Intrinsic Motivation in the Context of Sports

In this chapter, we focus on the concept of intrinsic motivation: Doing sports for reasons that are intrinsically motivated is critical for fostering continued, optimal, and enjoyable sports participation. We will highlight various theories that help us better understand intrinsic motivation and that can be useful frameworks for creating sporting environments that are conducive to intrinsic motivation. For example, we will discuss flow as an ideal motivational state and flow theory as the theoretical framework that explicates conditions and consequences of flow. In addition, we will introduce self-determination theory as an umbrella framework that posits that humans strive to act autonomously, and which subsumes various mini-theories that address different facets of intrinsic motivation. For example, organismic integration theory differentiates different types of motivation that range from nonself-determined extrinsic motivation to fully self-determined intrinsic motivation. Likewise, the hierarchical model of intrinsic motivation also takes a differentiated view on intrinsic motivation, emphasizing antecedents, mediators, and consequences of intrinsic motivation on hierarchical levels of varying abstraction (i.e., motivation on the global, the contextual, and the situational level). 

Clearly, intrinsic motivation is a powerful mechanism to foster sports participation and make sport engagement enjoyable to people from all ages and performance levels. In light of its importance, being able to measure intrinsic motivation is paramount for researchers and practitioners alike. In early days of research on intrinsic motivation, a predominant paradigm for measuring intrinsically motivated behavior was the free choice paradigm (a behavioral measurement that has since been criticized). 

Various questionnaires have been developed and validated that capture motivation in a more differentiated form. For example, the Sports Motivation Scale (Pelletier et al., 2013) measures the different types of motivation that are postulated by organismic integration theory. Such a measure can therefore be useful to monitor how sport participants progress from extrinsic reasons for sports participation to more intrinsically motivated reasons or vice versa. 

Lastly, using the theoretical toolbox for intrinsic motivation, we will highlight some key strategies that can be used to promote intrinsic motivation in sports. We will close this chapter by highlighting the Empowering Coaching conceptualization of the motivational climate and training program as a model example of how the application of theories related to intrinsic motivation can be integrated, successfully applied, and evaluated.