I'm interested in finding out the differences in the ways girls and guys motivate themselves for a game, race, etc. Are guys more aggressive, individual and girls more team-oriented? Has there been research in this field?

-- Tamsin Yeomans (teyeomans@aol.com), February 21, 2000

Answers

You may find Joan Duda's work relevant to your question. She has examined gender differences in sport orientation (e.g., task- vs. ego-oriented) as a motive for sport participation. As I recall, she found that boys and girls report similar levels of competitiveness but girls are more likely to be task/process oriented versus ego/win oriented. Athletes high on task/process orientation view success in relation to their past performance or self-perceived ability, whereas athletes high on ego/win orientation view success on outcome only. The implication is that because talented athletes are often better than their competitors at a young age, talented athletes have to find task/process related reasons(rather than winning/losing)to motivate themselves to develop their talent to full potential. However, the research is far from conclusive.

-- Frank M. Perna, Ed.D. (fperna2@wvu.edu), February 28, 2000.