By Dr. Marco Mancini1 - personal trainer
Motivation: a psychological factor that influences sporting activity and daily life choices
How important is motivation in sport?
To find the answer that is right for us, we can start from the sports context and build a natural parallelism, then ask ourselves in general how important motivation is in everyday life. In this sense, we would realize that Sport represents life in a circumscribed and "artificial" way.
Psychology begins to deal with motivation understood as "motivated behavior" (drive), since the beginning of its history as an independent science, through the works of scholars such as W. James, C.L. Hull and S. Freud. The goal was to begin investigating the because the individual pushes himself to pursue certain goals. At this point, sharing a definition of the concept of motivation becomes essential.
We can state, in a clear and exhaustive way, that motivation is the expression of dynamics that induce an individual to take a specific action. One aspect immediately becomes evident: motivation is an abstraction, therefore a process that can only be detected indirectly, and to allow its observation is the evaluation of the behavior linked to it.
The relationship that each of us has with any physical and / or sporting activity is strongly influenced by the motivational component. Every time we decide to undertake an "activity, as well as when we decide to interrupt it, we always have a reason, which can be more or less conscious and which feeds our behavior. It therefore appears evident that motivation is a purely psychological factor, which has a strong relationship both with being able to carry out an activity with continuity and with the probability that carrying it out will bring us tangible benefits and does not become, instead, a useless daily occupation of those that increase a corrosive sense of dissatisfaction.
Of course, when we talk about those who practice a "physical and / or sporting activity, we refer to all practitioners regardless of their level of performance; it being understood that it is more likely that the professional sportsman is informed about certain psychological issues that affect his activity. and that the rest of the "sports population" is fasting. All the more so in a logic of promotion of sports and physical activity, which brings a series of benefits both to our body (prevention of cardio-vascular insults, postural pain, osteo-articular trauma, etc ...) and to our mind (perception of self-efficacy, anti-stress action, etc.), it seems important to us to deepen the relationship between Motivation and Sport. In a famous psychological model (Murray, McClelland and Atkinson), 2 fundamental aspects are identified regarding motivation, each specified in 3 points:
1. The motivation for success:
- the strength of the individual success orientation;
- the perceived probability of being successful;
- the incentive value of success.
2. The motivation to avoid failure:
- the strength of the individual orientation to avoid or delay entry into successful tasks;
- the perceived probability of failure;
- the meaning attributed to failure.
Personal success in a physical or sporting activity as well as continuity in practice are influenced by these 2 aspects.
So we are motivated to play a sport:
1. if we think that with the exercise the benefits will become useful and important for us;
2. if we strongly believe that the success in reaching the set objectives depends on us and not on external factors that we cannot control;
3. if the benefits we have set out to obtain are in our eyes particularly important and worthy of our commitment and our time, then if the benefits outweigh the costs ("How much effort is required of me? "And" How interested am I in achieving that result?').
We are unmotivated when:
1. we are afraid of engaging in a task that can develop positive effects as well as failure;
2. we think that the probability of failing in the intended task is high;
3. we experience failure in an unpleasant way, bearing the emotional consequences with difficulty.
At this point one would ask: "How many times have I felt able to reach any goal with the" necessary commitment, and how many times has the fear of failure and of being judged prevailed? " If we have often felt in the second condition it is useful to keep in mind that in Sport as in life "do not try" And "don't get involved" for fear of failure, it feeds a vicious circle in which nothing is done to avoid making mistakes and in doing so increases the perception we have of being incapable and of being considered by others as people of little value.
Breaking this circle is possible and may seem extremely simple or, on the contrary, impossible. The solution is start to do, taking into account that fail it is a possibility but not the only one.
In an "interview, when asked" whether sport helps life or is it just a parenthesis ", Valentina Vezzali replies as follows:"It is the greatest metaphor in life: it always leads you to face new obstacles, it teaches you to learn and react, waiting for the next time". This is the testimony of those who, accepting various challenges that have led to successes and failures, have managed over time to feel like a better person, more capable and better able to cope with the unexpected in life. In cases like this, sport can it truly be considered a training ground for life.And do we have the same desire to face life?
1 Doctor of Clinical and Health Psychology
For further information on the subject, we recommend reading the following text: Giovannini D, Savoia L. Sport psychology. Carocci.
