Sport Psych Chapter 4

Achievement Goal Theory

***Task (or mastery) goal orientation ~Focus on improving skills and ability over time ~Tend to choose challenging tasks ~Prefer competing against high quality opponents ***Ego (or performance) goal orientation ~Focus on outperforming others ~Tend to choose relatively easy tasks ~Prefer to compete against those they can beat. ~Focus on mastery goals leads to better outcomes, including higher levels for enjoyment in athletic events. ~Pursuit of mastery goals is associated with greater effort and higher levels of intrinsic motivation (and lack of fear of performing poorly)

Indivudal differences

Athletes are motivated by different strategies ~Having fun, making friends, winning scholarships, losing weight, learning new skills, gaining status ~Motives may change over time, even within the course of a season.

4 types of amotivation

1. Maladaptive ability beliefs: "I don't have what it takes to do well" 2. Maladaptive Effort beliefs: "I don't have the energy" 3. Low value placed on task: "This task holds no interst for me." 4. Unappealing task characteristics: "This task is boring"

Self-Efficacy Theory: 4 factors

1. own experience 2. vicarious experiences 3. verbal persuasion 4. emotional and physiological states High self-efficacy -> higher expectations -> higher performance

Random Fact

Athletes swimming in a relay tend to swim faster than in an individual competition if they are in the later positions, whereas starting swimmers show no difference in times

Mastery vs Performance goals

Athletes who focus on mastery goals ~Greater sportsmanship ~Like their teammates and coach more. Athletes who are focused on performance goals ~More willingness to break a rule ~More likely to lie to an official and cheat ~More likely to engage in aggressive and anti-social behavior in an attempt to outperform opponents and teammates

Values of external rewards

Cameron & Pierce (1994) ~Meta-analysis of 96 studies, external rewards do not decrease intrinsic motivation. ~Verbal praise can lead to an increase in intrinsic motivation. McFall, Knoeber, & Thurman (2009) ~top ranked professional golfers, having a financial incentive to perform leads to improved performance (especially for players who are close to attaining a very lucrative prize)

Positive and personal feedback

Feedback marks progress towards goals and demonstrates that coaches are genuinely interested in helping them learn and improve ~Increases intrinsic motivation ~Verbal and non-verbal praise can motivate Coaches need to use specific types of feedback to help athletes change their behavior. Feedback should: ~Be empathic ~Give choices ~Provide clear and attainable objectives ~Include specific solutions to improve performance ~Be delivered in a respectful tone of voice Through positive feedback, players: ~See that the coach valued their hard work ~Realize that mistakes are part of learning ~Believed that high effort will lead to improvement ~Coaches need to give personal, and personalized feedback whenever possible

How to create~ motivating environments

Focus on rewarding improvements over time and emphasizing the importance of effort ~Helps athletes believe that coach expects they can do well ~Increases intrinsic motivation, which leads to better performance. ~Emphasizing effort instead of outcome reduces pressure on athletes. ~Be sure to develop all athletes' skills (not just the best players)

Hazards of external rewards

Fortier, Vallerand, Briere, & Provencher (1995) ~Recreational college athletes are higher in intrinsic motivation than competitive athletes Medic, Mack, Wilson, & Starkes (2007) ~Athletes on athletic scholarship report that their intrinsic motivation would decrease if the scholarship were taken away ~Athletes not on athletic scholarships report their intrinsic motivation would decrease if such a reward were given Sturman & Thibodeau (2001) ~MLB players who received a new contract (big raise) showed decrease in immediate post-contract performance

Intrinsic Regulation

Interest, enjoyment, inherent satisfaction Perceived Locus of Causality: Internal

Impact of mastery- focused environment on motivation

Mastery-Focused environments lead to higher levels of perceived competence, self-esteem, enjoyment, intrinsic motivation, and the experience of flow. Create a mastery-focused environment by emphasizing: working hard, developing skills, showing improvement over time, and valuing each athlete's role.

Impact of performance focused environments on motivation

Performance environments lead to extrinsic motivation, pressure, anxiety, use of maladaptive coping strategies. ~Create a performance-focused environment by emphasizing: outperforming others, avoiding making mistakes, rewarding only the best ~Athletes' goal orientation can change over time based on the environment

Motivation

The direction and intensity of one's effort

Use appropriate reinformcent

Types of reinforcers: 1. material reinforcers 2. social rewards 3. activity rewards 4. outings ~Reinforcement will vary based on athletes' interests, ability, personality, and age. ~Frequent reinforcement is very helpful to young or new athletes ---Reward behavior that is close to the desired behavior ~Rewarding performance (effort) is better than rewarding outcome. ~Coaches should reward both physical skills and social/emotional skills ---Good sportsmanship, being a "team player", following team rules.

Self-handicapping

adopting or claiming impediments to success as a way of maintaining self-esteem. ~Those who are low in self-esteem are especially likely to engage in self-handicapping.

Extrinsic Motivation

comes from an external source: awards, trophies, money, praise, or social status

Intrinsic Motiavtion

comes from an internal source: fun of competing, a desire to learn new skills, and the excitement of performing well Benefits of this type of motivation: ~Higher levels of enjoyment of and commitment to their sport. ~Better predictor of participation in a particular sport (leads to better performance) ~More likely to experience flow ~More likely to practice

External regulation

describes behavior that is entirely motivated by a fear of punishment or a desire for a reward Perceived Locus of Causality: External

Overjustification

extrinsic rewards undermine intrinsic interest

Social Loafing

individuals' tendency to reduce their own individual output when their contributions on a task will be combined with those of other people. ~More likely to occur when individuals' output isn't clear or measurable, ~Other members on a person's team are high in ability ~person doesn't feel his/her output will make a meaningful difference People in groups loaf less when the task is - ~Challenging ---Appropriate stretching ~Appealing ---Rewards are significant ~Involving ---Personally meaningful Also: ~Each group member's contributions are identifiable ~Evaluate each other's performance ~Group members are friends

Integrated regulation

internalizing the external pressures on behavior and seeing behavior as freely determined. ----Essentially as effective as intrinsic motivation. (congruence, awareness, synthesis with self) Perceived Locus of Causality: Internal

Identified regulation

motivated by external factors but feeling personal choice over participation (personal importance, conscious valuing) Perceived Locus of Causality: Somewhat Internal

Introjected regulation

partially intrinsically motivated, but is also motivated by controlling external factors. (internal rewards and punishments) Perceived Locus of Causality: Somewhat External

Approach vs. Avoidance Motivation

~Approaching a desirable goal vs. avoiding an undesirable goal ~Focus on approach versus avoidance goals impacts intrinsic motivations performance ~Focusing on approaching mastering skills predicts greater enjoyment and performance, ~Focusing on avoiding poor play leads to worse performance

How can we increase motivation?

~Create Motivating Environments ~Emphasize Effort, Not Outcome ~Recognize Individual Differences ~Use Appropriate Reinforcement ~Give Positive and Personal Feedback

Competence Motivation Theory

~Describes the importance of feeling worthy and competent ~Experiencing successful results leads to an increase in self-efficacy and positive feelings, increasing perceived competence ~Experiencing negative results leads to negative feelings, such as shame and anxiety, decreasing competence motivation ~Athletes who receive positive feedback increase in perceived competence (leads to higher levels of intrinsic motivation) ~Athletes who receive more frequent praise and information report feeling higher in perceived competence ~Those who receive more frequent corrective information following a mistake feel lower in perceived confidence

Self-Efficacy Theory

~Describes the importance of having a belief in one's own ability to carry out a given task ---Self-confidence refers to a person's overall view of him or herself as being generally capable, ---Self-efficacy refers to a person's self-confidence within a specific domain. ~Within the right domain, people with high self-efficacy are more likely to exert effort, set more challenging goals, and persist longer

Social approval goal orientation

~Desire for social acceptance & avoiding embarrassment/defeat ~Particularly important for interactive and team-sport athletes

Achievement Motivation

~Focus on mastering a task, achieving at a high level, persisting even when confronted by obstacles. ~Often described as competitiveness ~Men tend to be higher in competiveness than women (Sex differences may be linked to social factors or biological factors (e.g., testosterone).)

Sport-Confidence Model

~Focuses on people's enduring beliefs about their competence within athletics, and the impact of these beliefs on performance. ---Beliefs are influenced by achievements, self-regulation, and the social climate ~Sport confidence is described as a combination of cognitive efficiency, physical skills/training, and resilience Athletes who are high on sport-confidence ~Show better levels of performance ~Use more effective strategies for achieving goals ~Block out distractions and maintain focus ~Bounce back from adverse experiences

Cognitive Evaluation Theory

~Focuses on the causes of intrinsic motivation and the factors that increase/decrease motivation ~The impact of external rewards varies depending on how these rewards are perceived ~People may see external rewards as a factor outside of themselves controlling their behavior----decreases intrinsic motivation -People may see rewards as informational, providing information about performance. ~Athletes see positive feedback as more informational and less controlling than negative feedback ~Positive feedback increases intrinsic motivation ~Negative feedback decreased intrinsic motivation as well as lower perceived competence. ~Coach's behavior may have a stronger impact on motivation than the presence of an athletic scholarship

Need Achievement Theory

~Personal factors and situational factors in predicting achievement behavior ~People vary in their motivation to avoid failure and achieve success ~People take into consideration the specific achievement situation they are facing, including their probability of success and the incentive value of that success. ~Interaction of personal and situational factors influences athletes' behavioral tendencies and emotional reactions.

Integrated Theory of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation in Sport

~Social factors influence athletes' beliefs about themselves ~Self-perceptions then influence feelings of competence, autonomy, and ability to relate to other people ~These feelings (psychological mediators) then influence the type of motivation athletes feel, leading to particular consequences