Motivation Ch. 6

1
Motivation Ch. 6

• Psychological Needs

2
Overview and Review

• We are talking about the second of three need
  types
• Specifically we will address
• Autonomy
• Competence
• Relatedness

3
Reactivity vs. Proactivity

• Physiological needs are reactive
• Psychological needs are proactive
• Psychological needs are somewhat innate

4
Why Are They Innate?

• Organisms must adapt skills are necessary to do
  this
• Psychological needs push us toward skill
  development
• Mechanistic needs (like eating) do not produce
  growth and are slow to adapt

5
Environmental Roles

• Can support or thwart psychological need
  strivings
• Offers
• prescriptions (Do this)
• proscriptions (Dont do that)
• aspirations (American dream)
• Goals and priorities (Value this Want that)
• Acceptable/unacceptable roles

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The Three Needs in Children

• Trying a task again even after successful
  completion (Competence)
• The Terrible Twos (Autonomy)
• Freudian identification (Relatedness)

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In Depth - Autonomy

• The ability to choose without excessive external
  constraints and in line with our values, desires
  and goals
• Three qualities
• Perceived locus of causality (LOC)
• Perceived choice
• Volition

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Perceived Locus of Causality

• Internal vs. external PLOCs
• Internal the force behind the activity arises
  from sources within the actor
• External the force behind the activity arises
  from factors outside the actor
• Origins vs. pawns
• Unipolar dimensionality

9
Volition

• Unpressured willingness to engage in activity
• Need not be mutually exclusive wants and oughts
  can co-exist
• Orthogonal construct, not unipolar

10
Perceived Choice

• When we have
• Opportunities to choose among options
• Freedom to do so
• Autonomy is more restricted by forced choices
• Do you want the red one or the blue one?
• and develops more quickly with choices that are
  more open-ended
• What do you want to buy at the toy store?

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What Is Autonomy Support?

• Encourages goal-setting, choice in
  problem-solving, and self-interest
• Is NOT overindulgent, permissive, or neglectful
• Benefits include
• Improved intrinsic motivation
• Improved perceptions of competence
• More positive emotionality
• Better learning, performance and persistence

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Establishing Autonomy Support

• Nurture inner motivational resources
• Informational (vs. controlling) language
• Promote valuing
• Acknowledge/accept negative affect
• Treat resistance as a symptom of disinterest

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Language Styles

• Informational (vs. controlling) language
• Ive noticed your quiz average declining do you
  know why that might be?
• Your quiz average is falling start trying
  harder!
• Can encourage self-diagnosis and point out areas
  of improvement

14
Supportive Behaviors

• Listening
• Allowing others to talk
• Provide rationales
• Praise progress

• Ask others for their wants
• Entertain questions
• Acknowledge others views

15
Study - Dropouts
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Study Kids Like To Paint

• Rules for painting communicated using
  informational or controlling style
• Informational kids
• Enjoyed painting more
• Showed higher intrinsic motivation
• Produced more creative, technical and
  high-quality work

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In Depth - Competence

• Need to seek out optimal challenges and put forth
  the necessary effort to achieve them
• Requires skill and accurate self-knowledge
• Triggers ? optimal challenge, optimal structure
• Satisfiers ? positive feedback

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Flow

• A state of concentration where one is
  holistically absorbed in some activity
• Combines challenge and skills/abilities
• Closer matches flow
• However, low levels of each factor, though they
  may match, will produce apathy

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Practical Uses for Flow

• Task selection
• How are tasks chosen?
• Motivation
• Task serves as own incentive
• Task enjoyment

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Other Factors

• Competence need must be supported by failure
  tolerance
• Structure must clearly describe environmental
  expectations

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Supporting Competence

• Four feedback sources
• Task itself
• Social comparisons
• Within-person comparisons
• Other-evaluations
• Providing optimal challenge
• Pleasure in task performance
• Greater sense of achievement

22
In Depth - Relatedness

• Need to establish close social attachments with
  others the desire to experience emotional
  involvement
• Benefits
• More effective functioning
• Stress resilience
• Fewer psychological maladies

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Evidence for Relatedness Need

• Social bonds form easily and we are reluctant to
  break them
• Triggers ? interactions with others
• Satisfiers ? the other person
• Cares about my welfare
• Likes me
• Is trusted to see my real self

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Types of Relationships

• Exchange relationships
• Communal relationships
• How to determine
• Concern about the others life?
• Can the relationship easily be dissolved?

25
Those In Communal Bonds

• Frequently check in on each other
• Resist keeping score
• Provide help willingly when needed
• Discomfort with tangible compensation for helping

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Relatedness and Internalization

• Turning an externally endorsed value into an
  internal one
• Strong communal relationships encourage
  internalization
• We must see rationale behind prescriptions/proscri
  ptions

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Putting it Together

• Engagement
• Combination of the effects of autonomy,
  competence and relatedness
• Evidenced by increases in
• Attention
• Effort/persistence
• Participation
• Positive affect