Stirring the motivational soup: within-person latent profiles of motivation in exercise

Abstract

BackgroundThe purpose of the present study was to use a person-oriented analytical approach to identify latent motivational profiles, based on the different behavioural regulations for exercise, and to examine differences in satisfaction of basic psychological needs (competence, autonomy and relatedness) and exercise behaviour across these motivational profiles.MethodsTwo samples, consisting of 1084 and 511 adults respectively, completed exercise-related measures of behavioural regulation and psychological need satisfaction as well as exercise behaviour. Latent profile analyses were used to identify motivational profiles.ResultsSix profiles, representing different combinations of regulations for exercise, were found to best represent data in both samples. Some profiles were found in both samples (e.g., low motivation profile, self-determined motivation profile and self-determined with high introjected regulation profile), whereas others were unique to each sample. In line with the Self-Determination Theory, individuals belonging to more self-determined profiles demonstrated higher scores on need satisfaction.ConclusionsThe results support the notions of motivation being a multidimensional construct and that people have different, sometimes competing, reasons for engaging in exercise. The benefits of using person-oriented analyses to examine within-person interactions of motivation and different regulations are discussed.

Interindividual differences in the intraindividual association of competence and well‐being: Combining experimental and intensive longitudinal designs

“…Taylor and Stebbings (), for example, argue that need fulfillment should have an impact on well‐being on both levels, assigning similar importance to both levels. However, echoing argumentation in previous work (Lindwall et al, ; Neubauer, Schilling, & Wahl, ), we argue that the within‐person perspective is more essential since SDT makes predictions concerning within‐person processes, and investigating within‐person processes requires taking a within‐person perspective with regard to both study design and data analysis (Hamaker, ).…”

Becoming active post-hospitalisation discharge – an exploration of motivational profiles during exercise change in obese patients

“…Furthermore, previous studies omitting integrated regulation have shown profiles high in identified and intrinsic motivation (i.e. similar to our moderate-autonomous cluster) to be associated with higher exercise participation (Castonguay & Miquelon, 2017;Friederichs et al, 2015;Lindwall et al, 2017), which is contradictory to our results (i.e. moderateautonomous cluster is strictly speaking the cluster with the least amount (21.9%) of patients who became active).…”

“…Given OIT's central, though rigid, distinction between autonomous and controlled motivation, it was expected that both cluster types would be found in the present study. In line with previous research (Friederichs et al, 2015;Lindwall et al, 2017;Miquelon et al, 2016), a high autonomous cluster paired with low controlled motivation scores was clearly identified. However, there was less support for a purely controlled cluster showing high controlled but low autonomous regulations.…”

Youth Sport Coaches’ Well-Being Across the Season: The Psychological Costs and Benefits of Giving Empowering and Disempowering Sports Coaching to Athletes

“…We have therefore used the following labeling concerning the three different profiles: most empowering profile, less empowering profile, and least empowering profile. While prior research has used wording such as high, moderate, and low (e.g., , we considered it more appropriate to differentiate between the different profiles by using adverbs (see Lindwall et al, 2017). The main reason for this was due to rather high self-report values of autonomy-supportive, task-involving, and socially supportive behaviors in the least empowering profile.…”