ACHIEVEMEN

T
MOTIVATION

Jade Salim
“I’m not crying because I have lost,” he said. “Because in my
heart I have won. These are happy tears. If you’re willing to
put yourself on the line every single time, I think there’s no
such thing as a loss. And I’m so happy that the right man
won”
SESSION AIMS

• To be able to define motivation and achievement motivation

• To have developed an understanding of The Achievement Goal Theory (Nicholls, 1984)

• To be able to differentiate between goal orientations

• To develop an awareness of the consequences of different goal orientations

WHAT IS MOTIVATION?
• Social cognitive perspective – situation and traits (Roberts, 2001)

• Concerns energy, direction, intensity and persistence and can be reached by many means (Ryan & Deci, 2000)

• Key determinant behind every action taken and every effort exerted (Keegan & Lavallee, 2010)

o The driving forces behind our actions

o The forces that influence our actions

• Determined by....

o beliefs

o values

o cognitions

o significant social agents (Deci & Ryan, 2000)

WHAT MOTIVATES YOU?

 Task 1: What motivates you in life?

EVERYBODY HAS THEIR REASONS
To be better than others

To be successful
To look good

To win To meet new people

Intrinsic and Extrinsic factors

To become more skilful Enjoyment

For health reasons

To catch up with friends
INTRINSIC AND EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION

 Intrinsic motivation: A wish to be effective and act for the activity sake.

 Extrinsic motivation: The striving for an external reward or a wish to avoid punishment

(Ryan & Deci, 2018; Vallerand, 2007)

Intrinsic motivation… Extrinsic motivation…

o Increase interest, excitement and o Involves instrumentalities rather than enjoyment of the
confidence activity itself
o Enhanced performance, persistence and o Lower personal value – doing something because its
creativity part of who you are

(Ryan & Deci, 2000)

INFLUENCING FACTORS

• Competence (C) – Being effective at a task (Experience mastery)

• Autonomy (A) – Choice and control (self-dependent behaviour)

• Relatedness (R) – Belongingness with significant others (social

interactions)
(Ryan & Deci, 2002)
ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION
• Meaning individuals give for their success and failure (Harwood et al., 2004)

• Perceptions of competence affect choice to invest in a specific activity, the amount of effort expended
in the activity and level of persistence when confronted by a challenge to perform the activity

• We define ‘competence’ differently

Display Motivation
Self-esteem
Competen Success
Enjoyment
ce Competence
KOBE BRYANT – MAMBA MENTALITY
GOAL ORIENTATIONS: EGO ORIENTATION
• Ability determined through evaluation against
performance of others with comparable skill sets

• Demonstration of ability = Other-referenced

o Success = Out-performing others

• Mastery = surpassing performance of others by

conveying minimal effort

• Likely to withdraw effort if defeat is imminent and

“You’re damn right I’m in it to
avoid practice all together
make money. This is prize
o fighting, I’m in it to get rich; fast.
Belief that natural ability determines success
And then I’m in it to get out”
(Waldron & Krane, 2005) (Connor McGregor; UFC Fighter)
 IMPACTS OF EGO ORIENTATION
Give less
time
to
training
Decrease in…
- Competence
Eg Increase
Doubt
Levels of - Self-esteem
ability o anxiety - Enjoyment
- Motivation
Negative
behaviours
in failure
situations Dropout
(Smith et al.,
GOAL ORIENTATIONS: TASK ORIENTATION

• Ability evaluated on individuals own performance

• Mastery/perfection indicates competence

o Success = mastery of skill

• Demonstration of ability is self-referenced

• Goals set based on desire to master a skill

• Persevere when faced with adversity/defeat “It’s too fun to call training, to be
honest. Try getting better with your
• Efforts deemed success if they subjectively view
friends – you’ll push each other and
performance improvements (Roberts, et al., 1996) end up getting better, as a result.
That’s what I do, anyway – I just have
fun my friends, go to skate parks,
learn new tricks and push myself to
 IMPACTS OF TASK ORIENTATION
Give
more
time to
training
Increase in…
- Competence
More likely Tas Decrease
to feel d levels of - Self-esteem
successful k anxiety - Enjoyment
- Motivation
Positive
behaviours
in failure
situations Stay in the sport
(Smith et al.,
ACHIEVEMENT GOAL ORIENTATIONS

 2 goal orientations reflect individual

differences
 Developed through socialisation and
experiences
 Task goal orientations – personal
growth, mastery stems from hard work,
learning and collaboration with others
 Ego goal orientations – social status,
superiority, wealth and success stems
from outperforming others
TASK 2: YOUR MOTIVATION TOWARDS SPORT

 Write down:

 The sport you play or the exercise you do

 Why you choose to do the sport/exercise

 Whether you feel you are competent* at it

* Having the necessary ability, knowledge, or skill to do something successfully.

THE ACHIEVEMENT GOAL THEORY (NICHOLLS, 1984)

Goal
orientation
Task
Ego
Behaviour
Effort
Choice
Persistence
Performance
Perceived
Competence
High
Low
THE ACHIEVEMENT GOAL THEORY EXPLAINED
Goal Orientation Competence Behaviour

Task High Adaptive behaviours

Task Low Adaptive behaviours
Ego High Adaptive behaviours
Ego Low Maladaptive
behaviours

Adaptive behaviours: Maladaptive behaviours:

• Exert effort • Withdrawal of effort
• Moderate challenging task • Tasks too easy OR too difficult
• Sustained or improved perf • Performance impairment
• Persistence in face of failure • Lack of persistence in face of failure
TASK 3:

WHICH TYPE OF BEHAVIOUR WOULD YOU BE EXPECTED TO DISPLAY?

TO WHAT EXTENT TO DO YOU AGREE WITH THIS?

ORTHOGONALITY

 Goal orientations are orthogonal – independent of each other:

 High task and low ego

 Low task and high ego
 Low ego and low task
 High ego and high task
ORTHOGONALITY CONTINUED

 Individuals viewed as a two-part whole –

combining goal orientations

 One is either task or ego involved but the

motivation will move on a continuum (Gernigon et

al., 2004)

 Distinction does not mean goal orientation exist in

isolation – can fluctuate between orientations and

“He works hard and puts in the repetition for
experience combinations of different levels routines. He goes there [to Paris] as well
(Roeberts & Narstead, 2020) prepared as he can be… He has always
aimed for gold and this weekend will be no
different”
(Rhys McClenaghan; Gymnast)
SOME OF THE RESEARCH

 Trainings vs. competition (van de Pol & Kavussanu, 2011).

 Task higher in training than competitions

 Team vs. individual sport (Harwood, 2002)

 Individual-sport athletes had higher competition ego orientation
 But did not differ in task orientation (Hanrahan & Cerin, 2009)

 Effort and enjoyment

 Task orientation linked positively and negatively with trait anxiety
 Ego orientation typically positively related to trait anxiety (Smith et al., 2006).
WHICH IS BEST?
High
Amount of Task/Ego

By increasing the amount of ‘task’ in an

individual we give them more chances
of feeling successful

‘A success safety-net’

(Duda, 1988, 2002; Alfermann et al.,

2005)

Low
Ego Task
 EXAMPLE

“When I first started racing, I lost my first Olympic heat. They

called me a disappointment to my country. Honestly, I cried,
and I couldn’t understand why I was so young with so much
pressure. Years later my coach Glen Mills tole me ‘stop
running for people and start doing it for you, the same
people that’s calling you a failure now in 2004, will be the same
people called you a G.O.A.T in the future’. That’s when I started
having fun because win or lose, I know I am going to give it my
best”
(Usian Bolt, 2016)
HOW CAN WE BECOME MORE AWARE OF PEOPLE’S
MOTIVATION?
 VEVOX!

• Either scan the QR code OR

• Go to Vevox.app and type in the following code: 159 071 890

*If you do not have a laptop or phone, please just write this down on your notepad*
A FEW REFERENCES

 Chi, L. (2004). Achievement goal theory. In T. Morris & J. Summers (Eds.), Sport psychology: Theory, applications
and issues (pp. 152–174). John Wiley & Sons Australia.
 Hackfort D., & Schinke, R. J. (Eds.). (2020). The Routledge International Encyclopedia of Sport and Exercise
Psychology. Routledge.
 Pietrzak, A., & Tokarz, A. (2019). Structure of Achievement Motivation Dispositions in Elite and Non-Elite Track
and Field Athletes. Physical Culture & Sport. Studies & Research, 83(1), 63–73.
 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2018). Self Determination Theory: Basic Psychological Needs in Motivation,
Development, and Wellness (1st ed.): The Guilford Press.
 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2002). Overview of self-determination theory: An organismic dialectical perspective. In
E. L. Deci & R. M. Ryan (Eds.), Handbook of self-determination research (pp. 3–33). University of Rochester Press.
 Smith, R. E., Smoll, F. L., & Cumming, S. P. (2007). Effects of a motivational climate intervention for coaches on
young athletes’ sport performance anxiety. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 29(1), 39-59
 Vallerand, R. J. (2007). A hierarchical model of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for sport and physical activity. In
M. S. Hagge r & N. L. Chatzisarantis (Eds.) Intrinsic motivation and self determination in exercise and sport (pp.
255 279). Champaign, IL, USA: Human Kinetics.