This paper attempted to shed some light upon understanding the complex phenomenon of motivation in sport. The focus was firmly on the contemporary social cognitive theories and models of motivation.
This paper first defined motivation in contemporar...
This paper attempted to shed some light upon understanding the complex phenomenon of motivation in sport. The focus was firmly on the contemporary social cognitive theories and models of motivation.
This paper first defined motivation in contemporary motivation research, and then briefly trace the development of motivational theories in psychology or sport psychology history, describing various approaches that have been used. This segment concluded with current work in the social cognitive tradition. The next segment presented social cognitive models that drew upon past theories to portray a dynamic process incorporating sets of cognitive, affective, and value-related variables that were assumed to mediate the choice and attainment of achievement goals. This approach is built around expectancies and values that individuals attach to different goals and achievement activities. But the social cognitive approach has, imbedded within it, several mini-theoretical models that purport to describe and explain motivated behavior. The major mini-models utilized in sport and exercise are self-efficacy, perceived competence,
and various achievement goal perspectives. These models assume that there are common elements that run through many of the contemporary approaches to motivation. Thus, after comprehensively and critically discussing on each model, this paper introduced some integrated sport specific models to help clarify the complex interaction of the variables that impact motivation. This paper concluded with an argument that concepts utilized in sport motivation research should be looked at for that convergence.