International Journal of Sport, Exercise and Health Research 2020; 4(1): 1-6 ; DOI:10.31254/sportmed.4101
Application of t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) to clustering of social affiliation and recognition psychological motivations in masters athletes
Joe Walsh1 , Ian Timothy Heazlewood2 , Mark DeBeliso3 , Mike Climstein4,5
1. Sport Science Institute www.sportscienceinstitute.com
2. The School of Psychological and Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Engineering, Health, Science and the Environment, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
3. Department of Physical Education and Human Performance, Southern Utah University, Cedar City, USA
4. Clinical Exercise Physiology, Southern Cross University, School of Health and Human Sciences, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
5. Physical Activity, Lifestyle, Ageing and Wellbeing Faculty Research Group, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 2006
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 9th February, 2020 / Accepted: 3rd April, 2020
An exploration of clustering of psychological motivations for participation in sport was conducted using t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE). The data source used for this investigation was survey data gathered on World Masters Games competitors using the Motivations of Marathoners Scales (MOMS). The aim of this research was to assess the suitability of applying t-SNE to creating two-dimensional scatter plots to visualise the relationship between different psychological motivators for the Social Motives category of the MOMS. Application of t-SNE plots could assist in visually mapping psychological constructs and gaining greater understanding of the underlying patterns in the MOMS tool. Although there was more disparity in the clustering of categories within Social Motives than was hypothesised, some clustering patterns were observed. Some items in the MOMS Social Motives category were connected in a logical manner that complied with those originally proposed by the developers of the MOMS. Two-dimensional scatter plots produced using t-SNE may assist in creating hypotheses about the relationships present between psychological constructs in such high-dimensional data.
Social Motives, Affiliation, Recognition, Motivations of Marathoners Scales, Masters Athletes
