Mastery goals are generally considered the most adaptive achievement goals. In 2 studies, we tested whether, in line with self-determination theory, participants’ experiences of autonomy support and autonomy would affect the relations between mastery goals and psychological outcomes. In Study 1 (an experiment), 117 college students, randomly assigned to 3 groups (autonomy-supportive, autonomy-suppressive, neutral), adopted an intrapersonal-competence standard to improve graphic quality of handwriting. Results showed that mastery goals led to more positive emotional experiences when given in an autonomy-supportive context relative to the other two. Study 2 extended the research to natural settings and learners’ motives among 7th and 8th graders (n = 839) responding to questionnaires about a specific class. Results revealed stronger relations of mastery goals with interest and enjoyment and with behavioral engagement when students perceived their level of choice (experience of autonomy) as high rather than low. We therefore propose that research on achievement goals should consider both the contexts and the motives accompanying the goals.
The Space Shuttle main engine (SSME) alternate high-pressure liquid oxygen pump experienced synchronous vibration and ball bearing life problems that were program threatening. The success of the program hinged on the ability to solve these development problems. The design and solutions to these problems are engirded in the lessons learned and experiences from prior programs, technology programs, and the ability to properly conduct failure or anomaly investigations. The failure investigation determines the problem cause and is the basis for recommending design solutions. For a complex problem, a comprehensive solution requires that formal investigation procedures be used, including fault trees, resolution logic, and action items worked through a concurrent engineering-multidiscipline team. The normal tendency to use an intuitive, cut-and-try approach will usually prove to be costly, both in money and time and will reach a less than optimum, poorly understood answer. The SSME alternate high-pressure oxidizer turbopump development has had two complex problems critical to program success: (1) high synchronous vibrations and (2) excessive ball bearing wear. This paper will use these two problems as examples of this formal failure investigation approach. The results of the team's investigation provides insight into the complexity of the turbomachinery technical discipline interacting/sensitivities and the fine balance of competing investigations required to solve problems and guarantee program success. It is very important to the solution process that maximum use be made of the resources that both the contractor and Government can bring to the problem in a supporting and noncompeting way. There is no place for the not-invented-here attitude. The resources include, but are not limited to: (1) specially skilled professionals; (2) supporting technologies; (3) computational codes and capabilities; and (4) test and manufacturing facilities.
No abstract is provided for this article.
Empirical research and organismic theories suggest that lower well-being is associated with having extrinsic goals focused on rewards or praise relatively central to one's personality in comparison to intrinsic goals congruent with inherent growth tendencies. In a sample of adult subjects (Study 1), the relative importance and efficacy of extrinsic aspirations for financial success, an appealing appearance, and social recognition were associated with lower vitality and self-actualization and more physical symptoms. Conversely, the relative importance and efficacy of intrinsic aspirations for self-acceptance, affiliation, community feeling, and physical health were associated with higher well-being and less distress. Study 2 replicated these findings in a college sample and extended them to measures of narcissism and daily affect. Three reasons are discussed as to why extrinsic aspirations relate negatively to well-being, and future research directions are suggested.
Three studies examined the effects of experimentally induced motivational orientations on the subtly different positive affects of vitality and happiness. We hypothesized, based on self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1991; Ryan & Frederick, 1997), that doing well when autonomously motivated would enhance subjective vitality relative to doing well when controlled in one's motivation, but that doing well under the two motivational states would not have differential effects on happiness. Two experiments in which motivation was induced by instructions to participants about task engagement and a third experiment using an attributional methodology yielded the hypothesized pattern of effects. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of differentiating positive outcomes in terms of their underlying motives and of giving increased attention to understanding restorative environments.
Intrinsic motivation refers to people's spontaneous tendencies to be curious and interested, to seek out challenges, and to exercise and develop their skills and knowledge, even in the absence of operationally separable rewards. Over the past four decades, experimental and field research guided by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2017) has found intrinsic motivation to predict enhanced learning, performance, creativity, optimal development, and psychological wellness. Only recently, however, have studies begun to examine the neurobiological substrates of intrinsic motivation. In the present paper, we trace the history of intrinsic motivation research, compare and contrast intrinsic motivation to closely related topics (flow, curiosity, trait plasticity), link intrinsic motivation to key findings in the comparative affective neurosciences, and review burgeoning neuroscience research on intrinsic motivation. We review converging evidence suggesting that intrinsically motivated exploratory and mastery behaviors are phylogenetically ancient tendencies that are subserved by dopaminergic systems. Studies also suggest that intrinsic motivation is associated with patterns of activity across large-scale neural networks, namely, those that support salience detection, attentional control, and self-referential cognition. We suggest novel research directions and offer recommendations for the application of neuroscience methods in the study of intrinsic motivation.
To introduce this special issue, we overview self-determination theory (SDT) as it is applied to physical activity, sport, and health. SDT distinguishes intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for physical activities, and specifies separate mini-theories addressing the nature, determinants, and consequences of each. Cognitive evaluation theory (CET) details the central role of intrinsic motivation in both sport and physical activity, and the impact of autonomy and competence supports in promoting people's intrinsic motivation. Organismic integration theory (OIT) describes different forms of extrinsic motivation that vary in their relative autonomy, affecting both persistence and performance. OIT suggests that more internalized extrinsic goals, being more volitional, are better maintained over time. We also review basic psychological need theory (BPNT), which specifies the role of autonomy, competence, and relatedness satisfaction in facilitating and sustaining motivation, and the impact of intrinsic (e.g., health) and extrinsic (e.g., attractiveness) goals in physical activity. We then outline a SDT perspective on vitality and its depletion, including new research on how contact with nature can enhance subjective energy. We conclude by discussing field research, including controlled clinical trials, testing the efficacy of SDT-based interventions in the promotion of physical activity, and other health-related outcomes.
Hayes and Hofmann1 provide a sweeping history of behavioral approaches to clinical practice, from applied behavior analysis, through cognitive behaviorism, to contemporary "third-wave" approaches. Reviewing their history from my vantage points – as a clinician, a motivational researcher, and a psychological theorist – engenders different reactions, two quite positive and one more skeptical. As a clinician, and former trainer of therapists, I laud the more "process-oriented" point of view represented by the "third wave", which conveys respect for individuals' perspectives and values, and greater flexibility regarding the directions of treatment. Both applied behavioral analyses and cognitive behavioral approaches (the first "two waves" of behaviorism described by the authors) have traditionally embraced an outcome focus to treatment – applying techniques and interventions to bring about pre-defined targets of behavioral change and involving therapist-directed activities such as teaching, training, shaping and rewarding. Such outcome-focused approaches often either assume or select for motivation or "readiness" for change, such that patients can "fail the therapy"2. In contrast, process-focused approaches conceptualize both motivation and resistance as part of the change process, and are centrally concerned with the client's experience and volition with respect to change. Process-focused therapists emphasize activities of listening, reflecting, empathizing and facilitating. These are empowering, autonomy-supportive and relational activities. Another important, and laudable, feature in Hayes and Hofmann's depiction of the "third wave" relative to prior behaviorisms is a focus not merely on behavior change, but rather on the "development and use of inner resources" for ongoing adaptive self-regulation. Highlighted is the person's relationship with events, cognitions and emotions, and developing a sense of awareness, value, and volition in reacting to them. A focus on facilitating such self-regulatory resources highlights new assumptions concerning internalized capacities and mechanisms of agency that prior waves of behavioral theory did not acknowledge, but which (in this clinician's view) are essential to maintained change and the enhancement of adaptive functioning amidst the ever changing environments people encounter. As a researcher, I am particularly struck by the convergence of these "third-wave" ideas – particularly those embedded within acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy – with research accomplished within self-determination theory (SDT)3. SDT studies have, for example, shown that more self-endorsed or autonomous motivations are reliably associated with greater engagement, behavioral persistence, as well as more positive experience4. Clinical and applied research within SDT has also shown that a facilitating environment of acceptance and autonomy support enhances treatment motivation, engagement and success5, offering a promising interface for applying SDT's research methods and concepts to ACT interventions in particular. Such theoretical iteration has been illustrated by work applying SDT to motivational interviewing6. Moreover, SDT models of change also suggest that mindful awareness facilitates greater autonomy in functioning, and in turn greater wellness. Indeed, a recent meta-analysis supports SDT's nuanced assumption of graded associations between mindfulness and more internalized and autonomous forms of motivation7, suggesting that awareness supplies a foundation for improved self-regulation. In parallel, we see the ACT concept of "psychological flexibility" as entailing both mindful awareness and autonomy, constructs that have been well researched within the SDT tradition. Similarly, ACT appears to converge with SDT in advancing integrative forms of emotion regulation, in which persons approach and understand the meaning of emotional reactions, rather than focusing only on down-regulating or reframing negative experience8. However positive my reactions as a clinician and researcher, I am a bit more skeptical regarding Hayes and Hofmann's claims concerning the philosophical coherence or conceptual continuity of the third wave's theoretical constructs with prior behaviorisms, as if they represent a logical next step rather than a leap to a new foundation. Finding a way from Skinnerian positivism to therapies cultivating awareness, choice, and inner resources recalls an old joke involving getting directions from a rural farmer who states: "You can't get there from here". Classical behavioral theorists actively eschewed and often disparaged concepts such as awareness, volition and autonomy. And, although cognitive behavioral theorists accepted the reality of inner mediators between environments and behavioral outputs, their focus remained on leveraging these mediators toward behavior change, retaining an outcome focus2. For example, Bandura explicitly dismissed concepts such as autonomy and basic psychological needs as inconsistent with his views9. Hayes and Hofmann do establish some forms of continuity in that, like applied behavior analysis and cognitive behavioral theories, the new wave remains: a) evidence based; b) highly focused on contexts; and c) inconsistent with a medical model. But none of these general attributes is unique to behaviorisms and, more importantly, none establishes a deep theoretical or philosophical coherence of new-wave constructs with these old meta-theoretical foundations. This is not to say that connections cannot be established, but the question is whether these ideas and practices really fit well within such a procrustean bed. The core concepts underlying new-wave therapies involve authentically engaging clients, understanding their perspectives, and helping them build or access inner resources and capacities for reflective, value-based choices, concepts and practices that cannot be parsimoniously derived from earlier behaviorist worldviews. Although doubtful of the congruence of many "third-wave" concepts with classical or cognitive behavioral theories, I am optimistic that the processes and models of the "third wave" can be both richly theoretically described and fruitfully studied within organismic perspectives such as SDT. Because the process-oriented issues of mindful awareness7, integrative emotion regulation8, autonomous treatment motivation5, basic psychological needs3 and other constructs relevant to new-wave behavioral interventions already have a coherent place within the system of concepts specified in SDT, research using this theoretical framework as either a primary or supplementary guide for research may help illuminate "active ingredients" in "third-wave" techniques. Perhaps as importantly, the organismic meta-theory underlying SDT brings with it a person-centered sensibility and philosophy that is in itself important in effectively implementing new-wave clinical practices or, for that matter, any truly process-oriented approach. Process-oriented therapy approaches are not merely sets of techniques, but also entail an orientation toward perspective-taking, facilitation, and respect for autonomy. Part of the role of theory is to guide clinicians in developing, refining and implementing such orientations in their relationships with clients. The psychological principles and values forwarded within SDT seem, in this regard, well-matched with many of the "third-wave" sensibilities and values expressed by Hayes and Hofmann, and are integrated into a conceptual framework directly relevant to the innovations of this new movement. Since the days of classical behaviorism, empirical models of human motivation have seen a "Copernican turn" – a movement away from models of people as pawns to external contingencies, toward a focus on the development and support of people's inner capacities for acting. From this view, it is nice to see this turn within behaviorism away from assumptions that Hayes and Hofmann describe as "too narrow", and toward a more person-centered point of view. Given SDT's past clashes with behaviorists, this openness of the "third wave" to a truly process-oriented perspective affords fresh opportunities for exchanging methods, findings and practices, and ultimately a more convergent clinical science.
Players’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are among the most commonly used constructs used in research on what makes video games so engaging, and how they might support or undermine user wellbeing. However, existing measures of basic psychological needs in games have important limitations—they either do not measure need frustration, or measure it in a way that may not be appropriate for the video games domain, they struggle to capture feelings of relatedness in both single- and multiplayer contexts, and they often lack validity evidence for certain contexts (e.g., playtesting vs experience with games as a whole). In this paper, we report on the design and validation of a new measure, the Basic Needs in Games Scale (BANGS), whose 6 subscales cover satisfaction and frustration of each basic psychological need in gaming contexts. The scale was validated and evaluated over five studies with a total of 1246 unique participants. Results supported the theorized structure of the scale and provided evidence for discriminant, convergent and criterion validity. Results also show that the scale performs well over different contexts (including evaluating experiences in a single game session or across various sessions) and over time, supporting measurement invariance. Together, the BANGS is a reliable and theoretically sound tool for researchers to measure basic needs satisfaction and frustration with a degree of domain validity not previously available.
Despite many recent technical breakthroughs in health care, human behaviour remains the largest source of variance in health-related outcomes (Schroeder, 2007). People’s health and well-being are robustly affected by lifestyle factors such as smoking, hygiene, diet, and physical activity, all of which involve behaviours that are potentially controllable by the individual. In addition, outside of acute care settings, the effectiveness of most health care interventions is highly dependent on the patient’s adherence to self-care activities such as taking medications, performing self-examinations, or refraining from specific activities or habits. A significant problem is the poor adherence to prescribed changes or recommended behaviours over time.
