Problem 3 – Autonomy and Willpower
Facilitating optimal motivation and psychological well-being across life’s
domains (Deci & Ryan, 2008)
Focus on: a) the difference of autonomous motivation, controlled motivation and amotivation; b)
difference between autonomy and interdependence; c) different forms of extrinsic motivation; d) some
examples of autonomy support (you don't have to know the paragraphs about autonomy support by
heart, but understand what it means).
Research has shown that autonomous motivation predicts persistence and adherence and is
advantageous for effective performance, especially on complex or heuristic tasks that involve
deep information processing or creativity. Considerable research has found interpersonal
contexts that facilitate satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for competence,
autonomy, and relatedness to enhance autonomous motivation, which comprises intrinsic
motivation and well-internalized extrinsic motivation.
Self-determination theory has maintained that there are different types of motivation—
specifically, autonomous and controlled motivation—and that the type of motivation is
generally more important than the amount in predicting life’s important outcomes.
Autonomous motivation involves behaving with a full sense of volition and choice,
whereas controlled motivation involves behaving with the experience of pressure
and demand toward specific outcomes that comes from forces perceived to be
external to the self.
SDT assumes that people are by nature active and self-motivated, curious and
interested, vital and eager to succeed because success itself is personally satisfying
and rewarding. The theory recognises, however, that people can also be alienated
and mechanized, or passive and disaffected.
The theory has proposed that all humans need to feel competent, autonomous, and
related to others. Social contexts that facilitate satisfaction of these three basic
psychological needs will support people’s inherent activity, promote more optimal
motivation, and yield the most positive psychological, developmental, and behavioural
outcomes. In contrast, social environments that thwart satisfaction of these needs
yield less optimal forms of motivation and have deleterious effects on a wide variety
of well-being outcomes.
SDT (Self-Determination Theory)
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation involves doing a behaviour because the activity itself is interesting and
spontaneously satisfying. Extrinsic motivation involves engaging in an activity because it
leads to some separate consequence.
When people are intrinsically motivated, they feel a sense of autonomy as their basic
need for autonomy is satisfied. Then, when people are rewarded, threatened,
surveilled, or evaluated, they tend to feel pressured and controlled, and that
diminishes satisfaction of their autonomy need, whereas when they are offered
choice, they tend to experience greater autonomy satisfaction.
Positive performance feedback has been found in some instances to enhance
intrinsic motivation rather than undermine it. This appears to be because it directly
conveys positive competence information, thus satisfying the need for competence,
without being experienced as controlling (= informational).
1
, Negative feedback tends to undermine intrinsic motivation by thwarting people’s need
for competence , leaving them amotivated—that is, with little intrinsic or extrinsic
motivation.
Interpersonal climates the general ambience of a situation, such as the interpersonal
climate of homes, classrooms, or work groups, can also affect people’s intrinsic motivation.
Social climates that feel pressuring and controlling undermine intrinsic motivation, whereas
those that feel supportive and informational enhance intrinsic motivation. The effects of
events such as tangible rewards or positive feedback can be influenced by the nature of the
social context within which they are administered.
Autonomy and independence autonomy means to act volitionally, with a sense of choice,
whereas independence means to function alone and not rely on others. People can be either
autonomous or controlled in their relative independence, and they can be either autonomous
or controlled in their relative dependence.
Differentiating extrinsic motivation
SDT proposes that there are three types of internalization that differ in the degree to which
the regulations become integrated with a person’s sense of self.
1. Introjection (least effective) = people taking in an external contingency, demand, or
regulation but not accepting it as their own. Instead, it remains somewhat alien to
them and tends to control them much as it did when it was still external.
2. Identification = people accepting the importance of the behaviour for themselves and
thus accepting it as their own.
3. Integration = people have succeeded at integrating an identification with other
aspects of their true or integrated self. It represents the fullest type of internalization
and is the means through which extrinsically motivated behaviours become truly
autonomous or self-determined. Behaviours regulated by integrations are the most
autonomous type of extrinsic motivation.
Autonomous and controlled motivation
External and introjected regulations are forms of controlled motivation, whereas
identified/integrated and intrinsic regulation are forms of autonomous motivation.
Amotivation results from a person not valuing a behaviour or outcome, not believing that a
valued outcome is reliably linked to specific behaviours, or believing that there are
behaviours instrumental to a valued outcome but not feeling competent to do those
instrumental behaviours.
= continuum
2
, The consequences of autonomous and controlled motivation
Autonomous regulation has been associated with greater persistence; more positive affect;
enhanced performance, especially on heuristic activities; and greater psychological well-
being.
Facilitating internalization and integration
Feeling involved with and related to a family or group will facilitate internalization of values
and behaviours endorsed in that setting. Feeling competent to enact the behaviours will also
increase the chances of fully internalizing the regulation of those behaviours, and being
encouraged and supported to think about the value of the behaviour to oneself may facilitate
identifying with and integrating the behaviour’s value and regulation.
The factors that facilitate internalization of extrinsic motivation are quite similar to those that
help to maintain intrinsic motivation, and they revolve around the idea of significant others—
for example, parents, teachers, managers, friends—relating to the target individuals from
those individuals’ perspectives so as to support and encourage them to explore, initiate,
endorse, and engage in behaviours that are interesting and/or important for them.
Goals and aspirations
The content of people’s overarching goals (intrinsic = personal growth, building relationships,
etc.; extrinsic = becoming famous, projecting an attractive image) was clearly associated with
indicators of their psychological health.
Research further showed that people who emphasised extrinsic aspirations tended to be
more controlled in their pursuit of the goals, whereas people who emphasised intrinsic
aspirations tended to be more autonomous.
Autonomy across cultures
One of the central assertions of SDT is that the basic psychological needs for relatedness,
competence, and autonomy are universal.
Cultural relativists argue that autonomy is a Western ideal and is taught in Western
cultures that focus on individualism but that it is not important in Eastern cultures, so
it plays little role in the lives of East Asians and people from other traditionalist
cultures.
The SDT view, however, suggests that cultures influence people in profound and
important ways but that all humans have certain needs.
Research satisfaction of the autonomy need was indeed important in each culture, which
is consistent with the idea of the universality of that need. Numerous specific studies in
varied cultures are consistent with the universality of basic needs for autonomy, competence,
and relatedness.
Autonomy support in various life domains
When people’s autonomy is supported, they often feel free to follow their interests and
consider the relevance and importance for themselves of social values, mores, and norms.
Autonomy support in schools in classrooms in which teachers were autonomy
supportive, students were more intrinsically motivated.
Autonomy support in homes parents who had been rated as more autonomy
supportive by the researchers were more autonomously motivated for schoolwork
and perceived themselves to be more competent. Furthermore, the teachers rated
students of autonomy-supportive parents as being less shy and anxious, acting out
less, and having fewer learning problems.
3
