The Relationship between Motivation and Stress Resistance in

Gymnastic Athletes

Ratna Budiarti

, Wisnu Nugroho

Sport Coaching Study Program, Yogyakarta State University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Keywords: Motivation, Stress, Gymnastic

Abstract: This study aims to investigate the relationship between motivation and resistance to stress among gymnastics

athletes in Yogyakarta province. This correlational research was conducted with 12 Yogyakarta National

Gymnastics athletes in 2019 with a purposive sampling method. The data analysis used in this study is linear

regression. The results of data analysis showed a significant positive relationship between motivation and

stress resistance with a significance level of 0.000.

1 INTRODUCTION

In sport, an achievement of each athlete means being

capable of showing special performance and reaching

maximum accomplishment. Several factors are

required to reach the maximum peformance namely

physical, technical, tactical, and mental factors. These

factors have their own mutually continuous meaning

and task in reaching a success of the athlete. Rushall

in Komaruddin (2014) explains that some individuals

feel that the process of good performance is 70 to 90%

influenced by mental factor.

Since in the championship sports arena or in other

words competition sport mental fitness can play an

important role to play in better performance, research

in the field of sport psychology can be in the forms of

some questions related to individual and team

behaviors in sports motor activity (Austin et.al, 2005;

Bailey, 1996).

Therefore, psychological factor in sports is one of

the factors that need to be investigated. There are

several psychological indicators that influence sports

achievement. In this study, the focus of the discussion

incudes motivation and resistance to stress.

Most previous studies have demonstrated that a

regulatory fit in motor and cognitive tasks will lead to

performance improvements. However, it remains

unclear which neurobiological mechanism lay behind

this fit-benefit. Higgins and Spiegel (2004) assume

that an increased motivational intensity can translate

into superior goal-performance. Higgins (2000)

postulates that an increased task-enjoyment and an

extended intrinsic motivation may cause this fit-

effect. The notion that stress as a physiological

parameter could also be a potential mediator to

explain the better performances in motivational fit-

situations is also remains a question. The aim of the

present study was to examine if physiological stress

responses, especially the activation of the

sympathetic nervous system (SNS), could explain the

enhanced performance in motivational fit-situations.

Such a relationship between motivational fit and

stress has not been examined yet.

In addition to these emotional disadvantages, the

factors that influence athlete’s performance may also

include stress resistance. Maramis (2005) says how

much the individual’s ability to deal with stress is

what is called tolerance to stress which describes

stress resistance or the threshold value of frustration.

In line with this opinion, Chaplin (2006) states that

tolerance to stress is the ability to bear or withstand

tension and suffer from failure, but without undue

psychological or physiological damage. Having a

tolerance to high stress is certainly very necessary for

someone to be able to survive and adapt well to

stressors. A person with this kind of tolerance will not

experience significant psychological and physical

problems so that he or she can still think and behave

efficiently as usual. Conversely, someone who has

low stress tolerance is not able to adapt to stress well

so he or she experiences distress.

764

Budiarti, R. and Nugroho, W.

The Relationship between Motivation and Stress Resistance in Gymnastic Athletes.

DOI: 10.5220/0009896007640766

In Proceedings of the 3rd Yogyakarta International Seminar on Health, Physical Education, and Sport Science in conjunction with the 2nd Conference on Interdisciplinary Approach in Sports

(YISHPESS and CoIS 2019), pages 764-766

ISBN: 978-989-758-457-2

2 METHOD RESEARCH DESIGN

This is a correlational study.

3 RESEARCH SUBJECT

The research subjects in this study were twelve

National Gymnastics athletes in Yogyakarta province

in 2019. These participants were recruited through

purposive sampling technique.

4 RESEARCH INSTRUMENT AND

DATA COLLECTION

TECHNIQUE

The data were collected using a questionnaire to

measure the level of motivational and stress

resistance. These data were then analysed by using

linear regresion.

5 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The hypothesis test in this research was performed by

using linear regression. The explanation about the

result of hypothesis test in this research is presented

in Table 1.

The result of linear regression on the variable of

motivation and stress resistant showed significance of

0.000. Therefore, the hypothesis mentioning that

there is a correlation between motivation and stress

resistance in gymnastic athletes is accepted.

6 DISCUSSION

The result showed that there is an inverse and

significant relationship between motivation and stress

resistance. The first motivational orientation is the

ego-oriented motivation, which consists on valuing

one’s own ability by comparing oneself with other

people, giving priority to the result of one’s behaviour

over effort and execution. On the other hand, the task-

oriented motivation is characterized by assessing the

ability of the individual in a criterial way, prioritizing

effort and execution more than the results obtained.

This notion means that during the sports practice,

personal improvement and a greater mastery of sports

skills is pursued. In their daily life, people interpret

the different situations that they face, defining

success and failure in an individual way as a function

of the predominating motivational orientation that

they adopt. If an individual orientates towards the

task, they will focus on overcoming personal

challenges, putting a special emphasis on effort and

interpreting situations in which they make mistakes

as an important part of a progress. On the other hand,

if the predominant orientation is towards the ego, a

person will focus on bettering the performance of

others and purely demonstrating their ability. As a

result, any mistake is considered as failure as opposed

to being an important part of personal progress.

Aside from the dispositional factors related with

the personal motivational orientation of each

individual, environmental factors also exist such as

the prevailing motivational climate, which promote

the diverse agents involved in the context of physical

activity engagement. Furthermore, the involved

agents, such as the trainers, coaches or physical

education teachers can promote motivational

climates, which are orientated either towards the task

or the ego. A certain climate can emerge over the

other as a function of the characteristics of these

agents. This in turn impulses their athletes or students

to become oriented predominantly towards the ego or

towards the task. As much in the academic context as

in physical activity or sport, motivation constitutes a

fundamental element in all teaching-learning

processes. This can be seen through the fact that

individuals who identify objectives that they seek to

achieve in the form of personal goals, will also

acquire a higher motivation and their learning will be

more efficacious and long-lasting. The motivational

climate is considered as a set of signals, as much

explicit as implicit, such as the use of feedback,

grouping systems, type of evaluation, and task design,

which predispose individuals to achieve success.

Depending on how this set of signals is used,

motivational climates will be created, which are

orientated towards ego and performance, or towards

task and mastery.

In the context of team sports, coaches will create

motivational climates that will affect the motivational

orientation of athletes, generating more frequent task-

oriented motivational climate. This condition not only

strengthens the ethic work, the persistence and the

improvement in the executions, but also strengthens

the social responsibility and the capacity of

cooperation between the members of the group, as

well as increases the interest for learning. The task-

oriented motivational climates protect athletes from

feelings of frustration and demotivation.

Nevertheless, athletes who work in a context related

to ego-oriented climate prevail and tend to have a

greater difficulty maintaining high-perceived

The Relationship between Motivation and Stress Resistance in Gymnastic Athletes

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competence. This will increase when they overcome

the opponent and demonstrate greater skill than the

rest, but will decline when this objective is not

achieved, thus reducing their interest in carrying out

the activity and decreasing their level of effort.

Following the indications of Cervelló et al.,

(2007); Duda et al., (1992); and Chase (2001),

athletes who work in motivational contexts focused

on the task show behaviours that promote maximum

motivation in physical activity, regardless of the level

of their skill perceptions. This is because athletes

judge their skill level with their own reference

standards and not with the rest of their teammates and

rivals. This goal disposition implies a greater effort

and persistence in the realization of task and

exercises, a lower state-anxiety and a greater level of

enjoyment for the accomplishment of the activities.

However, motivational climates focused on the ego

are characterized by focusing on the adaptive model

of achievement, in which, if athletes perceive high

levels of ability, they will be motivated to persist in

the task. On the contrary, if the perceived ability is

low, a model of little adaptive achievement will be

developed, which implies a reduction of effort, high

state-anxiety, attributions centred on the ability, and

a negative response to failure, decreasing motivation,

and the persistence in the activity.

AM, or the absence of motivation, refers to

athletes who do not believe their actions have an

effect on performance outcomes and has been related

to decreased athletic performance (Gillet & Gobance,

2009; Pelletier, 1995). AM may be a particular

interest due to its correlation with athlete burnout.

Athlete burnout is a condition that is characterized by

physical and emotional exhaustion, reduced personal

accomplishment, and sport devaluation (Raedeke &

Smith, 2001). This construct has been linked to

negative performance consequences and decreased

well-being, and may result in the discontinuation of

sport. Burned-out athletes generally show a shift from

a self-determined involvement in sport to a lesser

degree of self-determination, the extreme of which is

AM.

Past research has also demonstrated that

individuals with high levels of conscientiousness are

more likely to have self-determined motivation. In

support of these claims, conscientiousness

significantly predicted all three facets of AM, as well

as the facet of extrinsic motivation with the highest

level of self-determinism (i.e., identified regulation).

This suggests that high levels of conscientiousness

predicted high levels of self-determined motivation in

our sample, which was expected. Alternatively, high

levels of conscientiousness were predictive of low

levels of AM or the least self-determined type of

motivation. Conscientiousness is related to being task

and goal oriented, which is somewhat contrary to the

learned helplessness observed in AM. These results

could be important when attempting to identify

athletes at risk for burnout. In other words,

conscientiousness may serve as a protective factor for

this condition.

7 CONCLUSION

There is a significant relationship between emotional

maturity and resistance to stress among twelve

National Gymnastics athletes in Yogyakarta

province.

The present study also offers some

recommendations as follows: 1) the need to pay

attention to factors or psychological conditions of

athletes who are trained to always be controlled; 2)

the need for exercises that involve psychological

aspects.

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YISHPESS and CoIS 2019 - The 3rd Yogyakarta International Seminar on Health, Physical Education, and Sport Science (YISHPESS

2019) in conjunction with The 2nd Conference on Interdisciplinary Approach in Sports (CoIS 2019)

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