Motivation

Motivation is defined as an active orientation of the current behaviour based on a positive rated aim (Rheinberg, 2008). A person who feels no impetus or inspiration to act is thus characterized as unmotivated, whereas someone who is energized or activated toward an end is considered motivated (Ryan & Deci, 2000). People have not only different amounts but also different kinds of motivation. That is, they vary not only in level of motivation (i.e., how much motivation), but also in the orientation of that motivation (i.e., what type of motivation).

Orientation of motivation concerns the underlying attitudes and goals that give rise to action (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

People are often moved by external factors such as rewards, grades, evaluations, or the opinions they fear others might have of them. Just as frequently, people can be motivated from within as for example by interests, curiosity or care. Deci and Ryan (1985) developed the self-determination theory in which five types of motivation are located. These are external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic forms of regulation. However, the integrated form of regulation is mostly relevant to an adult population and not to young people and is not further considered here (Wang & Biddle, 2007). Figure 5 shows the self-determination continuum and the different kinds of motivation associated with it. On the left side, amotivation is characterised by the absence of motivation. When moving from left to the right side, the self-determination of a person increases and the four extrinsic forms of motivation become more and more internally regulated until reaching the intrinsic motivation where a person is intrinsically regulated.

Chapter 2: Theoretical Considerations

37 Figure 5 Representation of the Self-Determination Continuum (Levesque, Copeland, Pattie, & Deci,

2010).

According to the self-determination theory, conditions supporting the individual’s experience of the three psychological needs autonomy, competence, and relatedness foster the most volitional and high quality forms of motivation. During activities that promote these needs people are highly engaged, strive for enhanced performance, show stronger persistence and creativity levels. In general, conditions that allow satisfaction of the three psychological needs enhance intrinsic motivation, whereas conditions that frustrate these needs undermine intrinsic motivation. Also persistence in sport behaviour has been associated with the degree of self-determination with low levels leading to reduced persistence (Wang & Biddle, 2007).

Intrinsic motivation refers to engaging in an activity because it is interesting or enjoyable.

When a person is intrinsically motivated he will perform the behaviour voluntarily and not because of material rewards or external constraints. Intrinsically motivated behaviours are the prototype of self-determined behaviour because they are only performed out of pure interest and they simultaneously satisfy the innate psychological needs for competence and autonomy.

In this state, individuals experience choice-fullness in their behaviour, thereby fulfilling their need for autonomy. They are also at a level of optimal challenge which fulfils their competence need. Furthermore, intrinsic motivation is associated with feelings of satisfaction, enjoyment, competence, and the desire to persist in the activity (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

Kimiecik and Harris (1996) define enjoyment as the optimal psychological state of intrinsic motivation that leads to performing an activity for its own sake and it is associated with desirable affective states such as happiness, vigour, pleasure, and relaxation. Intrinsic motivation is a critical element in cognitive, social, and physical development because it is through acting on one’s inherent interests that one grows in knowledge and skills.

Nevertheless, although intrinsic motivation is clearly an important type of motivation, most of the activities people do are not, strictly speaking, intrinsically motivated. In schools, for example, it appears that intrinsic motivation becomes weaker with each advancing grade (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Therefore, it is important to also analyse the state in which people are not mainly motivated towards something solely by intrinsic factors.

Amotivation Extrinsic forms of motivation Intrinsic

Motivation Absence of

regulation

External

Regulation Introjection Identification Integration Intrinsic Regulation

Increasing of self-determination

Chapter 2: Theoretical Considerations

38 When one fails to experience optimal challenge and autonomy, a state of extrinsic control is necessary if participation is to occur. Extrinsic motivation refers to doing something because it leads to a separable outcome (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000). Extrinsically motivated behaviours can vary in the extent to which they represent self-determination. In the classic literature, extrinsic motivation has typically been characterized as a pale and impoverished although powerful form of motivation (De Charms, 1968). External motivation represents the least autonomous form of extrinsic motivation. Such behaviours are controlled by external sources and are carried out to satisfy others or gain material rewards. A second type of extrinsic motivation is the introjected motivation. People perform in a similar way as with the extrinsic form of motivation in which actions are based on the expectations by others.

In the introjected form of motivation though, these expectations have been internalised in such a way that people act with the feeling of pressure in order to avoid guilt or anxiety or to attain ego-enhancements or pride. A more autonomous and self-determined form of extrinsic motivation is the regulation through identification. Here, the person has come to positively value the behaviour and has identified with its importance. The activity is still performed for extrinsic reasons but it is performed out of one’s own choice. Finally, the most autonomous form of extrinsic motivation is the integrated form of motivation. In this form of regulation a person fully identifies with the activity and internalises the reasons for action. Integrated forms of motivation share many qualities with intrinsic motivation but they are still performed for a reason that is separate from the behaviour (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

Based on the learning theories (Skinner, 1953), most behaviour, including physical activity, is learned and maintained while providing reinforcement and anticipating future rewards. These can be physical consequences (e.g., looking better), extrinsic rewards (e.g., receiving praise and encouragement from others), and intrinsic rewards (e.g., experiencing a feeling of accomplishment). It is important to note that extrinsic rewards may help people adopt positive lifestyle behaviours but may not be reliable in sustaining long-term change (Rimer & Glanz, 2005). Students can perform extrinsically motivated actions with resentment, resistance, and disinterest or, alternatively, with an attitude of willingness that reflects an inner acceptance of the value or utility of a task. Internalization and integration are the processes through which extrinsically motivated behaviours become more self-determined (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

Understanding these different types of extrinsic motivation and what fosters each of them, is an important issue for educators who cannot always rely on intrinsic motivation to foster learning (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

More than three decades of research have shown that the quality of experience and performance can be very different when one is behaving for intrinsic versus extrinsic reasons (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Thus, assessing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in sport settings is important because different types of motivation have been associated with different experimental outcomes. For example, high intrinsic motivation has been associated with increased enjoyment of an activity, a desire to pursue challenges, and increased adherence to

Chapter 2: Theoretical Considerations

39 sport (Dishman et al., 2008; Zhang, 2009). Individuals experiencing this type of motivation may enter a state of absorption in an activity for which time becomes irrelevant. This state, similar to flow, could easily explain the relationship between intrinsic participation motives and increased levels of adherence. Sport and exercise for many individuals provide domains in which intrinsic motivation is frequently present. Experiencing “flow”, or being in “the zone”, is widely discussed in athletic experience (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, 1975) and is understood in self-determination theory as representing the heightened awareness and feelings of well-being associated with an intrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan, 2004). In contrast, high extrinsic motivation has been associated with increased state of anxiety in young athletes, a tendency to attribute participation in sport to rewards gained instead of the sport itself, and increased dropout from sport (Martens & Webber, 2002). Studies show, for example, that more autonomous extrinsic motivation is associated with greater engagement, better performance, less dropping out, higher quality learning, and greater psychological well-being among other outcomes (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

Research within the sport and exercise domain has found age-related differences in motivation. A crucial point is that activities need to be enjoyable for their own sake, especially in younger children who, unlike adults, are unable to delay gratification (Klein-Hessling et al., 2005). Enjoyment has been identified as a potential correlate of youth’

physical activity in cross-sectional and descriptive studies exhibiting a strong positive relationship across a number of studies. DiLorenzo et al. (1998) examined a number of psychological and environmental variables in relationship to physical activity in fifth and sixth grade children and discovered that enjoyment of physical activity was the only consistent predictor of physical activity levels for boys and girls. In a sample of 1504 children in grades 4-12, J. F. Sallis et al. (1999) found that enjoyment of PE consistently predicted participation in physical activity among boys in grades 4-12 and girls in grades 7-12.

Enjoyment has also been found to be associated with a variety of physical activity correlates, such as efficacy, goal setting (Rovniak, Anderson, Winett, & Stephens, 2002) and self-determination (Ntoumanis, 2002). Recently, enjoyment of physical activity was shown to mediate the effect of a comprehensive school-based intervention designed to promote physical activity on self-reported physical activity in adolescent girls (Dishman et al., 2005).