Psychological Effect of Motivation on Military Parade Performance

Abstract

Military parades play a significant role in the culture and pride of military members in the Canadian Armed Forces (Matthews, 2023). At the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC), hundreds of Naval and Officer Cadets (N/OCdts) spend weeks practicing for parades conducted each year. Despite this, some participants still fall out of parades before their full completion. The literature review conducted in this thesis found a gap in the effects of psychological states of military members on their parade performance. The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether various motivation types during parades impact participant performance. More specifically, this study examines whether various levels of Self-Determination Theory’s continuum of amotivation, controlled motivation, and autonomous motivation among parade participants impacted parade performance (Deci & Ryan, 2008). To answer this research question, a survey was sent out to RMC cadets who participated in one of two parades and gathered a total sample of 380 participants. Primary findings indicated that autonomous motivation mediated by positive affect predicted greater parade performance, while amotivation and controlled motivation mediated by negative affect predicted decreased parade performance. Moreover, the study found that students at RMC are primarily motivated by extrinsic motivators (i.e., rewards and punishments) to perform during parades, with a large pool of parade participants indicating high levels of amotivation during parades. As well, this study examines the relationship between various RMC-specific factors and parade performance. To summarize, this study adds to a research gap in the field of motivation during parades and adds a new perspective to the significance of various motivators on participants during military parades.