Abstract
The ability to produce peak performance plays a decisive role in the success of athletes in competitive contest situations. Levels of appetitive competition motivation (ACM), i.e., the desire to defeat an opponent independent of secondary reinforcing factors, were assessed in professional female football/soccer players in the premier and regional leagues, using club level as the measurement of sport success. Furthermore, the influence of social environments predominantly encouraging masculine and competitive play behavior and the players' perceptions of their own gender role orientations were investigated. Ninety female football players from the German premier league (44) and regional leagues (46) participated (age: M = 24, SD = 5 years). Questionnaires ascertaining ACM and self-perceptions of gender via gender-role stereotypes, childhood play behavior and style of upbringing were utilized. Premier league athletes showed a significantly greater inclination toward direct sporting confrontations. Almost 50% of the variance in ACM between the premier and regional league athletes was determined by modern upbringing style and the development of gender roles not corresponding to classic female gender stereotypes. The results emphasize the significance of ACM as an important facet in competitive sports and illustrate the influence of socialization on athletic performance.
Highlights
The factors yielding peak performance in competitive sports have consistently been a focal point of sports psychology
We evaluate the desire to experience stimulation element as expressed in appetitive competition motivation (ACM) in the premier and regional league athletes and investigate its interaction with extrinsic motivators related to upbringing style and gender socialization
We investigated the influence of social environments predominantly encouraging masculine and competitive play behavior and the players’ perceptions of their own gender role orientations
Summary
The factors yielding peak performance in competitive sports have consistently been a focal point of sports psychology. Motivation, identified as one such factor, has eluded a commonly agreed upon definition (Ford, 1992) due to its complex, multifactorial interactions between biological, psychological, environmental and social dimensions (Hareli and Weiner, 2002) In line with this multidimensional understanding of motivation and the general concession that behavioral aims and their corresponding cognitions and affects drive commitment and performance levels (Gould et al, 2002), the following study examined the impact of appetitive competition motivation (ACM), i.e., the positive valence processing of direct competition with an opponent, on sports performance as well as its relation to social developmental factors. This was carried out by means of a survey of female football players from the premier league and regional leagues that examined social influences and gender role orientation.
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