TY - JOUR
T1 - Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Thwarting
T2 - A Study with Brazilian Professional Players of League of Legends
AU - Angelo, Daniela Lopes
AU - Junior, Marcelo Villas Boas
AU - de Freitas Corrêa, Mariana
AU - Souza, Vânia Hernandez
AU - de Paula Moura, Larissa
AU - de Oliveira, Rosemeire
AU - Bossio, Mario Reyes
AU - Brandão, Maria Regina Ferreira
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/2/1
Y1 - 2022/2/1
N2 - Recently, the skill to play games has led to the professionalization of the activity in the form of “eSports” (electronic sports). Despite the popularity of eSports, little is known about its professional players from a psychological perspective. Given the importance of the coach-created environment in the athletes’ motivational processes, this study aimed to investigate the key psychological dimensions of the coach-created climate in 75 Brazilian professional players of League of Legends (LoL) considering the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Achievement Goal Theory (AGT). Fourteen hypotheses were tested, of which seven were confirmed. The empowering climate was a predictor of basic psychological-needs satisfaction and indirectly influenced autonomous motivation. The need satisfaction had a significant impact on both autonomous motivation and on lack of motivation, which, in turn, explained 56% of the variance in well-being and the intention to keep playing eSports. The disempowering climate was a predictor of psychological-needs thwarting but had no significant impact on autonomous motivation or lack of motivation. The results obtained support SDT and AGT in the context of eSports and were similar to those conducted with athletes from traditional sports, indicating that the empower-ing-and-disempowering-coaching-climates conceptualization applies not only to traditional sports athletes but also to professional eSports players.
AB - Recently, the skill to play games has led to the professionalization of the activity in the form of “eSports” (electronic sports). Despite the popularity of eSports, little is known about its professional players from a psychological perspective. Given the importance of the coach-created environment in the athletes’ motivational processes, this study aimed to investigate the key psychological dimensions of the coach-created climate in 75 Brazilian professional players of League of Legends (LoL) considering the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Achievement Goal Theory (AGT). Fourteen hypotheses were tested, of which seven were confirmed. The empowering climate was a predictor of basic psychological-needs satisfaction and indirectly influenced autonomous motivation. The need satisfaction had a significant impact on both autonomous motivation and on lack of motivation, which, in turn, explained 56% of the variance in well-being and the intention to keep playing eSports. The disempowering climate was a predictor of psychological-needs thwarting but had no significant impact on autonomous motivation or lack of motivation. The results obtained support SDT and AGT in the context of eSports and were similar to those conducted with athletes from traditional sports, indicating that the empower-ing-and-disempowering-coaching-climates conceptualization applies not only to traditional sports athletes but also to professional eSports players.
KW - Basic psychological needs
KW - Coaching
KW - Electronic sports
KW - Motivational climate
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85124108618
U2 - 10.3390/su14031701
DO - 10.3390/su14031701
M3 - Artículo
AN - SCOPUS:85124108618
SN - 2071-1050
VL - 14
JO - Sustainability (Switzerland)
JF - Sustainability (Switzerland)
IS - 3
M1 - 1701
ER -
