Open Access

Investigation of the relationship between athletes' basic psychological needs and sports success motivations

1 Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University, Department of Physical Education and Sport, Erzincan, Turkiye
2 Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Erzincan, Turkiye

Abstract

According to Self-Determination Theory, the fulfillment of individuals' basic psychological needs contributes to the enhancement of motivation, which, in turn, positively impacts performance. Since the improvement of achievement motivation—one of the key determinants of athletic performance—is closely related to the satisfaction of basic psychological needs, the aim of this study is to examine the relationship between athletes' basic psychological needs and their sport-specific achievement motivation levels. The relational screening method was used for the study, and 218 men, 182 women, a total of 400 people who are athletes in Turkish Olympic Preparation Centers (Erzincan, Erzurum, Trabzon and Samsun) form the study group. In the study, The Basic Psychological Needs Scale and the Sport-Specific Achievement Motivation Scale were utilized. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS software package. In addition to descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANOVA tests, Bonferroni tests, correlation, and regression analyses were conducted. The study found that athletes' levels of basic psychological needs and sport-specific achievement motivation varied according to demographic characteristics. Notably, older athletes exhibited higher levels of competence and dominance motives. Team sport athletes scored higher than individual sport athletes in competence, relatedness needs, achievement approach motives, and overall sport-specific achievement motivation. Additionally, the duration of participation in sports positively influenced athletes' levels of basic psychological needs. In conclusion, a significant relationship was found between athletes' basic psychological needs and their achievement motivation. It was observed that as basic psychological needs are fulfilled, achievement motivation levels also increase.

Keywords

How to Cite

Erdem, O., & Cakmak Yildizhan, Y. (2024). Investigation of the relationship between athletes’ basic psychological needs and sports success motivations . Journal of ROL Sport Sciences, 5(4), 733–749. https://doi.org/10.70736/jrolss.475

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