Cultural Variations in Self-assessments in Athletes: Towards the Development of a Culturally Grounded Approach in Sports Psychology

Abstract

To achieve success in sports, athletes must motivate themselves by positively viewing themselves (self-enhancement) and objectively analyzing their weaknesses to improve their performance (self-improvement). Sports psychologists have assumed that this process is universal. However, cultural psychologists have revealed that prevalent motivations differ across cultures. North Americans tend to view themselves positively, whereas East Asians are likely to see themselves more objectively. These tendencies are bolstered by culturally shared implicit theories of one’s abilities and self-construals: North Americans tend to believe that their abilities are fixed and stable and have an independent self-construal, whereas East Asians tend to think that their abilities are changeable and improvable and have an interdependent self-construal. If these cultural variations are applicable to athletes, this line of research will contribute to applied settings in sports by encouraging sports psychologists to create culturally fit interventions. As such, the current studies examined cultural variations in the motivations of athletes by selectively focusing on team and open-skill sports. Overall, the current studies revealed cultural variations in athletes’ motivation regarding their attention to positive and negative information about the self, the implicit theories of their abilities, and self-construals. As such, we suggest culturally fine-tuned interventions for athletes.