Chapter 4 – Motivation and Behavioural Change
INTRODUCTION
Motivation - reasons why you do the things you do
A PPROACHES TO U NDERSTANDING M OTIVATION FOR BEHAVIOURAL C HANGE
Behavioural Approaches
The behavioural approach to understanding motivation focuses on conditioning, or learning from the environment
Watson and Skinner, believed that learning from the environment, not personality or free will, determined people’s
actions.
In operant conditioning, the athlete/exerciser associates behaviours with consequences that are learned though
coincidental reinforcement
Cognitive Approaches
Cognitive approach emphasized the role of thought patterns and cognitive habits as determinants of behaviour. In
contrast to the behavioural approach, in the cognitive approach the individual is viewedas an active participant such
that it is his or her interpretation of the external environment
Cognitive-Behavioural Approaches
Cognitive-behavioural approaches to understanding motivated behaviour are based on two central tenets:
o (1) Our cognitions influence our emotions and behaviour, and
o (2) Our behaviour can affect our thought patterns and emotions.
Cognitive-behavioural approaches, including self-monitoring, goal setting, feedback, and decision making
M ODELS OF M OTIVATION AND BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE
Transtheoretical Model
Emerged as framework to understand how individuals initiate and adopt regular physical activity. Proposes that
individuals move through a temporal sequence of five stages:
o (1) Pre-contemplation (individuals do not consider exercising in the next six months),
o (2) Contemplation (individuals seriously consider beginning exercise in the next six months),
o (3) Preparation (individuals have made small changes toward becoming more physically active),
o (4) Action (individuals have begun exercising in the past six months), and (5) maintenance
Factors Influencing Stage Progression
o Self-efficacy, or the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the course of action required to
produce specific outcomes (extent to which an individual feels (s)he will be successful in performing a
desired behaviour)
o Based on expectancy theory, decisional balance is a multidimensional set of values linked with advantages
and disadvantages of behavioural change. As a general rule, the disadvantages of physical activity outweigh
the benefits for those who are inactive, whereas the opposite is true for those who are engaging in physical
activity
o Processes of change reflect strategies that individuals use to progress through the stages
Theory of Planned Behaviour
Highlights personal and social factors as influences of behaviour. The TPB stipulates that the most proximal
determinant of behaviour is intention, that is, a person’s readiness to perform a behaviour
o Attitude reflects the positive or negative evaluation of engaging in a behaviour.
o Subjective norms reflect perceived social pressures to perform behaviour that stem from various personal
(e.g., family, physicians) or environmental (e.g., media) sources.
o Perceived behavioural control reflects the extent to which behaviour is volitional and is thought to indirectly
affect behaviour through intention as well as being a direct influence.
Behavioural beliefs suggest that being physically active will lead to certain consequences (e.g.,
losing weight) and an evaluation of the consequences (weight loss has benefits)
Social Cognitive Theory
Widely used theory that describes the factors that affect and determine behaviour. SCT is rooted in the belief that
individuals are proactively engaged in their own development, with motivation viewed as the product of a dynamic
interplay of personality (developed by Bandura)
o Observational learning: Individuals learn and acquire behaviour by watching the actions and outcomes of
others’ behaviours.
o Goals: Behaviour is directed by the goals that individuals have. o Outcome expectations: Behaviour is a function of the expected positive and negative consequences
associated with a particular behaviour.
o Outcome expectancies: The expectations that an outcome that is valuable for the individual will follow a
given behaviour.
o Self-regulation: Behaviour is self-directed and is initiated, monitored, and evaluated by the individual in a
way that inconsistent with accomplishing his or her goals.
o Behavioural outcomes: Behaviour is dependent on the individual’s knowledge and skills for performing that
behaviour
o Self-efficacy: Belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the course of action required to produce
given attainments.
Behaviour Personal Factors Environmental factors
Bandura recognized four main personal and environmental ways to change an individual’s self -
efficacy beliefs: mastery experience, vicarious experience, social persuasion, and physiological and
affective states
Self-Determination Theory
Self-determination theory, or SDT is a global theory of human motivation and development that has evolved from the
pioneering work of psychologists Edward L. Deci
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