The Effects of a Psychological Intervention on Motor Performance in Children

This study focused on whether instructional interventions arouse interest and enhance the competence perception of motor performance. In addition, to see whether performance is affected by individual volitional abilities of self-regulation, self-control, volitional development, self-access and life stress. Based on the Personality Systems Interaction (PSI) theory of Julius Kuhl (2001) a quasi-experimental study was used to compare the motor performance (to built a tower of ten beverage boxes and climb it up) of students from Berlin due to volitional abilities and different interventions. Seventy-six primary school students, between 9 to 11 years old, participated in this study. Volitional Component Inventory version 3 (VCI-3; Kuhl & Fuhrmann, 2004) was used to measure volitional abilities. Two different interventions (Autonomy Support vs. External Control) were used. The results of these studies suggest that intervention conditions contribute to motor performance. The results show that Autonomy Support greatly influences the performance of students with low volitional ability. It must be pointed out that the students with different volitional competences profit from different interventions in performance.