MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS INFLUNCING SPORTS PARTICIPATION OF UNIVESITY MEDAL WINNING ATHLETES

Abstract

Background: To perform best, an athlete must maintain his/her efforts. Matter of the fact is that motivation leaves a position impact on the performance of an athlete. It influences technical training and general lifestyle as well. Motivation affects an athlete in three ways; ability, difficulty of competition and performance.
Objectives: The research was conducted with two different objectives including 1) to identify differences between EM and IM of winner and non-winner athletes, 2) to identify the effect of EM and IM on the components of basic psychological needs of winner and non-winner athletes.
Methodology: The cross-sectional method was used in the study. The study sample consisted of 120 university level male and female athletes. The sample was divided into two groups, medal winner athletes (n=60) and non-winner athletes (n=60). The participants were chosen according to stratified random sampling method and participated in the study voluntarily. In the study in order to collect data Sports Motivation Scales (SMS) was used. Basic Psychological Needs Questionnaire (BPNQ) was also used to innate needs for autonomy, competence and relationships to achieve the goal of winning. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation scores were obtained by dividing the total score obtained from the items in the sub-scales that constitute that dimension by the number of items. The data obtained from the BPNQ were calculated according to the scoring instructions.
Results: Comparison of Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation of Male and Female Athletes indicated significantly higher scores on intrinsic motivation (p=0.000) as compared to extrinsic motivation (p=0,330). Comparison of Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation of Winners and Non-Winners indicated significantly higher scores on intrinsic motivation (p=0.000) as compared to extrinsic motivation (p=0.200). A significant effect of basic psychological needs was found on winning as autonomy (p=0.032), competence (p=0,014) and relatedness (p=0.021) showed significantly dominating among winners as compared to non-winners.
Conclusion: Based on the findings, it is concluded that intrinsic motivation appeared to be the influencing factor in cases of medal winning athletes. Moreover, internal characteristics i.e. autonomy, competence, and relatedness determine winning attitude of athletes.