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Sports motivation psychology

Sports psychology is a relatively new field of psychology, however millions of athletes have already benefitted from this area of research. Sports psychology is important as it can be used to improve an athlete’s performance by stabilizing and arousing their emotions for the highest level of performance. Psychological aspects such as motivation and coping methods are important cognitive processes in an athlete’s mind that can drastically affect their behavior and performance. By studying sports psychology, psychologists gain a deeper understanding of our human psychological processes.

Goal setting

Goal setting is one of the most fundamental attribute to the success of an athlete. Goals are essential to athletes as it provides them with motivation to progress and improve towards their highest potential. There are three types of goals to achieve a desired outcome: Outcome goals are focused on the result of the competition, which is relative to competitors and is dependent on how others perform. Performance goals focus on achieving objectives independent of other competitors and focus more on you as an individual. Process goals focus on actions one must take to become successful, which is the process one goes through to improve. A combination of all three of the goals would be ideal and produces better performance rather than just focusing on one. The original goal setting theory was established by Locke and Latham (1981) which argues that performance is regulated by conscious goals that individuals attempt to achieve on a task. The goals should be smart(s)-an acronym for specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic, timely and self-determined. A goal must be specific because a vague goal would be difficult to know whether it’s been achieved or how they are obtained. One must understand what they wish to achieve and provide direction, leading an athlete to success. An important factor is that it must be attainable in a reasonable amount of time while being measurable. The achievement must be measurable so your self-confidence can be boosted and to observe the gradual process towards the greater goal. However, at the same time the goals must be realistic. If the goals are not realistic then it will only serve to demoralize confidence. By setting realistic yet challenging goals, it allows one to bring the greatest personal satisfaction when achieved. The goals should be self-determined, with input from the participant, and action-oriented, knowing what has to be done to reach the goal. Finally, it must be realistic- if a goal is unreachable, little or no effort will be inputted to achieve the goal, thus discouraging the person. Locke posits goal setting with a direct mechanistic view that goal setting is effective, helping athletes concentrate of specific skill development; providing direction and focus for activity and persist creating sub-goals. Burton (1989) further supports that goal setting has positive psychological effects which may affect cognitive processes of self-efficacy, one’s belief in one’s ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task. Self-efficacy plays a major role in how one approaches goals, tasks and challenges. The more one believes a particular behavior, the greater likelihood it is for perceived self-efficacy which results in higher success rates. Thus, developing appropriate goals will allow the athlete to work towards their desired outcome and challenge them, while being probable, which allows consistent motivation.

Weinberg et al. (1994) carried out a season-long study on university-level lacrosse players. A matched-pairs design was used and coaches rated players on ability, then they were randomly assigned them to either “goal setting condition” or the control group. The coach had no knowledge of which athletes were in which. The goal setting group set both short-term and long-term seasonal goals and received feedback on progress of their goals. In comparison, the players in the goal-setting condition had consistently higher levels of both offensive and defensive measures of performance than the control group throughout the season. This indicates that goal setting is effective and can not only help one individually, but also as a team.

To obtain goals in sports, there is the achievement goal perspective approach. Although it was initially derived from education, it has been applied to various fields such as sports psychology. It is based on a social-cognitive approach to explain striving for competence. Goals should be seen as cognitive representations of purposes people have to achieve the goal, and they should guide behavior and cognition, affecting the sport situation. The task oriented goals are related to mastery, it is the belief that effort leads to success, and emphasizes the intrinsic value of process. Ability is improved through developing new skills, improving one’s level of competence and achieving a sense of mastery. However, ego-oriented goals focus on one’s ability and sense of self-worth. By demonstrating high levels of abilities, surpassing others and achieving success with little effort, one’s ability is strengthened, along with confidence and self- esteem. The achievement goal perspective approach predicts that athletes with task orientation generally have higher levels of achievement. One’s with those goal perspective approach tend to grow greater persistence when facing failure and have a greater sense of control over performance. Thus, the tasks chosen are moderately difficult, realistic goals. They have incremental focus, which is the belief that hard work and effort will improve performance. In contrast, athletes with ego orientation tend to choose tasks that guarantee success, as they have an entity view of their ability. They have the mindset that their ability is fixed, regardless of the effort input. With a fixed mindset, one will not put in effort to change or improve current situation since it is believed that no matter how much effort is inputted, the results will still be more or less the same.

Motivation

Motivation is essential to achieving one’s goal, as it is a crucial mindset they must obtain in order to persist. Motivation is defined as the direction and intensity of one’s effort (Sage 1977) of whether an individual is attracted to an activity. The intensity is how much effort one puts into task- whether it is simply doing it with the lowest amount of effort or finishing with great effort. One can easily attend all practices with mediocre levels of effort; however, that would result in less improvement and exhibit lower levels of achievement potential. However, when one fully experiences and embraces the practice, there is a much higher rate of improvement and success due to pushing oneself to the boundary, fully working the muscles physically. Motivation can be for intrinsic or external motives- benefits we gain from either within the individual or external rewards from the activity. The two motivations lead to different outcomes. Intrinsic motivation is defined as doing an activity for its inherent satisfaction rather than for external consequences. Intrinsic motivations are pervasive and crucial, as demonstrated in the ubiquitous attitudes of humans attempting to understand the world around us and how things operate. This natural motivation tendency is developed through one acting for inherent interests, gaining knowledge and skills which is an important element in cognitive, social and physical development of humans. It could be the satisfaction of finishing a faster race, enjoying the post-race ecstasy, and taking part in a team. Intrinsic motivation generates high quality learning and creativity, thus emerging as an important phenomena for education (Ryan & Stiller, 1991). It provides the satisfaction and innate psychological needs of one’s physiological drives, resulting in higher effectiveness due to satisfied internal needs. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation is a construct that pertains to the potential of a positive outcome. Extrinsic motives gain rewards such as praise from people, a major contract with professional sports teams or higher status that may be obtained. Although the two both propel athletes, the two motivations highly contrasts with each other. Intrinsic motivations are much more effective and satisfying than extrinsic motivations. This ultimately leads them towards the goal(s) they have set upon themselves in the beginning.

McClelland and Atkinson (1961) argue that human motivation is a balance of motivation to succeed and fear of failure; there must be both enjoyment of sport and competitive anxiety. There is often a dilemma between whether to participate in a sport due to the winning and losing aspect. With the winning motivation in mind, there is also the losing aspect to consider. Losing would cause demoralization within oneself, thus avoiding participation best protects one’s self-esteem. One’s motivation for achievement is the difference between intrinsic motivation for sport and competitive anxiety. Those with high motivation to succeed are more likely to display positive performance and attribute failure to dispositional factors such as effort; this allows the athlete to self-improve. On the other hand, those with high motivation to avoid failure are less likely to participate in activities and will often attribute failure to situational factors.

Another motivational theory is the cognitive evaluation theory. It posits that events that affect one’s feelings of competence and self-determination have an impact on one’s level of intrinsic motivation. The two aspects towards an event are the controlling aspect and the informational aspect. One could be doing sports for a person, which turns it into the controlling aspect. It could be for their peers or family, thus causing less motivation than doing it for themselves. Informational aspect changes one’s feelings of competence about the sport. When one is awarded for their ability for the sport, they feel more powerful regarding their sport, thus more motivated. However, if they are discouraged, motivation will also decrease. Ryan (1977) carried out a study to investigate the effects of scholarship on collegiate football players’ motivation. The results showed that students on scholarships reported less intrinsic motivation and higher levels of dissatisfaction in game. However, Amorose and Horn (2000) further investigated to test whether obtaining a scholarship would deprive athletes of enjoying the sport. They argue that scholarships are not the cause, but rather the coaches attitude and behavior contribute to an athlete’s performance. The deciding factor is the way the coaches talked to their athletes in. Coaches tend to use the scholarship to control the athletes’ behavior by saying things like “You’d better start scoring or you are going to lose that scholarship” which results in high stress and evokes negative feelings towards the sport. The controlling aspect is increased, since the coaches control the fate of the athlete’s future path such as whether the scholarship will be maintained. This causes athletes to feel powerless over the sport and only proceeds to doing it for the scholarship or for the supporters such as family. Coaches who are more democratic and less authoritative generally give positive and instructional feedback, increasing intrinsic motivation in players.

Tiger Woods once said, “the challenge is hitting good golf shots when you have to do it when the nerves are fluttering, the heart pounding, the palms sweating.. that’s the thrill!” (2001) This illustrates that having the ability to control inevitable physiological and psychological arousal will be crucial to winning a game. Arousal is the general physiological and psychological activation, varying on a continuum from deep sleep to intense excitement. Arousal is the level of energy, however it is also affected by anxiety, which is a negatively interpreted arousal experience on emotions. There are three types of main dimensions of anxiety: cognitive anxiety involves worry and negative appraisal of oneself and future; somatic anxiety, which is the rapid heartbeat, increased perspiration, shortness of breath and other stress symptoms; state anxiety, which shows tension, agitation, and restlessness. One must acquire or possess the ability to suppress their subconscious anxiety so their performance won’t be drastically negatively affected.

Yerkes and Dodson (1908) argued that for every motor task we carry, there is an optimum level of physiological arousal that would optimize performance. However, past this arousal, the performance plummets. This theory proposes a curvilinear relationship between arousal and performance, where performance steadily increases as it researches optimum stress, and spirals down if there is tremendous stress, affecting performance negatively. Due to the different natures of each sport, the optimum arousal level is different. For sports that require high skills and concentration like darts and billiards, it requires low levels of arousal. Although this hypothesis establishes the relationship between stress and performance, it doesn’t account for cognitive factors. Another model that attempts to model human behavior and performance in regards to stress is Fazy and Hardy (1988). They argue in their catastrophe model that when cognitive anxiety increases beyond optimal level, there is a significant decrease in performance, rather than a gradual negative impact like the Yerkes and Dodson law. The catastrophe model describes factors that may be involved but doesn’t explain them explicitly. Factors such as self- efficacy, confidence and athlete’s judgment of ability to perform well in a sport will affect anxiety and arousal level. The optimum arousal is different for each athlete, thus some perform better under high moderate or low arousal. Individuals prefer different levels of anxiety and they perform better when in the individualized zone. Williams and Crane (2001) have concluded that successful athletes are more confident and better at regulating arousal as they have more concentration and focus, enabling them to stay in control. This allows for positive thoughts and imagery, increasing determination and commitment. Successful athletes achieve peak performance by utilizing mental goal setting, imagery, arousal control and management, coping strategies, and mental preparation routines.

Self efficacy

Self-efficacy plays a critical role in ability to withstand arousal and anxiety in a sport. There are four sources of information that aid construction of efficacious beliefs. Enactive mastery experience has the largest effect on self-efficacy. Through repetitive practice and experience from competitive games, athletes can gain an adequate understanding of their capabilities. Individuals can gain self-efficacy by observing models achieve success. Verbal persuasion by coaches, team mates or self-talk will also affect the athlete’s self-efficacy. Athletes must have the ability to cope with failure and stressful situations, as they often experience both. Athletes with strong efficacy beliefs believe in their ability to cope, therefore subsequent performance will not suffer from athlete’s distress or impairment (Bandura 1997). However, athletes with weak efficacy beliefs will not believe in their ability to cope with failure and stress; they dwell on their coping deficiencies and failures which severely impairs their future performance. Roger Bannister was the first person to run the mile in less than four minutes; although many athletes had been consistently running around four minutes, the goal of achieving under four was mentally impossible. However, within 18 months of Roger Bannister’s impressive mile, sixteen athletes were able to do so. Limiting beliefs hold athletes back, as the psychological barriers have a great effect on performance. Weinberg and Gold (2006) argue that most coaches believe sports are at least 50 per cent mental when competing against opponents of similar ability. In individual sports such as ice skating, tennis and golf, coaches estimate that it is up to 90 per cent.

References

Crane, John & Hannibal, Jette (2009). Psychology : course companion. Oxford University Press, Oxford

Hedström, P., & Bearman, P. (2014). The Oxford Handbook of Analytical Sociology. Oxford: OUP Oxford. Retrieved May 20, 2019, from http://users.ox.ac.uk/~sfos0060/prophecies.shtml MACKENZIE, B. (2002) Mental Imagery [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/mental.htm [Accessed 20/5/2019]

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 54-67. doi:10.1006/ceps.1999.1020