Coping With the Less Interesting Aspects of Training: Toward a Model of Interest and Motivation Enhancement in Individual Sports

Abstract

Boring activities are not always avoidable. Yet, one can ask: Is boredom inevitable? Studies in the field of interest self-regulation suggest that it might be possible to transcend boredom and enhance motivation through the use of interest-enhancing strategies (IESs). The goal of this project is to build a model of interest and motivation self-regulation in the context of individual sports. Four IESs are examined: creating challenges for oneself, adding variety to the task, providing oneself with self-relevant rationales for performing the task, and exploiting stimulation from other sources than the task itself. The proposed model comprises the following hypotheses: (a) IESs predict higher levels of interest, in both interesting and less interesting tasks; (b) Interest in ''less interesting'' tasks predicts higher levels of self-determined extrinsic motivation; and (c) Interest in ''interesting'' tasks and self-determined extrinsic motivation predict higher levels of intrinsic motivation. Although exploiting stimulation displayed an unexpected direct negative relation with extrinsic motivation, the remainder of the results supports the proposed hypotheses. The discussion offers suggestions for future research on the role played by self-influence in the regulation of interest and motivation.

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