Motivation in Sport and Exercise
Reversal Theory and Sports

Reversal theory is one of the few psychological theories of motivation or personality that takes sport really seriously and makes it a central topic. (When did Freud or Jung ever write about soccer, or Skinner go beyond teaching pigeons to play ping pong?)

From its beginnings in the nineteen seventies, reversal theory concerned itself with the processes involved in playing and watching sport, which it saw as central to understanding human nature. Nor is this orientation surprising to those who knew its co-originator, the late Dr. Ken Smith, since he was himself in earlier years a keen sportsman, and went on to become medical officer of Bristol Rugby Club and Gloucestershire County Cricket Club.

In the thirty years since its origins, a major component of research in reversal theory has been about sport, including research on:

• - Why people choose to play one sport rather than another
• - How emotions and motivations change during the course of a game
• - What peoples’ motivations are to exercise
• - Why people engage in dangerous sport
• - The psychophysiology of performance  
• - Violence among both players and spectators.

A central figure in all this work has been Dr. John Kerr who has authored or co-authored scores of papers and many books and has developed a network of reversal theory sports researchers.  For those who are interested, a full bibliography of reversal theory, including reference to all the work that has been carried out in sport, will be found on the Reversal Theory Society website.

In parallel with reversal theory research on sport, the theory has been used by coaches and others to help athletes to improve their performance. In doing so, a number of inter-related reversal theory ideas have played a part, including especially ideas that have been used to enhance performance in business contexts but that can be utilized by sports coaches. These include:

Motivational richness

This is the idea that there are eight different fundamental motives that can be drawn on in different combinations to activate a person. (These are the motives of achievement, fun, duty, freedom, power, love, self-development and contribution to others.) It has been found that calling on all eight motives over a period of time can help to keep a person’s motivation up. It can also allow a person to contribute in different essential ways to the functioning of a team, whether a work team or a sports team.

Changeability and microclimate

In reversal theory, it is recognized that people change frequently during the course of different activities.  This gives coaches, team leaders, and others, the chance to intervene and induce different motives at the times where they may contribute the most. Indeed, this is seen as one of the prime functions of a leader, and is accomplished through the induction by the leader of different ‘microclimates’ to suit different purposes (for example a playful fun-oriented climate when innovation is needed, a conforming  duty-oriented climate when efficiency is the priority, and so on).

Protective frames

According to reversal theory, high arousal can be experienced as either anxiety or excitement. In most approaches, anxiety is dealt with by means of arousal-lowering techniques to produce relaxation.  Reversal theory suggests that in situations where high arousal, energy and engagement are required – as is the case in sport -  it is better for high-arousal excitement to be experienced than low-arousal relaxation. This excitement is achieved through maintaining the high arousal together with the induction through reversal of a ‘protective frame,’ using techniques that have been developed in the theory. The protective frame allows the situation to be experienced as fun, and entered into in a spirit of joy.  In this way the situation becomes less stressful, and the player less likely to ‘choke’ -  yet still remaining fully engaged and highly motivated.

The use of any or all of these concepts is made concrete and enhanced when one knows something of the motivational tendencies of players.  A precise way of doing this is through the administration of the Apter Motivational Style Profile (AMSP).  Workshops to train and qualify people in the use of this psychometric scale are offered regularly by Apter International. These workshops also provide experience with the concepts and techniques mentioned above and are therefore of interest to sports coaches as well as coaches operating within business contexts. Contact Claire Winstanley.

Those interested more in the research side of Reversal Theory may like to know that the Fourteenth International Conference on Reversal Theory will take place in New Orleans from July 8 to 11.  For more details, go to Reversal Theory Society website.