According to Self Determination Theory, motivation is driven by three basic psychological needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness. The extent to which these three needs are satisfied will determine how people are motivated in a given setting. Motivation can be intrinsic, extrinsic, or non-existent. It has been consistently found that intrinsic motivation and more-internalized forms of extrinsic motivation will lead to more well-adapted exercise behaviors. The purpose of this research was to examine relationships between basic psychological need satisfaction, self determined motivations, and student attitudes and exercise intentions in university weight training classes, and to examine differences in these constructs between classes that use a traditional teaching model and the sport education model.
Method:
University students enrolled in traditional weight training classes (n=166) and sport education weight training classes (n=59) completed the Basic Psychological Needs in Physical Education Scale, the Self Regulation Questionnaire – Physical Education, items from the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory to assess enjoyment, and three items that measured future intentions to exercise.
Analysis/Results:
Correlations between need satisfaction, exercise motivations, enjoyment, and future intentions were calculated for both the traditional model and sport education classes. T-tests were conducted to examine mean differences between the two conditions. Results indicated that psychological need satisfaction had weak significant correlations with introjected regulation (r=.23 to .29) and amotivation (r=-.21 to -.27), moderate correlations with identified regulation (r=.37 to .49) and future intentions to exercise (r=.29 to .36), and strong correlations with intrinsic regulation (r=.42 to .53) and enjoyment (r=.49 to .59). Correlations with identified regulation, intrinsic regulation, enjoyment, and future intentions were of a much larger magnitude in the sport education condition. Intrinsic and identified regulations were strongly correlated with enjoyment (r=.62, .53) and moderately correlated with future intentions (r=.40, .36), and amotivation was strongly negatively related to enjoyment (r=-.50). Correlations of intrinsic and identified regulation with future intentions to exercise were of a much larger magnitude in the sport education condition. No significant mean differences were found on any of the variables between the two conditions.
Conclusions:
Consistent with the tenets of Self Determination Theory, this study confirmed that for students enrolled in university weight training classes, satisfaction of basic psychological needs plays an important role in motivation, enjoyment, and intentions to engage in future exercise. Psychological need satisfaction played a much more salient role in in sport education classes than in traditionally taught classes.