Motivational and emotional effects of social comparison in sports |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Ruhr University Bochum, Faculty of Psychology, Department of Social Psychology, Universitätsstraße 150, 44801, Bochum, Germany;2. German Sport University Cologne, Institute of Psychology, Am Sportpark Müngersdorf 6, 50933, Cologne, Germany;3. London South Bank University, School of Applied Sciences, 103 Borough Road, London, SE1 0AA, UK;1. Université des Antilles, Laboratoire “Adaptation Au Climat Tropical, Exercice & Santé”, Faculté des Sciences Du Sport de Pointe-à-Pitre, France;2. Université de Poitiers, Université de Tours, Centre National de La Recherche Scientifique, Centre de Recherches sur La Cognition et L’Apprentissage (UMR 7295), Poitiers, France;1. School of Kinesiology and Health Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada;2. Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada;3. Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, St. Boniface General Hospital Albrechtsen Research Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada;4. Department of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada;5. Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada;6. School of Education and Human Development, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA;1. University of Konstanz, Germany;2. Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany;3. University of Trier, Germany;1. Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, PO1 2DT, UK;2. School of Sport, Health and Exercise Science, University of Portsmouth, PO1 2DT, UK;1. Laboratoire Sport et Environment Social (SENS), Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France;2. School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom;3. Department of Psychology, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom |
| |
| Abstract: | The comparison to other athletes and the resulting effects on emotion, motivation and effort investment are a natural and integral part of sports performance. The current study tested a bias toward upward comparison in athletes. Further it tested how comparison processes influence motivation (i.e., self-improvement motivation, coasting, disengagement), emotion (e.g. happiness and shame) and performance improvement as a behavioral measure of effort. Freshmen from an elite sport university volunteered to participate in an experience sampling study conducted over one semester (6 months). Contrary to our predictions, athletes did not generally compare more upward than downward, and only few subscales of the two sport-specific dispositional measures (sport-specific achievement motivation and sport orientation) predicted upward comparison. As hypothesized, upward comparison to moderately better standards was associated with greater motivation while extreme upward comparison was related to a drop in motivation and increased disengagement. Still, upward comparison during the semester significantly predicted performance at the end of the semester. Downward comparison was related to coasting motivation and lower levels of performance. Happiness decreased with upward and increased with downward comparison. The opposite was true for feelings of shame. This research emphasizes the role of the social environment in sports and how training partners depending on their inferiority or superiority can boost or hinder motivation and performance in athletes. |
| |
| Keywords: | Social comparison Motivation Emotion Athletes Performance |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
