The effect of positive and negative mood on motivation to succeed of elite athletes

Abstract

Summary, the aim of the present study was to determine the effect of positive and negative mood on motivation of elite athletes in terms of the level of education, sports experience, and age.The motivational levels of the athletes were measured using the Success Motivation Scale in Sports developed by Willis (1982) and adapted to Turkish by Tiryaki and Gödelek (1997). Positive and negative mood was measured using the Positive and Negative Affect Scale developed by Watson et al. (1988). The study included 440 voluntary participants (260 male and 180 female) randomly selected from 10 different sports. The average age and sport experience of the participants were 21.8 yrs. (SD=3.9) and 9.6 yrs. (SD=4.8), respectively. Results showed apositive correlation between athletes’ sports experience and intrinsic motivation (r=.148, p<.01) and positive mood (r=.216, p<.01). Furthermore, there was a significant difference between athletes’ positive mood level and negative mood level. No significant difference was found in athletes’ motivation level as a function of education. On the other hand, there was a significant difference in athletes’ motivation and positive mood level in terms of sport participated in (p<.05). However, there was no significant difference in athletes’ negative mood level in terms of sex (p>.05). Finally, there was a positive relation between extrinsic motivation and each of intrinsic motivation (r=.496), success motivation (r=.877) and positive mood (r=.366), while there was a negative relation with negative mood (r= -.174).