Exploring High School Coaches' Implicit Theories of Motivation from a Self-Determination Theory Perspective

Abstract

According to Self-Determination theory, coaches' fulfillment of their athletes' psychological needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomy has strong implications for motivation in the sporting context. Given this, the purpose of the study was to understand whether coaches' implicit theories of motivation mirror Self-Determination theory and thus incorporate satisfaction of athletes' three psychological needs. Eleven high-school coaches were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. Data were analyzed through both inductive and deductive analytic procedures. Content analyses of the data found that these coaches use a variety of strategies to address the need for competence, but implement fewer strategies to support relatedness. Autonomy strategies were only discussed when specifically guided by the researchers. Two other findings also emerged from the data, including perceived barriers to implementing motivational strategies and differences in strategy utilization based on specific demographic indicators. Overall, findings from this study suggest that these coaches' implicit theories of motivation primarily focused on two of the three key tenets of Self-Determination theory. Implications of these findings for both research and practice are discussed.