38 exam-style questions on Motivational climate — topic C.3.3 of Sports psychology and motor learning in the IB Sports, Exercise and Health Science syllabus — with answers and explanations. Samples below; the full set is free with an account.
During every hockey session the coach posts a ranked shooting-accuracy table on the changing-room wall and gives the top three players extra match time. Which motivational climate does this create, and why?
Answer: Performance climate, because recognition rewards normative ranking
The climate is defined by the criteria the coach makes salient. Public ranking and a reward tied to beating team-mates make ability normative, which is the signature of a performance, or ego-involving, climate.
A coach replaces the season's fixed ability sets with mixed pairs that change every week during passing drills. Which dimension of the TARGET framework has been altered?
Answer: Grouping
Grouping covers how athletes are placed together for practice; flexible, mixed groupings keep the emphasis on the task rather than on where each athlete ranks. Fixed ability sets make normative standing visible every session and push the climate towards performance involvement.
Which outcome is most consistently reported for junior handball players who train in a mastery climate?
Answer: Higher persistence when a skill proves difficult
Because success is defined by effort and personal improvement, difficulty is read as part of learning rather than as evidence of low ability, so persistence and enjoyment rise and dropout falls. Higher anxiety and normative comparison are associated with performance climates instead.
In a badminton squad the players help set the focus of the session and lead their own warm-up. Which TARGET dimension is being used, and which basic psychological need does it mainly support?
Answer: Authority, supporting the need for autonomy
Authority covers the extent to which athletes share in decisions about their training, which is the dimension that speaks most directly to the need for autonomy. Recognition, timing and evaluation address praise, pacing and the criteria for judging progress.
A coach offers three versions of the same passing drill at different levels of difficulty and lets each player decide which to work on. Which two dimensions of the TARGET framework is she using?
Answer: Task and authority
Offering varied activities at which improvement is possible is the task dimension, and handing the choice to the player is the authority dimension. Nothing here changes how players are grouped, how long they are given or what is praised.
A coach stops posting the end-of-session shooting ranking and instead records each player's change since the previous week. Which dimension has she altered, and towards which climate?
Answer: Evaluation, towards a mastery climate
Evaluation is the dimension that fixes the criterion against which success is judged, and moving that criterion from comparison with others to comparison with the player's own past is the defining move of a mastery climate. Recognition concerns who is praised and how publicly, which she has not changed here.
That was 6 of 38 Motivational climate questions.
Practise all 38 freeOutlineAO2 · 1–4 marks
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38 Motivational climate questions — free with an account. Spaced repetition, streaks and full exam simulations included.
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