ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to challenge the narrow focus on motivation in sport and exercise psychology and provide a broader account of why people might be involved in movement culture practices. It suggest that sport and exercise psychologists might become more attuned to three elements that are often missing from sport psychologists' understandings of the 'why' of taking part in physical culture activities: the deeper existential meaning in movement; cultural meanings that provide them with a horizon of understanding and temporality as it links to identity and ability to engage in meaningful activity. The chapter also suggests that the exercise promotion based on sport psychologists' literature on motivation could at times be unhelpful to trigger meaningful engagement with the various possibilities and dimensions of movement. A central tenet of the two dominant motivation theories is that participation motivation can be traced back to universal 'drives' or needs that can explain and be used to manipulate behavior.
