Publications

Three commentators (Carter, 2011; Kim, 2011; Scheel, 2011) concurred with a central proposition of the target article (Ryan, Lynch, Vansteenkiste, & Deci, 2011): that client motivation for counseling is of critical importance to counselors and therapists. In this Reply, we acknowledge and address a number of issues raised by the commentators, including the role of motivation and autonomy in multicultural counseling, the issue of common factors in counseling, and how the continuum of motivation proposed in the target article relates to the experience of practitioners who are engaged with a wide variety of client presentations. We maintain that the autonomous motivation of clients is a legitimate focus in counseling, both as process and outcome, and that an autonomy-supportive stance on the part of the counselor is implicit in the ethical mandate to respect the person of the client.

Research in self-determination theory, amply detailed across the chapters of this Handbook, attests to the universal human propensities toward growth and integration, as well as the social conditions that can either facilitate or hinder their expression. Beyond the influences of social contexts, we as individuals can also actively craft our development, or balk at that existential responsibility. People have inherent capacities to reflect upon, and to accept or reject, values and aims and in so doing they affect their own and others’ well-being and vitality. This human capacity for autonomy develops most robustly within need-supportive social contexts, whereas controlling and need thwarting environments often bring out the more defensive and compensatory “dark sides” of human nature. By creating more autonomy, competence, and relatedness supportive environments in families, schools, organizations, and cultures, the overarching aim of SDT is to help foster a more humane world within which all can flourish.

No abstract is provided for this article.

In 1957, Festinger proposed a theory of cognitive dissonance which has probably generated more research than any other theory in social psychology. Briefly, cognitive dissonance theory asserts that if a person holds two cognitions which are discrepant, he will...

Self-determination theory (SDT) is a still rapidly expanding framework of basic and applied research, underpinned by a global network of scholars and practitioners.Herein, we focus on one feature of SDT that helps explain its continued growth-the fact that it is a truly human science that takes into consideration our attributes as persons, including our capacities for awareness and self-regulation, as well as vulnerabilities to defensiveness and control.Within SDT, these human capacities are studied using diverse methods and across all subdisciplines of psychology.In this review, we focus particularly on people's capacity for autonomy as it applies to their individual functioning, interpersonal relationships, and societal interactions.If there is a core legacy to SDT, it is one of representing a generative and philosophically coherent framework based on a convergent network of empirical evidence with relevance across domains and cultures and to our basic experiences and concerns as humans.

Objective To assess aspirations for physical health over 18 months. To examine whether maintained importance of aspirations for physical health mediated and/or moderated the effect of an intensive intervention on long-term tobacco abstinence. Methods Participants were randomly assigned to an intervention based on self-determination theory or to community care, and provided data at baseline and at 18 and 30 months post-randomization. Results Aspirations for physical health were better maintained over 18 months among participants in the intervention (mean change=.05), relative to community care (mean change=−.13), t =2.66, p <.01. Maintained importance of aspirations for physical health partially mediated the treatment condition effects on seven-day point prevalence tobacco abstinence (z′=1.68, p <.01) and the longest number of days not smoking (z′=2.16, p <.01), and interacted with treatment condition to facilitate the longest number of days not smoking (β =.08, p <.05). Conclusion Maintained importance of aspirations for physical health facilitated tobacco abstinence. Practice implications Smokers may benefit from discussing aspirations for physical health within autonomy-supportive interventions. Patients may benefit from discussing aspirations during counseling about therapeutic lifestyle change and medication use.

This study examined whether maltreated children were more likely than nonmaltreated children to develop poor-quality representations of caregivers and whether these representations predicted children's rejection by peers. A narrative task assessing representations of mothers and fathers was administered to 76 maltreated and 45 nonmaltreated boys and girls (8-12 years old). Maltreated children's representations were more negative/constricted and less positive/coherent than those of nonmaltreated children. Maladaptive representations were associated with emotion dysregulation, aggression, and peer rejection, whereas positive/coherent representations were related to prosocial behavior and peer preference. Representations mediated maltreatment's effects on peer rejection in part by undermining emotion regulation. Findings suggest that representations of caregivers serve an important regulatory function in the peer relationships of at-risk children.

Depuis l’Antiquite, l’emploi inconsidere d’adjectifs, accuses d’affaiblir le style, est decourage par les prescipteurs du « bien ecrire », aussi bien en francais qu’en anglais. L’examen attentif de differents manuels a visee pedagogique, appuye par divers conseils et remarques d’auteurs, permet d’expliquer ce consensus, qui peut paraitre dogmatique. Dans les deux langues, la chasse aux adjectifs repondrait a un double souci : epargner au lecteur une surcharge cognitive, et sauvegarder son autonomie d’interpretation.

No abstract is provided for this article.

In this article, we examine subjective vitality, a positive feeling of aliveness and energy, in six studies. Subjective vitality is hypothesized to reflect organismic well‐being and thus should covary with both psychological and somatic factors that impact the energy available to the self. Associations are shown between subjective vitality and several indexes of psychological well‐being; somatic factors such as physical symptoms and perceived body functioning; and basic personality traits and affective dispositions. Subsequently, vitality is shown to be lower in people with chronic pain compared to matched controls, especially those who perceive their pain to be disabling or frightening. Subjective vitality is further associated with self‐motivation and maintained weight loss among patients treated for obesity. Finally, subjective vitality is assessed in a diary study for its covariation with physical symptoms. Discussion focuses on the phenomenological salience of personal energy and its relations to physical and psychological well‐being.

Equity theory and insufficient justification theory seem to make discrepant predictions about how a person will respond to being inequitably underpaid. The equity prediction is that underpaid subjects will be dissatisfied and work less hard than equitably paid subjects; the insufficient justification (or task enhancement) prediction is that underpaid subjects will enhance their attitudes toward the task to justify doing it and in turn work harder than equitably paid subjects. This study has shown that both responses occur, but in different situations. When there was some ambiguity about the inequity, subjects restored equity by enhancing their attitudes toward the task and inputs to the situation; whereas when there was no ambiguity, subjects restored equity by being less satisfied and working less hard.