Application of t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) to clustering of social affiliation and recognition psychological motivations in masters athletes

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.