Feedback and Internal Vs Intrinsic Motivation in Sports Participants

After reading this free training, you should be able to

•  explain how positive feedback and negative feedback influence behavior;
•  understand how to implement behavior modification programs;
•  discuss the different types of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation;
•  describe the relationship between intrinsic motivation and external rewards (controlling and informational aspects);
•  detail different ways to increase intrinsic motivation
•  describe how factors such as scholarships, coaching behaviors, competition, and feedback influence intrinsic motivation
•  describe flow and clutch states and how to achieve them.

People thirst for feedback. And exerciser in a Zumba class feels like a klutz and hopes for a pat on the back, some telling instruction, and a camera to capture the moment she finally gets the steps right. Similarly, a youngster trying to learn how to hit a baseball after a series of missed swings feels great when he finally connects with the next pitch. To create an environment that fosters pleasure, growth, and mastery, professionals use motivational techniques based on the principles of reinforcement. Reinforcement is the use of rewards and punishments that increase or decrease the likelihood of a similar response occurring in the future. The principles of reinforcement are among the most widely researched and accepted in psychology.

They are firmly rooted in the theories of behavior modification and operant conditioning. The late B.F. Skinner, the most widely known and outspoken behavior theorist, argued that teaching rests entirely on the principles of reinforcement. Skinner argued that teaching is the arrangement of reinforcers under which students learn. “Students learn without teaching in their natural environment, but teachers arrange special reinforcements that expedite learning, hastening the appearance of behavior that would otherwise be acquired slowly or making sure of the appearance of behavior that might otherwise never occur. Providing students, athletes, and exercisers with constructive feedback requires an understanding of the principles of reinforcement”.

Principles of Reinforcement

Although many principles are related to changing behavior, two basic premises underlie effective reinforcement: First, if doing something results in a good consequence (e.g., being rewarded), people will tend to try to repeat the behavior to receive additional positive consequences; second, if doing something results in an unpleasant consequence (e.g., being punished), people will tend to try not to repeat the behavior so they can avoid more negative consequences.

Imagine a physical education class on soccer skills in which a player makes a pass to a teammate that leads to a goal. The teacher says, “Way to pass the ball to the open man—keep up the good work!” The player will probably try to repeat that type of pass in the future to receive more praise from the coach. Now imagine a volleyball player going for a risky jump serve and hitting the ball into the net. The coach yells, “Use your head—stop trying low- percentage serves!” Most likely, this player will not try this type of serve again, wanting to avoid the criticism from the coach. Reinforcement principles are more complex than you might think, however, in the real world.

• Often the same reinforcer will affect two people differently. For example, a reprimand in an exercise class might make one person feel she is being punished, whereas it might provide attention and recognition for another person.
• Another difficulty is that people cannot always repeat the reinforced behavior. For instance, a point guard in basketball scores 30 points, although his normal scoring average is 10 points a game. He receives praise and recognition from the fans and the media for his high scoring output and naturally wants to repeat this behavior. However, he is a much better passer than a shooter. When he tries hard to score more points, he hurts his team and lowers his shooting percentage because he attempts more low- percentage shots.
• You must also consider all the reinforcements available to the individual as well as how she values them. For example, someone in an exercise program receives great positive reinforcement for staying in shape and looking good; however, because of her participation in the program she spends less time with her spouse. This aversive consequence outweighs the positive reinforcer, so she drops out of the program. Unfortunately, coaches, teachers, fitness trainers, and exercise leaders are often unaware of these competing motives and reinforcers.

Approaches to Influencing Behavior

There are positive and negative ways to teach and coach. The positive approach focuses on rewarding appropriate behavior (e.g., catching people doing something correctly), which increases the likelihood of desirable responses occurring in the future. Conversely, the negative approach focuses on punishing undesirable behaviors, which should reduce the inappropriate behaviors. The positive approach is designed to strengthen desired behaviors by motivating participants to perform those behaviors and by rewarding participants when those behaviors occur.

The negative approach, however, focuses on errors and attempts to eliminate unwanted behaviors through punishment and criticism. For example, if an exerciser is late for class, the exercise leader might criticize the person in the hope of producing more on-time behavior in the future. Similarly, a coach might bench a soccer player for part of the next game after the player makes a bad pass that leads to a goal by the opposition in hopes of better passing in the next game.

Most coaches combine the positive and negative approaches in attempting to motivate and teach their athletes. However, sport psychologists agree that the predominant approach with sport and physical activity participants should be positive. Phil Jackson, 11-time National Basketball Association championship coach and former general manager of the New York Knicks, uses a 2-to-1 ratio of positive to negative feedback, although the Positive Coaching Alliance, which trains youth sports coaches, recommends a 5-to- 1 ratio. Jackson argues that it is hard to come up with five positives for every negative at the professional level, but he does understand that players won’t listen or react positively if a coach simply attacks them with criticism. He firmly believes that any message will be more effective if you pump up players’ egos before you bruise their egos.

Guidelines for Using Positive Reinforcement

Sport psychologists highly recommend a positive approach to motivation to avoid the potential negative side effects of using punishment as the primary approach. Research demonstrates that athletes who play for positive-oriented coaches like their teammates better, enjoy their athletic experience more, like their coaches more, and have greater team cohesion. The following quote by Jimmy Johnson, former coach of the Miami Dolphins and Dallas Cowboys, sums up his emphasis on the positive: “I try never to plant a negative seed. I try to make every comment a positive comment. There’s a lot of evidence to support positive management”. Similarly, allied health professionals are more motivated and are more effective when receiving positive feedback from their supervisors. Reinforcement can take many forms, such as verbal compliments, smiles and other nonverbal behaviors that imply approval, increased privileges, and the use of rewards. Let’s examine some of the principles underlying the effective use of positive reinforcement. Choose Effective Reinforcers Rewards should meet the needs of those receiving them. It is best to know the likes and dislikes of the people you work with and choose reinforcers accordingly.

Reinforcers include the following:

• Social reinforcers: praise, smile, pat on the back, publicity
• Material reinforcers: trophies, medals, ribbons, T-shirts
• Activity reinforcers: playing a game rather than drilling, playing a different position, taking a trip to play another team, getting a rest
• Special outings: going to a professional game, throwing a team party, hearing a presentation from a professional athlete

A physical education teacher might have students complete a questionnaire to determine what type of rewards (e.g., social, material, activity) they most desire. This information could help a teacher pinpoint the type of reinforcer to use for each student. Similarly, athletic trainers might develop a list of the types of reinforcements athletes react most favorably to when recovering from difficult injuries. Sometimes you might want to reward the entire team or class rather than a particular individual or to vary the types of rewards. (It can become monotonous to receive the same reinforcement repeatedly.)

The kinds of rewards that people receive from others are called extrinsic because they come from external (outside the individual) sources, such as the coach or the teacher. Other rewards are called intrinsic because they reside within the participant. Examples of intrinsic rewards include taking pride in accomplishment and feeling competent. Examples of extrinsic rewards are money, getting your name in the paper, and the praise of your family. We further discuss the relationship between extrinsic rewards and intrinsic motivation later in our course.

Schedule Reinforcements Effectively

Appropriate timing and frequency can ensure that rewards are effective. During the initial stages of training or skill development, desirable responses should be reinforced often, perhaps on an almost continuous schedule. A continuous schedule requires rewarding after every correct response, whereas on a partial schedule, behavior is rewarded intermittently.

Research has indicated that continuous feedback not only acts as a motivator but also provides the learner with information about how he is doing. However, once a particular skill or behavior has been mastered or is occurring at the desired frequency, the schedule can be gradually reduced to intermittent. To underscore the effects of continuous and intermittent reinforcement, it is important to understand the difference between learning and performance. Giving feedback after every attempt (continuous—100%) was far better for performance during practice than giving it after every other attempt (intermittent—50%). However, when taking tests of retention without any feedback the next day, participants with only 50% feedback performed better than those given 100% feedback.

In essence, feedback after every trial was used as a kind of crutch, and the learner was unable to perform effectively when the crutch was removed. Besides reducing the amount of feedback given, coaches might ask athletes to generate their own feedback. For example, after a tennis player hits a couple of balls into the net, a coach might ask, “Why do you think the ball went into the net?” This forces players to evaluate their own internal feedback, as well as the outcome, instead of relying too heavily on coach feedback.

The sooner a reinforcement is provided after a response, the more powerful the effects on behavior. This is especially true when people are learning new skills, when it is easy to lose confidence if the skill isn’t performed correctly. Once someone masters a skill it is less critical to reinforce immediately, although it is still essential that the correct behaviors be reinforced at some point.

Reward Appropriate Behaviors

Choosing the proper behaviors to reward is also critical. Obviously, you cannot reward people every time they do something right. You must decide on the most appropriate and important behaviors and concentrate on rewarding these. Many coaches and teachers tend to focus their rewards purely on the outcome of performance (e.g., winning), but other behaviors could and should be reinforced, which we now discuss.

Reward Successful Approximations

When individuals are acquiring a new skill, especially a complex one, they inevitably make mistakes. It may take days or weeks to master the skill, which can be disappointing and frustrating for the learner. It is helpful, therefore, to reward small improvements as the skill is learned. This technique, called shaping, allows people to continue to improve as they get closer and closer to the desired response. Specifically, individuals are rewarded for performances that approximate the desired performance. This spurs their motivation and provides direction for what they should do next.

For example, if players are learning the overhand volleyball serve, you might first reward the proper toss, then the proper motion, then good contact, and finally the execution that puts all the parts together successfully. Similarly, a certified group fitness instructor might reward participants for learning part of a routine until they have mastered the entire program, or a physical therapist might reward a client for improving the range of motion in her shoulder after surgery through adhering to her stretching program, even though she still has room for improvement.

Reward Performance, Not Only Outcome

Coaches who emphasize winning tend to reward players based on outcome. A baseball player hits a hard line drive down the third base line, but the third baseman makes a spectacular diving catch. In his next at bat, the same batter tries to check his swing and hits the ball off the end of the bat, just over the outstretched arm of the second baseman, for a base hit. Rewarding the base hit but not the out would be sending the wrong message to the player. If an individual performs the skill correctly, that’s all he can do. The outcome is sometimes out of the player’s control, so the coach should focus on the athlete’s performance instead of the performance outcome.

It is especially important to use an individual’s previous level of performance as the standard for success. For example, if a young gymnast’s best score on her floor routine was 7.5 and she received a 7.8 for her most recent effort, then this mark should be used as the measure of success, and she should be rewarded for her performance.

Reward Effort

Coaches and teachers must recognize effort as part of performance. Not everyone can be successful in sport. When sport and exercise participants (especially youth athletes) know that they will be recognized for trying new and difficult skills and not just criticized for performing incorrectly, they do not fear trying

Interestingly, a study conducted with youths showed that performers who received effort- oriented feedback (“Good try”) displayed better performance than those provided ability-oriented feedback (“You’re talented”), especially after failure. Specifically, after failure, children who were praised for effort displayed more task persistence, more task enjoyment, and better performance than did children who were praised for high ability. Thus, effort (which is under one’s control) appears to be critical to producing persistence, which is one of the most highly valued attributes in sport and exercise environments.

Reward Emotional and Social Skills

With the pressure to win, it is easy to forget the importance of fair play and being a good sport. Athletes who demonstrate good sporting behavior, responsibility, judgment, and other signs of self-control and cooperation should be recognized and reinforced. One of the reasons that basketball administrators were so dismayed over the 2005 fight between the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers and the fans (which resulted in significant suspensions of several players because they jumped into the stands to fight the fans) was that it sent a negative message to youngsters. Displaying restraint despite being “egged on” by fans is an important social skill that athletes need to learn because it relates to many life situations. As leaders of sport and physical activity, we have a tremendous opportunity and responsibility to encourage positive emotional and social skills. We should not overlook the chance to reward such positive behaviors, especially in younger participants.

Provide Performance Feedback

Help participants by giving them information and feedback about the accuracy and success of their movements. This type of feedback is typically provided after the completion of a response. For example, an athletic trainer working with an injured athlete on increasing flexibility while rehabilitating from a knee injury asks the athlete to bend his knee as far as possible. The trainer then tells the athlete that he has improved his flexibility from 50o to 55o over the past week. Similarly, a certified group fitness instructor might give participants specific feedback about proper positioning and technique when they are lifting weights.

When you give feedback to athletes, students, and exercisers, the feedback should be sincere and contingent on some behavior. Whether it is praise or criticism, the feedback needs to be tied to (contingent on) a specific behavior or set of behaviors. It would be inappropriate, for example, to say “Way to go, keep up the good work!” to a physical education student who is having difficulty learning a new gymnastics skill. Rather, the feedback should be specific and linked to performance. For example, a physical therapist might explain to the injured person how to perform the rehab exercise correctly, perhaps saying, “Make sure you maintain your stretching position for 20 to 30 seconds to maximize the effect of the stretch on flexibility.” Such feedback, when sincere, demonstrates that you care and are concerned with helping the learner.

Interest has surged in performance feedback as a technique for improving performance in business, industry, and sport. The evidence indicates that this type of feedback is effective in enhancing performance: Performance increased by 53% on average after performance feedback and indicators of performance excellence had been instituted.

Along these lines, how one provides corrective feedback makes a difference in the performer’s motivation, emotional regulation, and performance. Making mistakes and errors is inevitable in training and competition, and even corrective feedback may convey the message that the performer has low competence. However, providing corrective feedback in response to mistakes and poor performance in an autonomy- supportive manner (e.g., “You could improve your free-throws by either changing your routine or following through on your shots”) rather than a controlling manner (e.g., “You won’t make this team unless you work on your three-point shot”) produces higher levels of intrinsic motivation, positive affect, and performance.

Benefits of Feedback

Feedback about performance can benefit participants in several ways, and two of the main functions are to motivate and to instruct.

Motivational feedback attempts to facilitate performance in three ways:

1. Enhance confidence, inspire gr eater effort and energy expenditure, and create a positive mood. Examples include “Hang in there,” “You can do it,” and “Get tough.”2. Serve as a valuable reinforcement to the performer. This, in turn, stimulates positive or negative feelings. For example, individuals receiving specific feedback indicating poor performance might become dissatisfied with their current level of performance. This feedback can motivate them to improve, but they should also have feelings of satisfaction that function as positive feedback when subsequent feedback indicates improvement.
2. Establish goal-setting programs. Clear, objective knowledge of results is critical to productive goal setting because effective goals are specific and measurable. Thus, individuals benefit from getting specific feedback to help them set their goals.

Instructional feedback is used to provide information about specific behaviors that should be performed, levels of proficiency that should be achieved, and the performer’s current level of proficiency in the desired skills and activities.

When skills are highly complex, knowledge of results can be particularly important. Breaking down complex skills into their parts creates a more effective learning environment and gives the learner specific information on how to perform each phase of the skill.

Types of Feedback

Verbal praise, facial expressions, and pats on the back are easy, effective ways to reinforce desirable behaviors. Phrases such as “Well done!” “Way to go!” “Keep up the good work!” and “That’s a lot better!” can be powerful reinforcers. However, this reward becomes more effective when you identify the specific behaviors you are pleased with. For instance, a track coach might say to a sprinter, “Way to get out of the blocks—you really pushed off strongly with your legs.” Or an aerobics instructor might say to a participant who is working hard, “I like the way you’re pumping your arms while stepping in place.” The coach and the instructor have identified exactly what the participants are doing well.

This type of movement-oriented feedback is also known as knowledge of performance (KP), which is knowledge about the movement pattern that was used to accomplish the task goal. Conversely, knowledge of results (KR) refers to information about the outcome of the action. For example, if a golfer’s practice goal was to consistently hit balls 100 yards with a short iron by shortening her backswing, then KP would be concerned with the length of the backswing and KR would consist of the actual distance the ball traveled.

Guidelines for Using Punishment

Positive reinforcement should be the predominant way to change behavior; in fact, most researchers suggest that 80% to 90% of reinforcement should be positive. Despite this near consensus among sport psychologists about what fosters motivation in athletes, some coaches use punishment as the primary motivators. For example, academic achievement in athletes is often prompted by a fear of punishment, such as having one’s eligibility taken away because of poor grades.

Support of Punishment

Although some educators argue against the use of punishment by coaches, others (e.g., Benatar, 1998) argue that punishment can serve a useful educational purpose (i.e., maintain stability, order, mastery) due to the closeness of coaches and athletes. Punishment certainly can control and change negative behavior (Smith, 2006), and it has advocates among coaches and teachers who use punishment to improve learning and performance. Several other arguments support the use of punishment in athletic settings:

• A strong expectation of cooperation and a strong animosity toward wrongdoers exist, and thus the use of punishment to deter future cheating or wrongdoing is supported (Goodman, 2006).
• Individuals who cheat should be punished because they are not sharing, helping, and cooperating with others.
• Cheaters, although benefiting in the short run, will receive a significantly lower reward in the future because of their wrongdoing (e.g., violators of Major League Baseball’s substance abuse policy will likely never make it into the Hall of Fame).
• Assigning punishment to wrongdoers assures others (e.g., teammates) that all individuals are held accountable for their actions and their effect on others.
• It appears acceptable for coaches to deter inappropriate or unacceptable behaviors through significant and timely punishment because this sends a signal to potential violators that they will suffer the consequences if they don’t follow the rules established by their team.
• Findings from 157 studies showed that individuals experiencing corporal punishment are at a negligible risk for developing emotional and behavioral problems.

Criticisms of Punishment

Several arguments have been put forth to suggest that punishment severely lacks any base of support and is in fact related to negative (unproductive) behaviors.

These arguments include the following:

• Punishment can be degrading or shame producing, especially when individuals perceive their image or standing to be lowered in the eyes of others. Shame and guilt appear to be closely linked to failure or weakness when connected to the attainment of a standard, expectation, belief, or value.
• Punishment usually arouses a fear of failure. Athletes who fear failure are not motivated by and do not enjoy the fruits of victory; rather, they only try to avoid the agony of defeat. Research has indicated that athletes with a high fear of failure perform more poorly in competition and are more likely to get injured, enjoy the sport experience less, and drop out.
• Punishment can unwittingly reinforce the undesirable behavior by drawing attention to it. Singling out a student who disrupts the class provides the student with the attention he craves. The punishment reinforces and strengthens the very behavior it was intended to eliminate.
• Punishment can create an unpleasant, aversive learning environment, producing hostility and resentment between the coach and the athletes. Over time, students and athletes may lose motivation as they become discouraged by frequent criticism. Furthermore, the undesirable behaviors may not be eliminated; rather, they may be suppressed only while the threat of punishment is present. For example, an exerciser may work hard in an aerobics class when the leader is watching her but slack off when she is not being watched.

Making Punishment Effective

Some coaches assume that punishing athletes for making mistakes will eliminate these errors. These coaches assume that if players fear making mistakes, they will try harder not to make them. However, successful coaches who used punishment usually were also masters of strategy, teaching, or technical analysis. Often those—not their negative approach—were the attributes that made them successful. Although not recommended as the major source of motivation, punishment might occasionally be necessary to eliminate unwanted behaviors. Here are guidelines for maximizing the effectiveness of punishment:

• Be consistent by giving everyone the same type of punishment for breaking similar rules.
• Punish the behavior, not the person. Convey to the individual that it’s his behavior that needs to change.
• Allow athletes to have input in making up punishments for breaking rules.
• Do not use physical activity or conditioning as a punishment
• Make sure the punishment is not perceived as a reward or simply as attention.
• Impose punishment impersonally—do not berate people or yell. Simply inform them of their punishment.
• Do not punish athletes for making errors while they are playing.
• Do not embarrass individuals in front of teammates or classmates.
• Use punishment sparingly and enforce it when you use it.
• Do not punish other teammates for an individual ’s mistake.
• Make sure punishment is age appropriate.
• Make certain that athletes understand the reason for punishment.

Coaches also need to be aware of cultural differences when administering punishment. One unique study found differences between Japanese and English soccer players in terms of their reactions to certain types of punishment. Specifically, English players rated their coaches higher if they used verbal rather than physical punishment. However, Japanese athletes did not differ in how they viewed their coaches regardless of whether the coaches gave verbal or physical punishment. Guilt appears to play an important role in English culture, whereas shame appears to play an important role in Japanese culture, which may account for these differences. Japanese athletes might be more ashamed after failure and feel that any sort of punishment is deserved.

Behavior Modification in Sport

Systematic application of the principles of positive and negative reinforcement to help produce desirable behaviors and eliminate undesirable behaviors has been given various names in the sport psychology literature: contingency management (Siedentop, 1980), behavioral coaching and behavior modification. These terms all refer to attempts to structure the environment through the systematic use of reinforcement, especially during practice. In general, behavioral techniques are used in sport and physical activity settings to help individuals stay task oriented and motivated throughout a training period. In what follows, we highlight a few studies that have used behavioral techniques in sport settings and then offer guidelines for designing behavior programs.

Evaluating Behavioral Programs

The evidence to date suggests that systematic reinforcement techniques can effectively modify various behaviors, including specific performance skills and coaching and teaching behaviors, as well as reduce errors and increase exercising. Behavioral techniques have successfully changed attendance at practice; increased output by swimmers in practice; improved fitness activities and gymnastics performance; reduced errors in tennis, football, and gymnastics; and improved golf performance. Other programs have effectively used behavioral techniques to decrease off-task behaviors in figure skaters, facilitate positive youth development, and develop healthier attitudes toward good sporting behavior and team support. Let’s look closely at two examples of successful behavioral programs.

A Look at Shaping and Recording in Basketball

Another behavioral program targeted both performance and nonperformance behaviors. A junior high school basketball coach was distressed that his players criticized each other so often in practice and failed to concentrate on shooting skills. The coach decided to award points for daily practice in layups, jump shooting, and free-throw drills and for being a team player (which meant that players encouraged their teammates during play and practice). In this system, points were deducted if the coach saw an instance of a bad attitude. An Eagle Effort Board was posted in a conspicuous place in the main hall leading to the gymnasium, and outstanding students received an Eagle Effort award at the postseason banquet.

The program produced some dramatic changes: After just a few weeks, jump shooting improved from 37% to 51%, layups increased from 68% to 80%, and foul shooting improved from 59% to 67%. But the most dramatic improvement was in the team player category. Before implementing the behavioral program, the coach had detected 4 to 6 instances of criticism during each practice session and 10 to 12 instances of encouragement among teammates. After only a few sessions, he recorded more than 80 encouraging statements during a practice session. At the end of the season the coach commented, “We were more together than I ever could have imagined.”

Case Study: When Tennis Behaviors Shift

In one unique study by Galvan and Ward (1998), the goal was to reduce the amount of inappropriate on-court behaviors in collegiate players (tennis), including racket abuse, ball abuse, verbal abuse, and physical abuse of self. The number of inappropriate behaviors from each player was posted on the bulletin board in the players’ locker room. To derive these numbers, the investigators observed all challenge matches (competitive matches between teammates) during practice and recorded the inappropriate behaviors. All players were told of their inappropriate behaviors during an initial meeting and were provided strategies for reducing these behaviors. All five players who were followed through a competitive tennis season experienced a significant reduction in inappropriate behaviors, especially the behaviors that they had initially exhibited most frequently. For example, one player had averaged more than 11 verbal abuses per match during the baseline period, and this number decreased to a little more than 2 per match by the end of the season. The behavior modification appeared to work well for this group of collegiate players.

Creating Effective Behavioral Programs

Although the examples demonstrate that behavioral change programs can alter behavior, changing behavior in sport and exercise settings can be a tricky proposition. Effective behavioral programs have certain major characteristics:

• They emphasize specific, detailed, and frequent measurement of performance and behavior and use these measures to evaluate the effectiveness of the program.
• They recognize the distinction between developing new behavior and maintaining existing behavior at acceptable levels, and they offer positive procedures for accomplishing both.
• They encourage participants to improve against their own previous level of performance. Thus, a recreational athlete recovering from injury does not try to compare his performance against that of professional athletes but rather against what the physical therapist believes is optimal for the circumstance.
• They emphasize behavioral procedures that have been demonstrated by research to be effective. (This is more a science than an art.) • They emphasize that the coach, teacher, or leader should carefully monitor behavior in a systematic fashion (e.g., film, behavioral checklist) so that ineffective behaviors can be eliminated.
• They encourage the leader to get feedback from participants regarding the effectiveness of various aspects of the behavioral intervention.

Clearly, behavioral techniques can produce positive changes in a variety of behaviors. As you apply behavioral techniques, the following guidelines can increase the effectiveness of your intervention programs.

• Target the behaviors. When you initiate a program, identify only a couple of behaviors to work with. If participants focus on changing just a couple of behaviors, they avoid being overwhelmed and confused by trying to do too much too fast. Furthermore, it is difficult to observe simultaneously what all the participants are doing. By tracking only one or two behaviors, you can more accurately record the targeted behaviors and reinforce them fairly. In addition to the typical performance behaviors, social and emotional behaviors are appropriate behaviors to target. Target the behaviors after you carefully assess the needs of the individuals in the program. To choose appropriate target behaviors, see “Choosing and Monitoring Target Behaviors.”
• Define targeted behaviors. Try to define behaviors in a way that makes them readily observable and easy to record. Attendance, foul shooting percentage, the number of laps done, and correct execution of a skill are relatively objective, concrete behaviors. Such behaviors as hustle and effort are more difficult to pinpoint and measure. Individuals need to be told specifically what types of behaviors are expected so they can modify their behavior accordingly.
• Record the behaviors. Record observable behaviors on a checklist so you can give participants feedback. For maximum efficiency and effectiveness, checklists should be simple and straightforward. Head coaches, teachers, and exercise leaders are usually too busy to record behaviors, but often assistant coaches, managers, trainers, or teacher aides can be enlisted to help. If you do ask others to help, you will need to teach them how to record the behaviors to ensure reliability.
• Provide meaningful feedback. Detailed feedback enhances motivation. A simple set of checkmarks on an easy-to-read graph that clearly displays someone’s progress encourages self-praise, a teacher’s or coach’s praise, and knowledge of improvement, which all increase motivation. Public display of this feedback can stimulate peer interaction that might also reinforce increased output. At the same time, though, some people find this type of display embarrassing and aversive. The focus should always be on self-improvement; avoid creating unhealthy competition among teammates. It is a good idea to hold a team meeting to help determine the exact location and nature of the public display.
• State the outcomes clearly. Athletes and students want to be clear on what behaviors are required and what the result of performing or not performing these behaviors will be. If being eligible to start in the next game is the reward for certain practice behaviors, the coach should clarify this outcome along with the specific behaviors the athletes need to demonstrate.
• Tailor the reward system. Many athletes and students are already well motivated, but they need a systematic program to direct their motivation. The less motivated athletes and students are, the more they might initially need to rely on external rewards. But the strongest kind of motivation over the long haul is internal motivation, which should always be encouraged. The key point is to consider individual differences when you implement behavioral change programs.

Behavior Modification and Cognitive Behavior Therapy

Behavior modification and cognitive behavior therapy (which incorporate cognitive change methods such as self-talk and mental rehearsal) can be combined and integrated to produce even greater performance enhancements. Let’s look at an example of how cognitive behavior therapy and behavior modification can be integrated into a figure skater’s practice session.

• Before the skater takes the ice, she refers to her practice checklist, which outlines her performance goals for the session.
• The skater then images reaching her goals by performing specific moves and jumps on the ice.
• The skater reviews the session with her coach before starting to skate.
• Throughout the session the coach provides positive feedback and reminds the skater of her objectives.
• The skater repeatedly practices specific difficult moves and jumps so the coach can provide targeted feedback.
• At the end of the session both the coach and skater complete identical rating forms for everything practiced in the session so they can compare ratings and prepare for the next practice session.

This list describes just a few of the methods that can be used in cognitive behavior therapy and behavior modification, including goal setting, self-monitoring, behavioral rehearsal, prompting, positive reinforcement, and providing the proper cues.

Intrinsic Motivation and Extrinsic Rewards

The world of sport and exercise uses extrinsic rewards extensively. Most leagues have postseason banquets in which participants receive awards such as medals, trophies, ribbons, money, and jackets. Elementary school teachers frequently give stickers and toys to reward good behavior in their students. Exercise participants frequently get T-shirts and other rewards for regular attendance and participation in classes. Advocates of extrinsic rewards argue that rewards increase motivation, enhance earning, and increase the desire to continue participation. As noted throughout this chapter, the systematic use of rewards can certainly produce some desired behavior changes in sport, physical education, and exercise settings. However, if rewards are used incorrectly, some negative consequences also can result.

We know that motivation has two sources: extrinsic and intrinsic. With extrinsic rewards, the motivation comes from other people through positive and negative reinforcements. But individuals also participate in sport and physical activity for intrinsic reasons. People who have intrinsic motivation strive inwardly to be competent and self-determining in their quest to master the task at hand. They enjoy competition, like the action and excitement, focus on having fun, and want to learn skills to the best of their ability. Individuals who participate for the love of sport and exercise would be considered intrinsically motivated, as would those who play for pride.

A study investigating sustained motivation of elite athletes found that athletes were driven mainly by personal goals and achievements rather than financial incentives. extrinsic rewards and intrinsic motivation.

Factors Affecting Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

Both social and psychological factors can affect one’s intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in sport and exercise. Some of the more prominent social factors include the following:

• Success and failure (experiences that help define one’s sense of competency)
• Focus of competition (competing against yourself and some standard of excellence where the focus is on improvement rather than competing against your opponent where the focus is on winning)
• Coaches’ behaviors (positive vs. negative)

Self-determination theory argues that competence, autonomy, and relatedness are the three basic human needs and that the degree to which they are satisfied go a long way in determining an individual’s intrinsic motivation. Therefore, the psychological factors affecting motivation are (a) need for competence (to feel confident and self- efficacious), (b) need for autonomy (to have input into decisions or in some way “own” them), and (c)need for relatedness (to care for others and to have them care for you).

Being aware of these factors and altering things when possible, will enhance one’s feelings of intrinsic motivation.

Do Extrinsic Rewards Undermine Intrinsic Motivation?

Intuitively, it seems that combining extrinsic and intrinsic motivation would produce more motivation. For instance, adding extrinsic rewards (e.g., trophies) to an activity that is intrinsically motivating (e.g., intramural volleyball) should increase motivation accordingly. Certainly, you would not expect these extrinsic rewards to decrease intrinsic motivation. But let’s look further at the effect of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation.

Most early researchers and practitioners saw intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as additive: the more, the better. Some people, however, noted that extrinsic rewards could undermine intrinsic motivation. For example, Albert Einstein commented about exams, “This coercion had such a deterring effect that, after I passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year” (Bernstein, 1973, p. 88). When people see themselves as the cause of their behavior, they consider themselves intrinsically motivated. Conversely, when people perceive the cause of their behavior to be external to themselves (i.e., “I did it for the money”), they consider themselves extrinsically motivated. Often, the more an individual is extrinsically motivated, the less that person will be intrinsically motivated (deCharms, 1968).

What The Research is Telling Us

In the late 1960s, researchers as well as theorists began to systematically test the relationship between extrinsic rewards and intrinsic motivation. Participants who were rewarded with money for participating in an interesting activity subsequently spent less time at it than did people who were not paid.

In his quite original and now classic study, Deci paid participants to play a Parker Brothers mechanical puzzle game called SOMA, which comprises many different- shaped blocks that can be arranged to form various patterns. Pilot testing had shown this game to be intrinsically motivating. In a later play period, the time these participants spent with the SOMA puzzles (as opposed to reading magazines) was significantly less (106 seconds) than the time spent by individuals who had not been rewarded for playing with the puzzles.

In another early classic study called “Turning Play Into Work,” Lepper and Greene (1975) used nursery school children as participants and selected an activity that was intrinsically motivating for these children— drawing with felt pens. Each child was asked to draw under one of three reward conditions. In the expected reward condition, the children agreed to draw a picture to receive a Good Player certificate. In the unexpected reward condition, the award was given to unsuspecting children after they completed the task. In the no reward condition, the children neither anticipated nor received an award. One week later, the children were unobtrusively observed for their interest in the same activity in a free-choice situation. The children who had drawn with the felt pen for expected rewards showed a decrease in intrinsic motivation, whereas the other two groups continued to use the felt pens just as much as they had before the experiment. When the expected reward was removed, the prime reason for the first group using the felt pen was also removed, although they had initially been intrinsically motivated to use the felt pen. This study demonstrates potential long-term effects of extrinsic rewards and the importance of studying how the reward is administered.

Not all studies have shown that extrinsic rewards decrease intrinsic motivation. To the contrary, general psychological studies of the relationship between extrinsic rewards and intrinsic motivation have concluded that external rewards undermine intrinsic motivation under certain select circumstances—for example, recognizing someone merely for participating without tying recognition to the quality of performance. However, others have debated this conclusion, arguing persuasively that the undermining effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation are much broader and wider reaching. Similarly, research conducted specifically in the sport and exercise domains reveals a number of instances in which extrinsic rewards and other incentives do indeed undermine and reduce intrinsic motivation. Thus, we need to understand under what conditions extrinsic rewards can negatively affect intrinsic motivation.

Cognitive Evaluation Theory

To help explain the different potential effects of rewards on intrinsic motivation, some of our contemporaries have developed a conceptual approach called cognitive evaluation theory (CET) . CET is really a sub theory of the more general self- determination theory (SDT). Self- determination theory (SDT) focuses on three basic psychological needs: effectance, relatedness, and autonomy. In essence, Deci and Ryan (1994) argued that “people are inherently motivated to feel connected to others within a social milieu (relatedness), to function effectively in that milieu (effectance), and to feel a sense of personal initiative in doing so (autonomy)” Therefore, intrinsic motivation, performance, and cognitive development are maximized in social contexts that provide people the opportunity to satisfy these basic needs.

Although SDT focuses on intrinsic motivation, it does not elaborate on what causes intrinsic motivation. Therefore, CET was developed to help explain the variability in intrinsic motivation. In essence, it focuses on the factors that facilitate or undermine the development of intrinsic motivation. Following the orientation of SDT, CET hypothesizes that any events that affect individuals’ perceptions of competence and feelings of self-determination ultimately will also affect their levels of intrinsic motivation. These events (e.g., distribution of rewards, the quantity and quality of feedback and reinforcement, and the ways in which situations are structured) have two functional components: a controlling aspect and an informational aspect. Both the informational and controlling aspects can increase or decrease intrinsic motivation depending on how they affect one’s competence and self- determination.

Controlling Aspect of Rewards

The controlling aspect of rewards relates to an individual’s perceived locus of causality (i.e., what causes a person’s behavior) in the situation. If a reward is seen as controlling one’s behavior, then people believe that the cause of their behavior (an external locus of causality) resides outside themselves and thus intrinsic motivation decreases. People often feel a direct conflict between being controlled by someone’s use of rewards and their own needs for self-determination. That is, people who are intrinsically motivated feel that they do things because they want to rather than for external reward. When people feel controlled by a reward (e.g., “I’m only playing for the money.”), the reason for their behavior resides outside of themselves. For example, many college athletes feel controlled by the pressure to win, to compete for scholarships, and to conform to coaching demands and expectations. With the change to free agency in many professional sports, several athletes report feeling controlled by the large sums of money they earn. This in turn has led to them experiencing less enjoyment in the activity itself.

Research has revealed six salient strategies that coaches use to control athletes’ behaviors, thus undermining intrinsic motivation:

1. Tangible re wards (e.g., promising to reward athletes if they engage in certain training behaviors)
2. Controlling feedback (e.g., picking up on all the negative aspects of an athlete ’s behavior but saying nothing positive and offering no suggestions for future improvement)
3. Excessive personal control (e.g., interacting with athletes in an authoritative manner and commanding them to do things using orders, directives, controlling questions, and deadlines)
4. Intimidation behaviors (e.g., using the threat of punishment to push athletes to work harder or keep athletes in line during training)
5. Promoting ego involvement (e.g., evaluating an athlete’s performance in front of her peers)
6. Conditional regard (e.g., saying things to make athletes feel guilty, such as “You let me down” or “When you don’t perform well…”)

In contrast, if a reward is seen as contributing to an internal locus of causality (i.e., the cause of one’s behavior resides inside the person), intrinsic motivation will increase. In these situations, individuals feel high levels of self- determination and perceive that their behaviors are determined by their own internal motivation. For example, sport and exercise programs in which individuals can provide input about the choice of activities, personal performance goals, and team or class objectives result in higher intrinsic motivation because they increase personal perceptions of control.

Informational Aspect of Rewards

The informational aspect affects intrinsic motivation by altering how competent someone feels. When a person receives a reward for achievement, such as the Most Valuable Player award, this provides positive information about competence and should increase intrinsic motivation. In essence, for rewards to enhance intrinsic motivation, they should be contingent on specific levels of performance or behavior.

Moreover, rewards or events that provide negative information about competence should decrease perceived competence and intrinsic motivation. For example, if a coach’s style is predominantly critical, some participants may internalize it as negative information about their value and worth. This will decrease their enjoyment and intrinsic motivation. Similarly, striving for an award and not receiving it will decrease feelings of competence and lower intrinsic motivation.

Functional Significance of the Event

In addition to the controlling and informational aspects of rewards, a third major element in CET is the functional significance of the event (Ryan & Deci, 2002). In essence, every reward potentially has both controlling and informational aspects. How the reward will affect intrinsic motivation depends on whether the recipient perceives it to be more controlling or more informational. For example, on the surface it would seem positive to recognize individuals or teams with trophies. However, although the reward’s message seems to be about the athletes’ competence, the players may perceive that the coach is giving them rewards to control their behavior (i.e., make sure they don’t join another team next year). It must be clear to participants that a reward provides positive information about their competence and is not meant to control their behavior. In general, perceived choice, competence, autonomy (self- determination), and positive feedback bring out the informational aspect, whereas rewards, deadlines, and surveillance make the controlling aspect salient.

According to one coach, a wrestler with a great deal of talent and potential, had won most of his matches, and had received positive feedback from the coach, teammates, and community. In addition, as a team captain, the wrestler had participated in developing team rules and practice regimens. Despite the amount of positive information conveyed about the student’s wrestling competence, the coach was baffled by the wrestler’s lack of positive affect, effort, persistence, and desire. Only later did the coach find out that the boy’s father had exerted considerable pressure on him to join the wrestling team and was now living vicariously through his son’s success—while still criticizing him when he believed his son’s performance wasn’t up to par. Thus, the wrestler perceived the controlling aspect, emanating from his overbearing father, as more important than the positive feedback and rewards he was getting through his wrestling performance. The result was a perceived external locus of causality with a subsequent decrease in intrinsic motivation.

How Extrinsic Rewards Affect Intrinsic Motivation in Sport

Hall of fame point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers Magic Johnson was once asked whether he received any outrageous offers while being recruited by various college basketball teams. He responded, “I received my share of offers for cars and money. It immediately turned me off. It was like they were trying to buy me, and I don’t like anyone trying to buy me.” Notice that what Magic Johnson was really referring to was the controlling aspect of rewards. He did not like anyone trying to control him through bribes and other extrinsic incentives. With the outrageous multimillion-dollar long-term contracts that are currently being offered to many professional athletes, the natural question is whether athletes will lose their motivation and drive to perform at the top level. Let’s look at what some of the research has found.

Scholarships and Intrinsic Motivation

Players on scholarship reported that they were enjoying football less than their counterparts not on scholarship. Moreover, scholarship football players exhibited less intrinsic motivation every year they held their scholarship, so their lowest level of enjoyment occurred during their senior year. Ryan later surveyed male and female athletes from different schools in a variety of sports. Again, scholarship football players reported less intrinsic motivation than nonscholarship football players. However, male wrestlers and female athletes from six sports who were on scholarship reported higher levels of intrinsic motivation than those who were not on scholarship. These results can be explained by the distinction between the controlling and informational aspects of rewards. Scholarships can have an informational function—scholarships tell athletes that they are good. This would be especially informative to wrestlers and women, who receive far fewer scholarships than other athletes. Remember that in 1980, few athletic scholarships were available to wrestlers and women. In comparison, some 80 scholarships were awarded to Division I football teams, which would make the informational aspect of receiving a football scholarship a less positive confirmation of outstanding competence.

Football is the prime revenue-producing sport for most universities. Consider how football scholarships, as well as scholarships in other revenue-producing sports, can be used. Some coaches may use scholarships as leverage to control the players’ behavior. Players often believe that they must perform well or lose their scholarships. Sometimes players who are not performing up to the coaches’ expectations are made to participate in distasteful drills, are threatened with being dropped from the team, or are given no playing time. By holding scholarships over players’ heads, coaches have sometimes turned what used to be play into work. Under these conditions, the controlling aspect of the scholarship is more important than the informational aspect, which evidently decreases intrinsic motivation among the scholarship players.

The investigation showed that among 440 male and female athletes in Division I, the players on scholarship had lower levels of intrinsic motivation, enjoyment, and perceived choice than their non-scholarship cohorts. This occurred with both the men and women, indicating that the growth of women’s collegiate sport may have raised the pressure to win to the level experienced in men’s collegiate athletics. Making more scholarships available to female athletes has reduced the informational aspect of these awards, and the concomitant pressure to win has enhanced the controlling aspect of scholarships, thus decreasing intrinsic motivation.

In assessing how collegiate athletes perceived their coaches’ behavior, the authors found that changes in feelings of intrinsic motivation were attributable primarily to coaching behaviors rather than to whether an athlete was on scholarship. Specifically, athletes who perceived that their coaches exhibited predominantly positive and instructional feedback as well as democratic and social support behaviors exhibited higher levels of intrinsic motivation than did athletes who perceived their coaches who displayed predominantly autocratic behaviors. Democratic coaching behaviors produced higher levels of intrinsic motivation, whereas autocratic coaching behaviors produced lower levels of intrinsic motivation. Thus, regarding intrinsic motivation, it appears that the type of coach one plays for is more important than whether one is on scholarship.

Competition and Intrinsic Motivation

Competitive success and failure can also affect intrinsic motivation. Competitive events contain both controlling and informational components, and thus they can influence both the perceived locus of causality and perceived competence of the participants. By manipulating the success and failure that participants perceive on a motor task, several researchers have revealed that people have higher levels of intrinsic motivation after success than after failure.

Further research investigated the effects of positive performance-based feedback on winning and losing.

We tend to focus on who won or lost a competition, which represents the objective outcome. However, sometimes an athlete plays well but still loses to a superior opponent, whereas other times someone plays poorly but still wins over a weak opponent. These subjective outcomes also appear to determine an athlete’s intrinsic motivation. People who perceive that they performed well show higher levels of intrinsic motivation than those with lower perceptions of success. Winning and losing are less important in determining intrinsic motivation than people’s (subjective) perception of how well they performed. The adage “It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game” applies in determining how a performance affects intrinsic motivation.

In essence, the focus of one’s performance appears to be more important than the actual outcome. It was found that intergroup competition led to the highest levels of enjoyment when the players were told to focus on trying to do well instead of simply beating the competition (as was the case in previous studies). It was hypothesized that given these instructions; the players experienced the excitement of competition as well as the interpersonal enthusiasm derived from having a teammate.

Feedback and Intrinsic Motivation

Feedback and intrinsic motivation involve how positive and negative information from significant others affects one’s perceived competence and intrinsic motivation.

Very positive feedback (“You’re one of the best in the class”) produced significantly more intrinsic motivation and a greater intent to participate in similar activities in the future compared with mild positive feedback (“You’re about average”). These results underscore the importance of the quality of positive feedback and not just the amount. Positive feedback (in this case in the form of praise) must be used with caution because it can increase, decrease, or have no effect on intrinsic motivation. To the extent that the message is believed, an increase in intrinsic motivation will follow. However, if the feedback is not perceived as sincere, negative effects can occur. Furthermore, the style of delivery is important. Specifically, if the message is presented in an autonomy- supportive fashion (e.g., “It is important for your own good to do this”), athletes feel they are in control and can make choices within reasonable limits, leading to increases in intrinsic motivation. Conversely, when messages are controlling, forcing athletes to behave in a certain way (e.g., “You must do this. You have no choice.), intrinsic motivation is undermined.

Because autonomy-supportive behaviors by coaches are teachable (Reeve, 1998), interventions have been developed to help coaches use autonomy-supportive coaching to a greater degree and consequently facilitate their athletes’ intrinsic motivation. For example, Vallerand discusses an 18- month intervention program with swimmers that was highly effective in leading athletes to perceive their coach as less controlling and using more autonomy-supportive behavior, as well as athletes’ experiencing higher levels of perceived competence and intrinsic motivation. Of note was the fact that attendance at practice increased markedly and dropout was significantly reduced. Ntoumanis and Mallett (2014) offer practical suggestions regarding the promotion of autonomous behaviors in coaches.

One study found similar results with adult exercisers and fitness leaders, demonstrating that autonomy-supportive behaviors by the leaders produced higher levels of satisfaction and perceived competence in the exercisers. A study found that higher levels of controlling behaviors by coaches did not necessarily result in less intrinsic motivation and enjoyment by athletes if the coaches were also high on autonomous behaviors. In addition, coaching behaviors can also affect athletes’ sense of well-being. Specifically, coaching behaviors such as intimidation, controlling use of rewards, and excessive personal control, were related to lower levels of self-esteem and higher levels of perceived burnout. Autonomy-supportive behaviors were related to positive well-being (e.g., self-esteem, satisfaction). Finally, besides the factors already noted, other factors determine intrinsic motivation.

Strategies for Increasing Intrinsic Motivation

Because rewards do not inherently undermine intrinsic motivation, coaches, physical educators, and exercise leaders do well to structure and use rewards and other strategies in ways that increase perceptions of success and competence and, by extension, the intrinsic motivation of participants. Read the following suggestions for increasing intrinsic motivation and analyze how the use of rewards provides participants with information that will increase their intrinsic motivation and perception of competence.

• Provide for successful experiences. Perceived success strengthens feelings of personal competence. F or example, lowering the basket for young basketball players and structuring practice to provide successful experiences will enhance feelings of competence. Give positive feedback about what participants are doing right.
• Give rewards contingent on performance. Tie rewards to the performance of specific behaviors to increase their informational value. Give rewards based on proper execution of plays, good sporting behavior, helping other teammates, or mastering a new skill to provide information about the individual’s competence. Make clear to the participants that the rewards are specifically for doing things well and that you are not trying to control them in any way. Emphasize the informational aspect of the rewards.
• Use verbal and nonverbal praise. Many people forget how powerful praise can be. Praise provides positive feedback and helps athletes continue to strive to improve. This is especially important for athletes who are second-string and who get little recognition as well as for students who are not particularly skilled in sport and physical activity. For example, overweight participants in an exercise class need plenty of positive feedback to stay motivated and feel good about themselves. A simple pat on the back or “Good job” can acknowledge each person’s contribution to a team or achievement of a personal goal.
• Vary content and sequence of practice drills. Practices in sport and exercise can get boring. One way to break the monotony and maintain motivation levels is to vary the kinds of drills and the way they are sequenced. Such variety can also give young athletes an opportunity to try new positions or assignments. The youngsters have more fun and gain an awareness and appreciation of the demands of different positions and of their abilities to handle them. Similarly, exercise leaders should strive to vary the content and format of their classes to keep motivation high. (Dropout rates in exercise programs all too frequently reach more than 50%.)
• Involve participants in decision making. Allow participants more responsibility for making decisions and rules. Doing so will increase their perception of control and lead to feelings of personal accomplishment. For example, participants might suggest how to organize a practice session, make up team or class rules, establish a dress code, or, if they are ready, proceed with game strategy. They might plan a new or innovative drill for practice. People perceive that they have greater competency when they are active in the learning process.
• Set realistic performance goals. Not all participants are highly skilled or apt to be winners in competition. However, people can learn to set realistic goals based on their individual abilities. These goals need not depend on objective performance outcomes; rather, they might include playing for a specified number of minutes, keeping emotional control, or simply improving over a previous performance. Base performance goals on a personal level of performance (e.g., to improve one’s time in the mile run from 7:33 to 7:25), leaving participants in control of their performance (i.e., not depending on how well an opponent plays) and making success more likely. Reaching performance goals is a sign of competence that will increase motivation. Chapter 16 presents a more detailed discussion of how to set goals.

Flow—A Special Case of Intrinsic Motivation

Some of the most innovative studies of enhancing intrinsic motivation come from the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1990). Whereas many researchers have tried to determine which factors undermine intrinsic motivation, Csikszentmihalyi investigated exactly what makes a task intrinsically motivating. He examined rock climbing, dancing, chess, music, and amateur athletics—all activities that people do with great intensity but usually for little or no external reward. In sport, Sue Jackson has led the research in this area, studying flow experiences in athletes from a variety of sports. Through their research, Jackson and Csikszentmihalyi identified common elements that make sport activities intrinsically interesting. These elements of flow have been identified in a variety of performance settings, including the military, the performing arts and recreational performers can achieve flow just as well as elite performers can. The essential elements of the flow state include the following:

• Balance of challenge and skills. The most important part of Csikszentmihalyi’s definition of flow is the balance between one’s perceived skill and challenge. An easy win or lopsided loss will rarely get one into flow. As one hockey player noted, “When I have a competitor to push me to my limits and provide a real challenge is when I can get into the zone.” For flow to occur it is imperative that an athlete believe that he or she has the skills to successfully meet the physical, technical, and mental challenges faced.
• Complete absorption in the activity. The participant is so involved in the activity that nothing else seems to matter. A basketball player states, “The court—that’s all that matters . . . . Sometimes I think of a problem, like fighting with my girlfriend, and I think that’s nothing compared to the game. You can think about a problem all day but as soon as you get in the game, the hell with it . . . . When you’re playing basketball, that’s all that’s on your mind.”
• Clear goals. Goals are so clearly set that the athlete knows exactly what to do. This clarity of intention facilitates concentration and attention. As one swimmer said of the flow experience, “I knew exactly how I was going to swim the race.”
• Merging of action and awareness. The athlete is aware of her actions but not of the awareness itself. This mental state is captured by a volleyball player who states, “The only thing that goes through my mind is performing well. I really don’t have to think, though. When I’m playing [volleyball], it just comes to me. It’s a good feeling. And when you’re on a roll, you don’t think about it at all. “If you step back and think why you are so hot, all of a sudden you get creamed.”
• Total concentration on the task at hand. Performers report that they feel like a beam of concentrated energy. Crowd noises, opponent reactions, and other distractions simply don’t matter. The focus of attention is clearly on the task at hand. A tennis player demonstrates this total focus: “All that mattered was the tennis court and the ball. I was so into the zone and focused that the ball looked like a watermelon.”
• Loss of self-consciousness. Performers report that their ego is completely lost in the activity itself. A rock climber captures this feeling well: “In rock climbing one tends to get immersed in what is going on around him—in the rock, in the moves that are involved . . . search[ing] for handholds . . . proper position[ing] of the body—so involved he might lose the consciousness of his own identity and melt into the rock.”
• A sense of control. This element of flow refers to the fact that the athlete is not actively aware of control; rather, he is simply not worried by the possibility of lack of control. A racquetball player demonstrates this sense of control: “At times when I have super concentration in a [racquetball] game, nothing else exists—nothing except the act of participating and swinging at the ball. The other player must be there to play the game, but I’m not concerned with him. I’m not competing with him at that point. I’m attempting to place the ball in the perfect spot, and it has no bearing on winning and losing.”
• No goals or rewards external to the activity. The athlete participates purely because of the activity itself, without seeking any other reward. A chess player makes this point by saying, “The most rewarding part of chess is the competition, the satisfaction of pitting your mental prowess against someone else . . . . I’ve won trophies and money, but considering expenses of entry fees, chess association, etcetera, I’m usually on the losing side financially.”
• Transformation of time. Athletes in flow typically report that time seems to speed up, although for some it slows down. However, most individuals in flow report transformations in their perceptions of time. As one athlete said, “It was over before I knew it.”
• Effortless movement. This element refers to the fact that the athlete is performing well yet is not really thinking about it and doesn’t appear to be trying too hard. A figure skater captures this element well: “It was just one of those programs that clicked. It’s just such a rush, like you feel it could go on and on and on, like you don’t want it to stop because it’s going so well. It’s almost as though you don’t have to think, it’s like everything goes automatically without thinking. It’s like you’re on automatic pilot, so you don’t have any thoughts.”

These elements represent the essential features of optimal performances, which athletes have described as “hot,” “in a groove,” “on a roll,” or “in the zone,” a special state where everything is going well. Csikszentmihalyi calls this holistic sensation flow, in which people believe they are totally involved or on automatic pilot. He argued that the flow experience occurs when your skills are equal to your challenge. Intrinsic motivation is at its highest and maximum performance is achieved. However, if the task demands are greater than your capabilities, you become anxious and perform poorly. Conversely, if your skills are greater than the challenges of the task, you become bored and perform less well.

Flow is obtained when both capabilities (skills) and challenge are high. For example, if an athlete has a high skill level and the opponent is also highly skilled (e.g., high challenge), then the athlete may achieve flow. But if an athlete with less ability is matched against a strong opponent (high challenge), it will produce anxiety. Combining low skills and low challenge results in apathy or relaxation, whereas combining high skills and low challenge result in boredom. These four quadrants have been explored to better understand the achievement of optimal experience(s). Results revealed that participants in the flow and relaxation quadrants exhibited the most optimal affective states (with flow being most optimal) and performance, whereas apathy produced the least optimal states; boredom was between apathy and flow. By structuring exercise classes, physical education, and competitive sport to be challenging and creative, you foster better performance, richer experiences, and longer involvement in physical activity.

How People Achieve Flow

If they knew how, coaches and teachers would likely want to help students and athletes achieve this narrow framework of flow. So the logical question is, How does one get into a flow state? Research studying athletes from different sports found that the following factors were most important for getting into flow:

• Motivation to perform. Being motivated to perform—and to perform well—is important to getting into flow. When individuals lack such motivation, flow is much more difficult to achieve. The balance between challenge and skill may be the most relevant area to focus on to help ensure that the individual is optimally motivated. However, the match between level of achievement motivation and motivational incentives to perform a specific task also needs be congruent. Specifically, research found that achieving flow in climbers was most likely when individuals were high in achievement motivation as well as high in their incentive to achieve the task.
• Achieving optimal arousal level before performing. Being relaxed, controlling anxiety, and enjoying the activity contribute to flow. Jackson found that some individuals clearly preferred to be more relaxed, whereas others wanted to be more energized. Several athletes spoke of finding a balance between calmness and arousal. As one skater said, “Relaxation and confidence—but you must be on edge; you can’t be too relaxed. You must be concerned about something”.
• Maintaining appropriate focus. Keeping a narrow focus, staying in the present, focusing before the performance, and focusing on key points in one’s activity are critical to maintaining proper focus. Csikszentmihalyi (1990) referred to concentration on the task at hand as one of the most frequently mentioned dimensions of the flow experience.
• Precompetitive and competitive plans and preparation. Along with confidence and positive attitude, athletes mentioned planning most often in describing factors that influence achieving flow states. Following precompetitive routines, feeling totally ready, having a competitive plan, and anticipating potential unusual events are clearly important components of preparation. For example, a javelin thrower stated,

“The fact that I’ve done everything possible on my mental and physical side makes me feel confident. Every facet is covered . . . . That reassures my conscious mind that I’ve done everything—then I just have to let myself switch off and let it happen”.

• Optimal physical preparation and readiness. Having done the necessary training and preparation beforehand, working hard, and feeling that you are physically ready and able to have good practice sessions before competing are all critical to getting into and maintaining a flow state. In addition to rest and training, nutrition appears important for setting optimal conditions for the flow state to occur. In addition, athletes report that believing they were physically prepared helped boost their confidence and ability to stay in a flow state for a longer period.

Flow requires an optimal environmental and situational conditions. Although people can set the tone for achieving a flow state by altering their own internal climate, athletes also cited environmental and situational conditions that affected their ability to achieve a flow state. Such conditions as a good atmosphere, positive feedback from the coach, no outside pressures, and optimal playing conditions enhance the probability of flow occurring.

Confidence and mental attitude matter. Confidence is a major help to achieving a flow state; conversely, self-doubt and putting pressure on oneself can disrupt flow. Believing you can win, thinking positively, blocking negatives, and enjoying what you’re doing all help build confidence.

• Team play and interaction. In team sports, getting into flow sometimes depends on (or at least is influenced by) your teammates. Positive team interactions such as good passing, playing as a unit, and open communication are helpful in achieving flow. In addition, trusting your teammates and having a shared sense of purpose are important for cohesive team interactions.
• Feeling good about performance. The factor for getting into flow that athletes mentioned most often was feeling good about their performance and movements. In essence, receiving feedback from their movements and being in control of their bodies give athletes a sense of ease in moving. Anyone who has participated in sport knows that sometimes things just feel right, smooth, effortless, and in sync. These feelings are usually related to getting into a flow state.
• Mindfulness. Currently, one of the most popular techniques for achieving a sense of calm as well as a centered, nonjudgmental, and present focus is mindfulness. Because of its close theoretical relationship with flow, especially the emphasis on a present- moment focus, mindfulness has been investigated as a potential method for achieving a flow state. Along these lines, research using questionnaires has demonstrated that total mindfulness scores are consistently related to total flow scores (both flow and mindfulness are made up of several factors), although mindfulness appears to be most strongly related to the flow factor of present focus. In addition, research has found that mindfulness can help a person achieve the critical aspect of flow— challenge–skill balance—through enhancing the self-efficacy of individuals.

Controllability of Flow States

Can individuals control the thoughts and feelings connected with flow? The athletes interviewed varied in their responses regarding the controllability of their flow states. Overall, 79% perceived flow to be controllable, whereas 21% believed it was out of their control. Athletes who believed that flow was controllable made comments such as this:

“Yeah, I think you can increase it. It’s not a conscious effort. If you try to do it, it’s not going to work. I don’t think it’s something you can turn on and off like a light switch.

A triathlete noted,

“I think I can set it up. You can set the scene for it, maybe with all that preparation. It should be something that you can ask of yourself and get into, I think, through your training and through your discipline”

Some athletes, although considering flow to be controllable, placed qualifiers on whether flow would occur. A javelin thrower captured this perception in his remark, “Yeah, it’s controllable, but it’s the battle between your conscious and subconscious, and you’ve got to tell your conscious to shut up and let the subconscious take over, which it will because it’s powerful.

Studies suggest that although athletes cannot control flow, they still can increase the probability of it occurring by following the guidelines stated here and focusing on things in their control, such as their mental preparation. Keeping adequate control of one’s thoughts and emotions and maintaining an appropriate level of activation and relaxation were psychological skills related to flow. Some athletes now partake in mindfulness training program to elicit higher levels of flow, especially in terms of clear goals and sense of control of their thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Flow Versus Clutch States

Research has also investigated performance excellence in sport and has extended the concept of flow to include what the authors call “clutch states.” Athletes were interviewed as soon as possible (average of 4 days) after excellent performances (e.g., personal bests, winning tournaments, personal judgments of excellent performance). Results revealed that flow occurred as a buildup of confidence, whereas clutch was a relatively sudden process of “switching on” in response to appraisal of demands. Clutch states occurred when important outcomes were achievable and imminent. This happened in “big moments” when the athlete was in contention to win or achieve a goal. Flow states occurred throughout the competition and especially when the athlete felt confident, and the situation was challenging because of the uncertainty of whether they would win or lose or accomplish a goal or not.

In studies conducted by colleagues on flow state and clutch states, athletes used similar terms to describe the flow state as those reported in previous studies. They also reported 12 clutch characteristics (e.g., absence of negative thoughts, intense effort, heightened arousal) and found that they experienced several characteristics in both flow and clutch states. These included confidence, perceptions of control, absorption in the activity, enhanced motivation, enjoyment, and altered sensory perceptions. It appears that these characteristics are at the core of both experiences. Despite these similarities, however, clutch states are characterized by increased and maximal effort rather than a feeling of effortlessness, absence of negative thoughts (e.g., worry) rather than absence of critical thoughts (e.g., bend your knees on a low shot), conscious processing rather than performing automatically, and high levels of intensity and excitement.

From an applied perspective, these results suggest that athletes should be aware of these two distinct states and understand how to react to and use both, rather than prepare for and expect to experience one ideal performance state. For instance, an athlete could use a dissociative strategy (focusing concentration away from the task) to prevent critical thoughts that can disrupt flow states. An example of this is elite golfers taking to their caddie between shots. Conversely, athletes talking in clutch situations should focus more on associative strategies such as using positive, motivating self-talk. In essence, during flow athletes “let it happen” whereas in clutch situations they “make it happen.” Therefore, it may take different psychological skills to manage flow states and clutch states.

Factors That Prevent and Disrupt Flow

Although we need to understand how to enhance the likelihood that flow will occur, it is equally important to understand what factors may prevent or disrupt it. These factors are identified in the sidebar “Factors That Prevent and Disrupt Flow.” Despite some consistency in what prevents and what disrupts the occurrence of flow, differences between these situations do exist. The factors athletes cited most often as preventing flow were less-than- optimal physical preparation, readiness, and environmental or situational conditions; the factors they cited most often as disrupting the flow state were environmental and situational influences.

Professionals can try to structure the environment and provide feedback to maximize the possibility that athletes will reach and maintain a flow state. However, participants themselves must be aware of the factors that influence the occurrence of the flow state so that they can mentally and physically prepare for competition and physical activity accordingly. They should distinguish factors that are under their control and that they can change (e.g., physical, or mental preparation, focus of attention, negative self-talk) from those they can’t control (e.g., crowd responses, coach feedback, weather and field conditions, behavior of competitors). For example, an athlete can’t control a hostile crowd, but she can control how she reacts both mentally and emotionally to the crowd. Similarly, a physical therapist can’t control patients’ attitudes or how crowded a clinic is, but he can strive to maintain a positive attitude in his interactions with clients. Finally, increasing psychological skills such as arousal regulation, emotion management, and thought control increases one’s likelihood of experiencing flow. Flow has thus far been presented as a very positive mental and emotional state associated with enhanced performance and positive affective states. However, research has shown that the consequences of experiencing flow may not always be positive. The authors argue that one potential negative consequence might be the dependence on an activity once associated with a flow experience.

In interviewing surfers, they found that some exhibited characteristics of dependence on surfing much like habitual drug users who need to continually increase their dosage to gain the appropriate sensations (i.e., they needed to increase the size and speed of the wave they were surfing to recapture the feelings they had previously). Surfers talked of being addicted to euphoric feelings and were willing to continue to surf to replicate these sensations despite family commitments, injury, or potential death. Some surfers admitted being unable to function normally in society because of their involvement in surfing. This research highlights the dark side of flow, although in most cases flow turns out to be a positive and performance-enhancing feeling state.

Summary

1. Explain how positive feedback and negative feedback influence behavior. In discussing two basic approaches to reinforcement—positive and negative control—we recommend a positive approach, although punishment is sometimes necessary to change behavior. Several factors can make reinforcements more effective, including the choice of effective reinforcers, the schedule of reinforcements, and the choice of appropriate behaviors (including performance and social and emotional skills) to reinforce. Punishment has potential negative effects, such as creating a fear of failure or creating an aversive learning environment.
2. Understand how to implement behavior modification programs. When we systematically use the principles of reinforcement to structure sport and exercise environments, the main goal is to help individuals stay task oriented and motivated throughout a training period.
3. Discuss the different types of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Contemporary thinking views intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on a continuum, from amotivation to various types of extrinsic motivation (introjected, identified, and integrated regulation) to different types of intrinsic motivation (knowledge, stimulation, accomplishment). Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation are both viewed as multidimensional.
4. Describe the relationship between intrinsic motivation and external rewards (controlling and informational aspects). Extrinsic rewards have the potential to undermine intrinsic motivation. Cognitive evaluation theory has demonstrated that extrinsic rewards can either increase or decrease intrinsic motivation depending on whether the reward is more informational or controlling. Two examples of extrinsic incentives in sport are scholarships and winning and losing.

If you want to enhance a participant’s intrinsic motivation, the key is to make rewards more informational.

5. Detail different ways to increase intrinsic motivation. Coaches, teachers, and exercise leaders can enhance intrinsic motivation through several methods, such as using verbal and nonverbal praise, involving participants in decision making, setting realistic goals, making rewards contingent on performance, using an autonomy-supportive approach, and varying the content and sequence of practice drills.
6. Describe how such factors as scholarships, coaching behaviors, competition, and feedback influence intrinsic motivation. Research has revealed a variety of factors related to intrinsic motivation. For example, higher levels of intrinsic motivation are found in non-scholarship athletes than in scholarship athletes, in athletes playing for democratic versus autocratic coaches, for recreational versus competitive environments, and for positive versus negative feedback.
7. Describe flow and clutch states and how to achieve them.

A special stat e of flow epitomizes intrinsic motivation. This flow state contains many common elements of intrinsic motivation, but a key aspect is that a balance exists between an individual’s perceived abilities and the challenge of the task. Several factors, such as confidence, optimal arousal, and focused attention, help us achieve a flow state; other factors, such as a self-critical attitude, distractions, and lack of preparation, can prevent or disrupt flow states. Psychological skills training has also been shown to facilitate flow. Investigations into excellent performance in sport has extended the concept of flow to include what is called “clutch states,” which occur when important outcomes are achievable and imminent. Although there is some overlap between flow and clutch states, clutch states involve increased and maximal effort rather than feeling effortless; absence of negative thoughts (e.g., worry) rather than absence of critical thoughts (e.g., “bend your knees”); conscious processing rather than being fully automatic as well as displaying high levels of intensity and excitement.

Review and Discuss

1. Discuss the two principles of reinforcement and explain why they are more complex than they first appear.
2. Discuss the differences between the positive and negative approaches to teaching and coaching. As evidenced by the research, which one is more beneficial and why?
3. Discuss the different types of reinforcers and the effectiveness of continuous and intermittent reinforcement schedules.
4. Discuss cognitive evaluation theory to help explain the relationship between extrinsic rewards and intrinsic motivation. Compare the informational aspect with the controlling aspect of rewards.
5. Discuss the results of Ryan’s studies on scholarships and intrinsic motivation. What are the implications of the findings? How did Horn and Amorose extend these studies?
6. Discuss the difference between harmonious passion and obsessive passion. Include three findings regarding passion and motivation.

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