Influences on sportspersonship orientations : contextual and motivational

Listening to the commentary of any football or cricket match provides many examples of interpretations of the type of influence sport has on those participating in it – interpretations that fall generously on both sides of the fence separating good behaviour and attitudes from bad. This investigation into the factors that influence ‘sportspersonship’ in young athletes finds differences relating to sport type (individual or team sport) and in goal orientation (task oriented or ego oriented). The authors conclude that individual, task-oriented sport appears to encourage greater sportspersonship.