Deci and Ryan (2008) suggest that the components of autonomy, relatedness and competence are key factors when examining the degree of motivation in an individual. What is lacking in the research literature is the examination of how particular activities influence ones self-determined beliefs. Rock climbing is a sport that involves risk, adventure (autonomy) and is almost always done with others (relatedness). In addition, the sport depends on a high degree of skill (competence) in order to participate. The purpose of this investigation is to explore and describe the components of self-determination of those participating in rock-climbing.
Method:
Participants for this study were college age students (N=18; 10 males and 8 females with a mean age of 21 years of age). The sample was drawn from those who actively participate in the sport of rock climbing and were solicited from a university setting. The Psychological Need Satisfaction (PNS) instrument was used to describe the sample. The questionnaire was adapted to the activity of rock climbing. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 8 of the participants (4 males and 4 females) to further investigate motivation from a self-determination perspective.
Analysis/Results: Data were analyzed descriptively using means and standard deviations. In addition to quantitative data, interview data were analyzed using a thematic network process (Attride-Sterling, 2001). Data from the PNS suggests that those participants engaging in the sport of rock-climbing scored high on measures of autonomy, relatedness and competence. Additionally, themes that emerged from the interviews support the quantitative data. Participants expressed a sense of control (autonomy), connectedness (relatedness) and skill-fullness (competence) while participating in rock-climbing.
Conclusions: Results from this investigation may be useful to practitioners who are involved in recreational programming at the university level. In a broader way, this information may also be useful to those who work with individuals participating in outdoor/adventure activities. Also, physical education specialist in high schools may draw indirect implications from these findings. While the sample in this study was taken from university students, perhaps the motivation of high school students would be enhanced if rock-climbing were a part of the physical education curriculum. Further investigations need to be conducted that take into account different age groups.