define motivation and its
components
describe typical views of motivation
and evaluate their usefulness
detail useful guidelines for building
motivation
define achievement motivation and
competitiveness and indicate their
importance
KIN 380 – Psychological Analysis
of Physical Activity
compare and contrast theories of
achievement motivation
explain how achievement motivation
develops, and
use fundamentals of achievement
motivation to guide practice
Weinberg & Gould (2007, p. 51)
The process of arousal within an organism
that helps direct and sustain behavior
The prompting to action toward the goal or
objective of one’s actions
Motivation may be defined as the direction
and intensity of one’s effort
Sage (1977)
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Direction of Effort
What type of activities is a certain
individual attracted to?
Intensity of Effort
How much effort is one investing in the
activity he/she is attracted to?
Direction of Effort
Set clear, objective, and specific goals.
Goals must be stated as criteria to be
accomplished within a specified time
frame.
Intensity of Effort
Focus on intrinsic rather than extrinsic
rewards
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Sorrentino, R.M., & Sheppard, B.H. (1978). Effects
of affiliation-related motives on swimmers in
individual versus group competition: A field
Experiment. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 36(7), 704-714.
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The Trait-(Participant) Centered
Orientation
As predicted, approval-oriented swimmers
demonstrated faster times swimming in
the relay than when swimming alone.
Rejection-threatened (overly concerned to
disappoint their teammates) swam fastest
alone.
Conclusion: Individual split-times may
not be the best predictor of relay
performance.
Individual characteristics and personal
predispositions drive motivation
Situation-Centered Orientation
A dynamic environment shapes and reshapes
one’s motivational drive
Interactional View
Motivation is best understood through an
examination of the person and situation
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The key to understand motivation and
performance is in the consideration of both
the athlete’s personality and the situation.
Is it this simple or are there other factors that
need to be considered?
By what mechanism does one’s personality
interfere with one’s performance?
What options does the coach have to address
this problem?
How many of the rejection-threatened swimmers would
have made the relay team given their individual time?
,
Consider both situations and traits
To enhance motivation, you must analyze and
respond not only to a player’s personality but
also to the interaction of personal and
situational characteristics. Keep monitoring the
athlete for change over time.
Weinberg & Gould (2007, pp. 55-56)
Williams, K.D., Nida, S.A., Baca, L.D., & Latane, B.
(1989). Social loafing and swimming: Effects of
identifiability on individual and relay performance of
intercollegiate swimmers. Basic and Applied Social
Psychology, 10(1), 73-81.
Results indicated a significant interaction
between the degree of identifiability of
swimmers'times and type of event
(individual vs. relay) and thus supported
previous social loafing findings. Swimmers
recorded significantly better times in relays
than individually when identifiability was
high but tended to perform more poorly in
relays under conditions of low identifiability.
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Identify the sources of motivation
What are the (many) reasons one participates?
What conflicting forces are involved?
Be a good student without appearing geeky...
What unique and what shared reasons to
participate one displays?
Be with a friend or please a parent vs. improve skills
What are some unique cultural differences in
drive?
North Americans vs. American Chinese (competition vs.
social affiliation and wellness)
Weinberg & Gould (2007, p. 56)
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Modify the environment to
enhance motivation.
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Influence motivation.
Set a positive example.
Leave communications
lines open and
communicate clearly
Maintain high level of
energy
Structure teaching and
coaching environments to
meet the needs of all
participants.
Provide multiple opportunities
and address individual needs
Weinberg & Gould (2007, pp.
57-58)
Weinberg & Gould (2007, pp. 5758)
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Use behavior
modification to change
undesirable participant
motives and strengthen
weak motivation.
Positive and negative
reinforcement, rewards
and punishment.
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Achievement motivation is one’s drive to do
better at a variety of tasks; to persist in the face
of failure and take pride in one’s
accomplishment.
Competitiveness is achievement motivation as it
is played out in the presence of other
competitors.
Weinberg & Gould (2007, p.
59)
Weinberg & Gould (2007, p. 61)
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Explain, understand, and predict behavior
in achievement settings
initial involvement
task or choice of activity
effort invested toward goals
maintaining effort over time
persistence despite adversity and or
failure
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Achievement (nAch)
Affiliation (nAff)
David McClelland
Power (nP)
Image source: http://www.12manage.com/methods_mcclelland_theory_of_needs.html
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Personality Factors
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High achievers select challenging tasks, prefer
intermediate risks, and perform better when they
are being evaluated.
Low achievers avoid challenging tasks, avoid
intermediate risks, and perform worse when they
are being evaluated.
Motive to Achieve Success / Motive to Avoid Failure
Situational Factors
Probability of Success / Incentive Value of Success
Resultant Tendencies
Approach Success / Avoid Failure
Emotional Reactions
The most important contribution of need achievement
theory is its task preference and performance predictions
Focus on Pride of Success / Focus on Shame of Failure
Achievement Behavior
Seek out Achievement & Challenging Situations = Performance
Avoid Achievement Situations & Challenges = Performance
Weinberg & Gould (2007, p. 63)
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Focuses on how people explain
their successes and failures.
(Heider, 1958)
Low achievers avoid challenging
tasks, avoid intermediate risks,
and perform worse when they are
being evaluated.
Weinberg & Gould (2007, p. 63)
Fritz Heider
(1896-1988)
Image source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/13153559/Social-Review-PPT-Top-10
Attribution theory is a cognitive approach to
motivation. Fritz Heider described his theory
as one of common sense, or “naive
psychology.”
Heider, F., & Simmel,M. (1944). An
experimental study of apparent behavior.
American Journal of Psychology, 57(2),
243-259.
http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Discourse/Narrative/heider-simmel-demo.swf
http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Discourse/Narrative/michotte-demo.swf
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Internal
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External
Ability
(internal/Stable)
Task Difficulty
(External/Stable)
Effort
(Internal/Unstable)
Luck
(External/Unstable)
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Bernard Weiner
Stability Dimension
Attribution Theory attempts to
explain why people give
different causal attributions for
the same behavior.
Attribution is the process of
assigning a cause to perceived
behavior of self or others (Hogg
& Vaughan 2005).
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Source: Cox (2007)
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Stability Factors
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Expectancy of Future
Success
or expectation
Stable/Unstable
Causality Factors
Internal/External
Emotional Influences
or pride or shame
Control Factors
In or out of one’s control
Emotional Influences
or motivation
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Dispositional (internal) Attributions
Behavior is explained by a person’s personality,
traits, abilities or feelings
Situational (external) Attributions
Behavior is explained by a situation or
environment or situational demands.
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The tendency to put too much emphasis on
dispositional (internal) attributions when
explaining behavior of others at the expense of
situational (external) ones is called:
FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR
Examples of Fundamental Attribution Error
White men can’t jump
Blacks are great athletes
Asians are martial arts experts
Austrians are great down-hill skiers
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When people explain their own behavior by
making situational (external) attributions
and explain behavior of others with
(internal) dispositional attributions they are
exhibiting ____________ type of bias.
ACTOR OBSERVER BIAS
Examples of Actor Observer Bias
I had no choice, I had to lie; he is a liar.
I was late to work due to really bad weather
conditions; she is always late.
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When an athlete explains her/his success
with (internal) dispositional attributions and
blames failure on situational (external)
attributions he/she is exhibiting a
__________________ type of bias.
SELF-SERVING
Examples of Self-Serving Bias
The referee gave our game away.
We outplayed our opponents...
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An athlete’s tendency to attribute her/his
success to help received from others
(situational/external attributions) and to
downplay the task and her/his skills
(dispositional/internal attributions) is
exhibiting a __________________ type of
bias.
SELF-EFFACING
Examples of Self-Effacing Bias
I could not have done it without the group’s help
and support.
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Athletes from collectivist cultures are more
likely to exhibit a __________________
type of bias.
(A) SELF-EFFACING
(B) SELF-SERVING
(C) ACTOR OBSERVER
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Competitors expect that their performance
will be evaluated by others.
Competition ends with an external or internal
reward.
The perceived winner or loser explains the
causes of the competition’s outcome.
Internal/external locus of causality
Emotional response (pride or shame)
Stability factors
Source: Cox (2007)
Hideki Matsui
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Locus of Causality (Control)
Internal orientation—mature
Gymn. Judges (Scheer & Ansorge, 1979)
Covariation Principle (logical Attrb.)
Parity with others’ performance leads to external
attributions
Perceived Causality and Emotional
Response
Attribution of success/failure are closely
associated with emotions
Performance of
others agrees with
yours (covaration)
Example: You ranked high in your group
on a fitness test but most of your classmates
are in a very poor physical shape. Thus,
many members of other groups would do
just as well as you.
Cox, 2007
Source: Cox (2007).
Affect Associated with Various Combinations of
Outcome and Attribution
Affect Associated with Various Combinations of
Outcome and Attribution
Outcome
pride
Self-esteem
satisfaction
No feelings
About self
If athlete internalizes the cause of success or failure,
Significant affect in form of pride and self-esteem will follow.
Source: Cox (2007)
Controllability
No feelings
About self
Outcome
Success
Failure
No control Control
External Internal
Locus of Causality
Success
Pride
Self-esteem
satisfaction
External Attribution
Such as:
Task Difficulty
confidence
competence
gratitude
pity for opponent
Failure
shame
guilt
depression
anger
surprise
astonishment
Emotional response to success or failure depends on
perception of control of the situation and outcome.
Source: Cox (2007)
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A dysfunctional attribution strategy is
one in which athletes are taught to
explain the cause of a failure outcome
as being uncontrollable and stable.
Athletes with maladaptive attributional
patterns give failure attributions that are
more internal, stable, uncontrollable, and
global than those of the nonmaladaptive
athletes.
Attributing failure to an internal/stable
cause is potentially damaging to a
young athlete’s self esteem.
Application
Attributing success to an internal/stable
cause such as stability is good for a
young athlete’s self-confidence.
Application
Source: Cox (2007)
Source: Cox (2007)
Egocentrism in Attribution
People are assumed to follow logic (the
logical model) when they make attributions
to behavioral outcomes.
E.g., the covariation principle
Attributing success to internal/stable
causes is called ego-enhancing strategy.
Self-serving illogical model
Attributing all failure to external/unstable
causes is called ego-protecting strategy.
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How performers explain
or attribute their
performance affects their
expectations and
emotional reactions,
which in turn influences
future achievement
motivation.
Self-serving illogical model
Source: Cox (2007)
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