Sport Psychology (PSY407) VU
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.
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
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:
1. 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
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