The purpose of this investigation is to examine the relationship between situational motivation levels and perceptions of success of athletes who participate in team sports. Participants are 267 athletes (female = 109; male = 158) ranging in age from 16 to 29 (M = 21.37 and SD = 2.58). “The Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS)” and “The Adult version of The Perception of Success Questionnaire-POSQ-A” was used to assess situational motivation levels and perception of success of participants, respectively. Results indicated that task orientation was found to be positively associated with more self-determined types of situational motivation, and was found to be negatively associated with less self-determined types of situational motivation. Ego orientation was not associated with types of situational motivation. An extreme group split was conducted to create four goal groups and goal profile analyses conducted. Results of MANOVA revealed that high task / low ego group reported higher levels of identified regulation than low task / low ego group. High task / low ego group reported lower levels of amotivation than low task / low ego group. The results suggest that a high level of task orientation singularly fosters self-determined situational motivation in the context of sport.

Key Words: Situational motivation, perception of success, team sports