COPING WITH THE LESS INTERESTING ASPECTS OF TRAINING - TOWARD A MODELOF INTEREST AND MOTIVATION ENHANCEMENT IN INDIVIDUAL SPORTS

Boring activities are not always avoidable. Yet, one can ask: Is bored om inevitable? Studies in the field of interest self-regulation sugges t that it might be possible to transcend boredom and. enhance motivati on through the use of interest-enhancing strategies (IESs). The goal o f this project is to build a model of interest and motivation self-reg ulation in the context of individual sports. Four IESs are examined: c reating challenges for oneself, adding variety to the task, providing oneself with self-relevant rationales for performing the task, and exp loiting stimulation from other sources than the task itself. The propo sed 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 sel f-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 rem ainder of the results supports the proposed hypotheses. The discussion offers suggestions for future research on the role played by self-inf luence in the regulation of interest and motivation.