Perception of success in sports among Japanese elite university track and field athletes: Application of a qualitative date analysis approach

摘要

Most of the European studies of perception of success have been based on the goal perspective theory; that is, on task orientation (tendency to define self-focused improvement and mastery as success) and ego orientation (tendency to define demonstration of superior ability to others as success). This study examined whether perception of success in sports among Japanese elite university track and field athletes can also be interpreted by means of the goal perspective theory or not. In 2007, 90 high competitive level track and field athletes in Japanese universities completed a questionnaire which included items regarding age, sex, main events, competitive level and the question “what is success in sports for you?” For the analysis, we applied a qualitative date analysis. Also, in order to obtain reliability of the data, a semi-constructed interview was carried out using four athletes (2 males and 2 females) selected at random. As the results of the qualitative analysis, we organized some subcategories such as “maturity,” “achievements of tasks and goals,” “being a role model,” “acceptance from others” and “superiority to others.” In addition, the above-mentioned subcategories were divided into the following two abstract categories: “development” (“maturity” and “achievements of tasks and goals”), and “acceptance” (“being a role model,” “acceptance from others” and “superiority to others”). The results of the semi-constructed interview showed that some contents of the stories overlapped with subcategories derived from the questionnaire qualitative data. These results were discussed with reference to the goal perspectives theory, but not all of contents could be interpreted by this theory. Therefore, it is suggested that in order to understand Japanese elite university track and field athletes' perceived success in sports, it is necessary to consider not only the two goal perspectives, but also more wide-ranging ones as well.