Abstract
The implicit motivational needs for power, achievement, and affiliation are relevant for sports performance. Due to their hypothesized association with functions of the right hemisphere (McClelland, 1986), they may influence lateralized perceptual and motor processes. And due to their interactions with motive-specific incentives, they may influence performance conditional on the presence of suitable incentives. This preregistered study, conducted mostly online, examines motivational needs using a standard picture-story exercise (PSE) and their associations with indicators of perceptual and motor laterality and sports performance in gymnasts (N = 67). Further it explores how implicit motives interact with suitable motivational incentives in the prediction of sports performance. Results partly confirm a link between indicators of cerebral rightward laterality and implicit motives: the implicit affiliation and achievement motives are positively associated with an indicator of emotional-perceptional laterality (chimeric-faces task), but not with an indicator of motor laterality (turning bias). Moreover, the implicit achievement motive was positively correlated with training hours. The implicit affiliation motive was negatively associated with the highest attained competition level. The presence of achievement incentives (perceived control, failure) and affiliation incentives (training together or alone) did not interact with corresponding motives to predict sports performance.
Highlights
Implicit motives are non-consciously operating, affect-based dispositions (Schultheiss and Köllner, in press)
The analysis shows that emotionalperception laterality (CFT) correlates positively with the implicit achievement motive (Figure 1) and the implicit affiliation motive (Figure 2), but not with the implicit power motive
We examined whether implicit motives are linked to sports performance and whether this link is moderated by motivational incentives
Summary
Implicit motives are non-consciously operating, affect-based dispositions (Schultheiss and Köllner, in press). Explicit motives are individuals’ beliefs about their motivational needs and are often linked to conscious goals (McClelland et al, 1989). Current research on implicit and explicit motives mostly focuses on three motives: the need for power, affiliation, and achievement (Schultheiss and Köllner, in press). People with a high need for power (n Power) enjoy having an impact on others and try to avoid losing impact or being in a submissive position. People with a strong need for affiliation (n Affiliation) enjoy close and harmonious relationships. People with a strong need for achievement (n Achievement) enjoy the mastery of challenging tasks and try to meet a standard of excellence (Atkinson, 1957; Schultheiss, 2008)
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