Thesis+Based+Research+Assignment

// Senior Seminar Thesis-based Research // Rationale for Research / Introduction (5 pts) Looking into this research, the first thing to consider was what my question was. ONce you have one, or several questions, the actual research is just a matter of searching for the answers. Below the questions I was really interested in answering can be found. Using these questions as a spring board, I attempted to delve into the most general of research to begin with (without the general, how can one devise the specific?), this research can be found below, as the semester moves forward, each aspect of this research will be evaluated for its worth to the project. What is the impact of internal and external motivation on young athletes? Which is better psychologically? Which produces better results? How can coaches work to better the psychological and physical results of a child's personal motivation?

Research (25 pts)

A. McLoyd, Vonnie C."The Effects of Extrinsic Rewards of Differential Value on High and Low Intrinsic Interest." //Child Development// 50.4 (1979): 1010-019. //JSTOR//. Web. 18 Sept. 2009. <[|http://www.jstor.org]>. B. "The Science and Psychology of Motivation." //Health Information: Tips to Improve Mental and Physical Health//. Web. 18 Sept. 2009. <[]>. C. Torre, Joe. "Positive Coaching :: Joe Torre on Motivation." //PCA Home//. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2009. <[]>. D. Viswanath Venkatesh. "Creation of Favorable User Perceptions: Exploring the Role of Intrinsic Motivation." //MIS Quarterly// 23.2 (1999): 239-60. //JSTOR//. Web. 18 Sept. 2009. <[]>. E. Vernon, M.D. //Human Motivation//. Cambridge: University Press, 1969. N. pag. Print. F. Brewer, Britton W., and Judy L. Van Raalte, eds. //Exploring sport and exercise psychology//. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1996. Print. G. Thompson, Mark A., Ralph A. Vernacchia, and William E. Moore. //Case studies in applied sport psychology an educational approach//. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Pub., 1998. Print. H. Van, Jin H. "Cultural Influence on Youth's Motivation of Participation in Physical Activity." //Journal of Sport Behavior// 27.4 (2004): 378-90. //EBSCOhost//. Web. 07 Oct. 2009. [|http://web.ebscohost.com].
 * 1) “Both deCharms and Bem suggest that extrinsic rewards decrease high intrinsic interest in an activity because, upon receipt of these rewards, the perception that one is engaging in the activity because of self-propelled interest is supplanted by the per-ception that one is engaging in the activity be-cause of the reward” (McLoyd 1011)
 * 2) Rewards increase children’s performance on things they are not interested in, even after rewards have been taken away
 * 3) Both high- and low-value rewards decreased significantly children's in-terest in the high-interest activity compared to no reward. In contrast, high- but not low-value rewards increased significantly children's in-terest in the low-interest activity (McLoyd 1016)
 * 4) There was not a statistically definable difference in the productivity of those with high rewards vs. those with low-interest rewards; but there was between those with high interest vs. low interest in the book they were reading so what the reward is doesn’t matter, but interest level the personal motivation does
 * 1) Extrinsic motivation = “outside” influences, people, situations, events and environments
 * 2) Intrinsic/ Internal motivation= personal pride, love of a topic, work ethic or personal value system
 * 3) “Some aspects of motivation theory identify fear and avoidance of failure as major motivators, albeit negative.” ("The Science and Psychology of Motivation" para. 11)
 * 4) “’I'm slowly becoming a convert to the principle that you can't motivate people to do things, you can only demotivate them. The primary job of the manager is not to empower but to remove obstacles.’— Scott Adams, US author “("The Science and Psychology of Motivation" para. 11)
 * 1) “What usually happens is that the less valuable external motivation replaces the highly valuable internal motivation with little or no net increase in total motivation.” (Torre para 4)
 * 2) More motivation does not equal good motivation: Coaches: share your love of the game, effort and enjoyment can be one and the same, tell them to work hard because they are the type of people that want to and love to excel
 * 3) The Coach as Pressure Relief Valve: people do not perform better under pressure, coaches need to relieve that pressure
 * 4) The Power of "Influence-ability": When people feel they have no influence on their situation, they have a hard time working hard to change it
 * 5) "We" v. "You & Me": one where they believe the coaches are in it WITH them, use we
 * 6) Self-Control & Respect for Others: Torre shows that you can deliver a tough message in a way that respects the other person and sets an example for all of us
 * 1) Prior research in psychology suggests that intrinsic motivation during training leads to beneficial outcomes…A game-based training (GBT) method, developed as part of this research, is compared to a traditional training approach (3)
 * 2) Consistent with other motivation research, Davis found intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to be key drivers of behavioral intention to use. Intrinsic motivation refers to the pleasure and inherent satisfaction derived from a specific activity while extrinsic motivation emphasizes performing a behavior to achieve a specific goal (3)
 * 3) Bruner (1962) suggested that the two criteria to determine whether some information is worth teaching are: (1) the knowledge "gives a sense of delight" and (2) the knowledge "bestows the gift of intellectual travel" (9)
 * 4) The results support the theory that the potential acceptance of a system was higher among users who underwent a game-based training program compared to users who were trained using a traditional method. (16)
 * 5) This allows for a more optimistic implication that a game-based training method will potentially allow users to scale initial hurdles to acceptance and usage (primarily related to perceived ease of use), and also create higher-level intrinsic motivation, which is more likely to lead to sustained usage behavior. (17)
 * 6) Practitioners interested in end-user training in organizational settings may be well served by attempting to incorporate game-based training programs to create favorable user perceptions by creating a gaming situation that can serve as an introductory base for learning. (19)
 * 1) “It was found that even in children of about five years, persistence in difficult tasks was promoted by competition between the children, to a greater extent than by adult praise” (Vernon 33)
 * 2) Intrinsic motivation is much more likely to impact children that were rewarded by their parents (at a young age) for achievement itself rather than for public praise.
 * 3) Younger children- less likely to see success as a source of achievement; failure is less bitter and less permanent
 * 4) “The individual is stimulated by his own successful performance to continue the activity in order to attain further goals…It must be admitted that although this type of goal-directedness tends to increase with age in children, it is not exhibited by everyone” (Vernon 108)
 * 5) “But achievement motivation may also be related specifically to particular spheres of interest, whereas unrelated activities little achievement may be desired” (Vernon 122)
 * 1) “The coach-athlete relationship influences the child during important developmental periods, and the nature of the interpersonal transactions between coach and athlete have been shown to affect such variable as enjoyment of the activity, attraction toward coach and teammates, self-esteem, performance anxiety, team cohesion and sport attrition” (Brewer 290)
 * 2) “IT is worth noting, however that winning assumed greater important beyond age 12, although it continued to be a less important attitudinal determinant than coach behavior” (Brewer 294)
 * 3) Parents play a huge role! They determine a child’s experience within the sport (socially, psychologically, and enjoyment)
 * 4) “Sport psychology interventions are a promising development that can enhance the well-being and psychosocial development of children and youth” (Brewer 310).
 * 1) “Regardless of personal perspective on the preceding argument, the philosophy outlined here proposes that personal growth can be facilitated through the same skills and training that enhance performance “(Thompson 5)
 * 2) Motivation and performance in athletic events are effected by many things that make it slightly difficult to study. Upbringing, socio-economic factors, education, etc all are factors.
 * 3) “Everyone involved should be working toward enhancing young athlete’s self-perception, self-esteem, enjoyment for the sport, as well as intrinsic reasons for participating and competing” (Thompson 158)
 * 4) The coaches determine a child’s success and experience in a sport by the skills/strategies they teach, the goals/priorities established, and feedback methods


 * 1) “The results from this study (Figures I and 2) indicate that the USA participants, regardless of their gender, appear to take part in sports or physical activities primarily due to the reasons of sport competition and improving skills” (Van 383)

I. Jones, John W., George Neuman, Robert Altmann, and Brian Dreschler. "Development of the Sports Performance Inventory: A Psychological Measure of Athletic Potential." //Journal of Business and Psychology,// 15.3 (2001): 491-503. //JSTOR//. Web. 18 Sept. 2009. <[|http://www.jstor.org]>. J. Paolo, David. "Children's Rights and Sport." //Olympic Review// Dec.-Jan. 1998-1999: 36-45. //SIRS Knowledge Source//. Web. 10 Oct. 2009.  // Thesis (15 pts) // While internal motivation provides better psychological investment for a child playing a sport, extrinsic motivation provides more powerful motivation for less interested participants. This was my initial thesis, until I realized that I want to go in a slightly different direction, I am working on a new thesis and will post it as soon as I figure out exactly what I am trying to study. // Findings (15 pts) & Support for Findings (25 pts) //
 * 1) Throughout many areas of psychological research, a person's attitudes or internal beliefs have been shown to be important predictors of behavior. This finding is no different in the area of sport's psychology. (493)
 * 2) On a review of relevant sport psychology research, it appears clear that an athlete's mental attitude can have an important impact on his/ her athletic performance. (499)
 * 3) relationships with outcome variables such as athletic performance. The results of the current study indicate that the Sports Performance Inventory (SPI) is a reliable indicator of six distinct constructs: Competitiveness, Emotional Control, Mental Toughness, Positive Attitude, Safety Consciousness, and Team Orientation. (501): highest correlations among the constructs exist between Competitiveness, Positive Attitude, and Team Orientation. (501)
 * 4) Thus, there is a strong likelihood that the SPI (see above) has the ability to predict an athlete's performance. However, the extent to which it can predict athletic performance has not yet been determined. (502)
 * 5) “true differences may exist between these groups, which could imply possible benefits for using differing approaches to deal with different types of athletes…females were found to be more team oriented than males….Although the overall (i.e., improving team performance) is the same for both teams, the method used to attain that goal may be completely different.” (503)
 * 1) Though research and practice have shown that success is not just a question of number of hours spent training, many coaches still privilege quantity instead of quality…the sad consequence is that young **athletes** who were pushed too hard by adults quit sports often with serious emotional or physical problems.
 * 2) The basic problem is that children and adults do not necessarily share the same factors of **motivation**. If parents, managers and trainers often focus on victory, children, but also adolescents, may have different factors of **motivation**
 * 3) 9-11: play and participate in the game
 * 4) Another important factor of **motivation** for young **athletes** is their individual progress. The first question parents often ask is if their child won; but a child is much more interested in improving his or her game and participating as much as possible on a team or in a competition, than in winning or losing.

1. Motivation (both internal and external) changes as people grow older

Support: J3, F2, E1, E3 2. Coaches and parents greatly influence a child both as external motivation and how internal motivation manifests itself Support: J2, G4, F1, F3, E2, C2 3. The way a child performs can be an internal motivation or an external reward, depending on the way parents/coaches react. Support: J1, J4, G3, F4, E3, E4, A4, A3, A2, A1 4. Coaches can and SHOULD provide fodder for internal motivation Support: J1, I5, G4, F4, C1, C2, C3, B4

// Process Reflection (5 pts) // I learned a lot from this process. But one of the most important and obvious was how little I really know about my topic. I am beginning to understand, but I think it is important that I do some basic foundation work, not as research for my project, more so that I can understand some of the higher level information for my project. However, I believe my research is beginning to take a much more specific direction, thanks to this work, I know more about what I want to learn about than I did before.

// Connections to the Overall Project (5 pts) // This research is the basis for the entire project, it has directed my project more into the motivation itself, and its impact, rather than how one can motivate or effect motivation.