PSYCHOLOGY OF SPORT

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PSYCHOLOGY OF SPORT EXERCISE

• Sport the Individual
• MOTIVATION IN SPORT

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What we already know

• Remember this guy?
• B F Skinner
• Operant conditioning
• Motivation comes through reinforcement
• Positive (adding nice rewards)
• Negative (withholding nasty punishments)
• Positive is best
• BEHAVIOURISM

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Lepper Green (1975)

• Children in nursery spend time colouring with
  felt pens
• Very motivated
• Some children promised Good Player certificate
  for playing with pens
• 1 week later, these children spend less time
  drawing!
• Rewards can damage motivation?

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Different types of reward

• Edward Deci (1975)
• INTRINSIC vs EXTRINSIC motivations
• INTRINSIC behaviours which a person engages
  in to feel competent and self-determining
• SPONTANEOUS not provided by others persistent

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Deci et al. (1981)

• Participants all given an interesting task
• Half told to try and beat the others (competitive
  condition)
• Everyone allowed to win
• Later, given choice of activities
• Less motive to continue for competitive group
• Especially females!

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COGNITIVE EVALUATION THEORY

• Deci says behaviourism is not enough
• Must look at cognitions
• Depends on MEANING of reward
• Extrinsic rewards SOMETIMES reduce
  self-determination
• Im only doing this to impress the coach
• But sometimes add to it
• Hey! If he complimented me I must be doing
  something right!

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SELF DETERMINATION THEORY (SDT) 1

• Edward Deci Richard Ryan, University of
  Rochester, New York (2000)
• Drawing together Cognitive Evaluation Theory and
  later research
• A new model of motivation
• Importance of encouraging INTRINSIC motivation

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SELF DETERMINATION THEORY (SDT) 2

• 3 psychological needs that affect INTRINSIC
  MOTIVATION
• COMPETENCE we need to feel we can succeed
• Improved by positive feedback and challenging
  tasks
• AUTONOMY we need to feel able to choose and be
  in control
• Improved by giving people freedom and
  acknowledging their feelings
• RELATEDNESS we need to care for others and be
  cared for in return
• Improved by being in a caring group

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SELF DETERMINATION THEORY (SDT) 3

• Importance of SELF-REGULATION how deeply do you
  relate to the task you have to do?
• Stages going from completely extrinsic to
  completely intrinsic
• EXTERNAL REGULATION
• You do it because youre made to or being paid to
  and no other reason
• Ive got to go to training or coach will kill
  me!

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SELF DETERMINATION THEORY (SDT) 4

• INTROJECTED REGULATION
• You have some choice and the rewards are a bit
  more internal
• Ive got to go to training cos all my friends
  will be there
• IDENTIFIED REGULATION
• The task is personally important to you
• Ive got to go to training so I can have a shot
  at being a regional finalist

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SELF DETERMINATION THEORY (SDT) 5

• INTEGRATED REGULATION
• The task is something you completely identify
  with
• Training for this years competition is really
  important to me
• INTRINSIC REGULATION
• This is completely intrinsic motivation with no
  thought of reward or obligation
• I just love my sport and wish I could be doing
  it all the time
• TECHNIQUE ? move players up the scale, making
  their self-regulation less external, more internal

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Putting this into practice

• Ronald Smith Frank Smoll (1979) designed a
  COACH EFFECTIVENESS TRAINING (CET) programme
• Tested it on Little League Baseball teams
  coaches
• Out Winning is everything!
• In team-building, self-esteem
• CET group report more enthusiasm motivation
• Especially low self-esteem children!

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What would Freud say?

• Motivation boils down to sex!
• This PSYCHOSEXUAL energy is called LIBIDO
• It needs to be channelled
• DISPLACEMENT
• SUBLIMATION
• Other EGO DEFENCE MECHANISMS

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What would Freud say?

• Conflicts between ID and SUPER-EGO block libido
• Sabotage our own efforts
• Eg dread of success
• Secrets of motivation are in the unconscious
  not the environment

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Dan Jansen

• American speed skater tipped for gold in 1988
  Olympics
• On day of competition, his sister died
• 10 seconds into 500m race, he fell
• Fell again in 1000m
• 4 years later, competed again fell again
• 1994 games lost balance in 500m
• BUT won 1000m

• Why the falls? Unconscious guilt?
• Winning betraying his feelings for his sister?

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What would Freud say?

• RORSCHACH TEST
• Unreliable, subjective
• PSYCHOANALYSIS
• Time-consuming, expensive
• Resolves unconscious conflicts
• Doesnt work for everyone

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Achievement Motivation 1

• David McClelland researched our NEED FOR
  ACHIEVEMENT (N-Ach)
• High N-Ach people are independent and seek out
  challenges
• They seek recognition
• Praised/rewarded in childhood
• Attribute success to skill, not luck
• Associate achievement with positive feelings

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Achievement Motivation 2

• Diagnosed nAch by getting Ps to complete a
  THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST (TAT)
• Projective test, 30 images
• Whats going on in the picture?
• Story you tell reveals a lot about you
• Very Freudian

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Achievement Motivation 3

• Tested range of ages, background (test takes
  hours)
• N-Ach rises with occupational level managers,
  businessmen, professionals have highest scores
• High n-Ach people prefer tasks with a 50 chance
  of success
• Prefer working alone or with other high n-Ach
• Demand regular feedback

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McClelland-Atkinson Model (1953)

• John William Atkinson developed the idea of n-Ach
• Personality trait ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION
• desire to succeed fear of failure
• High achiever ? desire to succeed greater than
  fear of failure
• Modified by situation
• Probability of success cognition
• Incentive for succeeding reinforcement

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McClelland-Atkinson Model - evaluate

• Diane Gill (1986) reviewed research on motivation
• Supports idea that HIGH ACHIEVERS prefer
  difficult tasks, LOW ACHIEVERS prefer easy ones
• BUT does not predict performance
• (high achievers not more likely to win)

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Fear of Success (FoS)

• What about gender differences?
• Matina Horner (1972) suggests 3rd motive besides
  desire to succeed and fear of failure
• FEAR OF SUCCESS
• Women have greater FoS?
• Influenced by gender stereotypes, cultural norms
• Other research suggests males just as affected by
  FoS

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Sport-specific theories of motivation

• More emphasis on goals and intentions
• Diane Gill defines 3 types
• (1) COMPETITIVENESS the desire to succeed in
  sport
• (2) WIN ORIENTATION success means beating the
  opposition
• (3) GOAL ORIENTAION success means achieving
  personal goals
• Similar to intrinsic/extrinsic motivation?

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Sport Orientation

• Win-orientated people prefer weaker or stronger
  opponents
• Guaranteed win or no-blame defeat
• Goal-orientated people prefer realistic opponents
• Dont see losing as a setback
• Can this be measured?

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Sport Orientation Questionnaire

• Diane Gil Thomas Deeter (1988)
• 25 questions
• Assesses win vs goal orientation
• Overall competitiveness
• Men score high for win competitiveness
• Women score high for goal
• Athletes score higher than non-athletes on
  everything
• Athletes more concerned about performance than
  winning compared to non-athletes

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Summing Up

• Traditional motivation carrot stick (OPERANT
  CONDITIONING)
• Need to focus more on INSTRINSIC motivations
  (SDT, Deci Ryan)
• Or possibly unconscious motives (Freud)
• More empirical approach ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION
  (McClelland Atkinson) and TAT
• Sport specific approach SPORTS ORIENTATION
  (Gill) and SOQ (Gill Deeter)