Psychological Femininity and Masculinity and Motivation in Team Sports

Abstract

It is hypothesized that levels of femininity and masculinity may be relevant to specific types of engagement in action. For this reason, the aim of this study was to search for relationships between psychological dimensions of femininity and masculinity and different forms of motivation, as well as their specific parts, among women and male athletes practicing team sports games. We researched 49 women aged 19 to 32 years representing sports such as football, handball, hockey, volleyball, and basketball and 56 men aged 18 to 31 years practicing football, hockey, volleyball, basketball, and handball. The respondents completed the Inventory to Assess Psychological Gender (IPP) and the Polish adaptation of the Sport Motivation Scale (SMS). It was determined that the psychological dimension of femininity was (in the male group) positively related to the dimension of amotivation, i.e., the lack of perception of a relationship between one's action and the outcome. In turn, the psychological dimension of masculinity was positively related to the motivation to know, motivation to accomplish, and motivation to experience stimulation, as well as the overall level of intrinsic motivation and the overall dimension of extrinsic motivation. Furthermore, the masculinity dimension is, in male athletes, related to the level of the introjection motive, i.e., the process of integrating accepted patterns.