mediators which determine motivation, they are:

Competence

Self determination theory values competence as a prerequisite for motivation, but by itself it is not a sufficient

condition for its development. It is clear that competence (self confidence) is critical to the development of

intrinsic motivation, but without autonomy you do not have self determination, and without self determination

you do not have intrinsic motivation. Competence without autonomy gives rise to the efficacious pawn. In the

efficacious pawn you have an individual who is confident that he can successfully perform a task, but who is

doing it for an external reason. When the external reason is removed, he will no longer be motivated to perform

the task, although he may do it without enthusiasm or real motivation.

Autonomy

The concept of autonomy is central to self determination theory. You cannot exhibit self-determination without

autonomy. According to self-determination theory, every individual has the basic innate need to be an "origin"

and not a "pawn"

Relatedness

The third innate psychological need is the need for relatedness. Relatedness is necessary for a person to be self

actualized, or to realize his full potential as an athlete and as a human being. Relatedness has to do with the basic

need to relate to other people, to care for others and have others care for you. As all human beings are social

animals and for that they have to interact with other people similarly it is very interesting seeing athletes

supporting each other on the playing field. To a large extent, an athletes' enjoyment in sport is associated with

how she relates to other athletes on her team, as well as to the coaches and support personnel.

Levels of Motivation

Level of motivation depends on seven factors, and they are:

Amotivation

The least self-deterministic kind of motivation is no motivation at all. This is referred to as amotivation.

Amotivation refers to behaviors that are neither internally nor externally based. For example, an amotivated

athlete might say that he is not sure why he plays a particular sport, and he does not see any benefits related to

the sport. It is the relative absence of motivation.

Intrinsic Motivation

The kind of motivation that exhibits that highest level of self-determinism is referred to as being intrinsic or

internal in nature. Intrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from within. Intrinsic motivation is believed to

be multidimensional. The three aspects or manifestations of intrinsic motivation are towards knowledge,

towards accomplishment, and towards experiencing stimulation.

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Sport Psychology (PSY407)

Intrinsic motivation towards knowledge reflects an athlete's desire to learn new skills and ways of

accomplishing a task. Intrinsic motivation towards accomplishing reflects an athlete's desire to gain

mastery over a particular skill and the pleasure that comes from reaching a personal goal for mastery.

And similarly intrinsic motivation towards experiencing stimulation reflects the feeling that an athlete

gets from physically experiencing a sensation innate to a specific task.

3. Extrinsic Motivation

By definition, extrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from an external as opposed to an

internal source. Extrinsic motivation comes in many forms, but common examples include awards,

trophies, money, praises, social approval, and fear of punishment.

4. External regulation

A behavior that is performed only to obtain an external reward or to avoid punishment is said to be

externally regulated. For example, an externally regulated runner takes part in a 10-kilometer race

because of the promise of a trophy and a cash reward. . Now this behavior leads to self determination

and the perception of being in personal control. The athlete in this example is pawn in terms of

exercising personal control of their behavior.

5. Introjected regulation

Extrinsic motivation that has undergone introjected regulation is only partially internalized. For

example the degree to which an athlete feels that he practices daily to please his coach, as opposed to

practicing to become a better player because he wants to become a better player.

6. Identified regulation

When an athlete comes to identify with an extrinsic motivation to the degree that it is perceived as

being her own, it is referred to as being an identified regulation. Identified regulation is present when an

athlete engages in an activity that he does not perceive as being particularly interesting, but he does so

because he sees the activity as being instrumental for him to obtain another goal that is interesting to

him.

7. Integrated regulation

The most internalized form of regulation is referred to as integrated regulation. When regulation

mechanisms are well integrated, they become personally valued and freely done. At this level, a behavior

previously considered to be externally controlling becomes fully assimilated and internally controlled.

For example, an athlete will perceive his coach's controlling behavior as being completely consistent

with his own aspirations and goals and no longer perceives them as being externally controlling.

Consequences of Motivation

High levels of intrinsic motivation and internalized extrinsic motivation should lead to positive affect,

positive behavioral outcomes, and improved cognition. Research shows that athletes who engage in

sport for self-determined reasons experience more positive and less negative affect, have greater

persistence, and exhibit higher levels of sportspersonship.

Researches which support the integrated model include:

Pelletier et al.(1995) report

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Sport Psychology (PSY407)

Markland (1999) report.

Kowal and Fortier (2000) report

Ferre-Caja and Weiss (2000) report

Cognitive Evaluation Theory

Cognitive evaluation theory is a sub theory to the integrated theory of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Cognitive evaluation theory puts forward the view that extrinsic motivation has the potential of diminishing an

individual's intrinsic motivation. That is, rewards can either add to or detract intrinsic motivation. There are two

components of the theory. The controlling aspect of the theory predicts that intrinsic motivation will be reduced

if extrinsic motivation is perceived as being controlling. The other component, informational aspect, predicts

that extrinsic motivation will actually enhance intrinsic motivation if an external reward is perceived as being

suggestive of personal competence.

Research support for cognitive evaluation theory is strong as evidenced by a recent meta-analysis and other

investigations. Research on attribution theory indicates that external rewards can damage a young athlete's

intrinsic desire to compete. The multiplicative principle suggests that his interaction between intrinsic and

extrinsic rewards could either add to or detract from intrinsic motivation.

References

Cox, H. Richard. (2002). Sport Psychology: Concepts and Applications. (Fifth Edition). New York: McGraw-

Hill Companies

Lavallec. D., Kremer, J., Moran, A., & Williams. M. (2004) Sports Psychology: Contemporary Themes. New

York: Palgrave Macmillan Publishers