The experiences of black male non-competitive bodybuilders with regard to wellbeing : a selfdetermination approach

Abstract

Bodybuilding has been growing exponentially in recent years among young men and boys. This growth started in the United States of America (USA) and Europe and eventually spread to Africa; this growth has prompted scholarly interest and research on this sport within the field of psychology. The majority of these research endeavours have focused on the pathological aspects of bodybuilding, while neglecting the possibility of this sport contributing to wellbeing. Moreover, researchers have also focused on competitive bodybuilding, with little being done and mentioned about non-competitive bodybuilding. This research aimed to address this gap in the literature and study non-competitive bodybuilding from a positive psychology and wellbeing perspective. The researcher aimed to answer the following research question: What are the experiences of black male non-competitive bodybuilders with regard to their perceived wellbeing as they participate in bodybuilding? The research aim was to explore and describe the experiences of black male non-competitive bodybuilders with regard to their perceived wellbeing in a South African community from a self-determination theory (SDT) perspective. The research was conducted from an interpretivist paradigm. A qualitative approach (interpretive descriptive design) was followed. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 10 black male non-competitive bodybuilders aged between 20 and 32 years. Semi-structured interviews were used for data gathering. Theoretically, deductive thematic analysis was applied to the data gathered and identified themes were filtered through the SDT. The SDT is a theory of wellbeing and motivation that has been successfully used to describe human accounts of wellbeing and healthy behaviour. According to the SDT, autonomy, competence, and relatedness are the basic psychological needs that humans must satisfy in order to experience wellbeing. The findings of this study indicate that non-competitive bodybuilders experience wellbeing as they participate in bodybuilding. This wellbeing results from the satisfaction of basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. As they participate in non-competitive bodybuilding, bodybuilders feel in control of their life and decision-making processes (autonomy), experience a sense of efficacy when they perform well and achieve goals set in bodybuilding (competence), and develop networks of meaningful interconnectedness with one another (relatedness). In light of these discoveries, further research with bigger samples, as well as quantitative investigations, would possibly enhance the study of bodybuilding from a wellbeing perspective. The findings from such larger studies can be utilised in the development of wellbeing programmes based on bodybuilding.