Edward Deci - Self-Determination Theory

[Music] [Music] my name is Edward DC I'm a motivational psychologist and for the last 40 years or so Richard Ryan and I have worked together to develop test refine elaborate a theory of motivation development and wellness that we call self-determination theory it is not only the two of us who've been working on it of course there are literally hundreds of psychologists from around the world who've participated in the process self-determination theory begins by making an important distinction most people who think about psychology think about it as a unitary concept namely it's something that differs just

an amount how can I get someone more motivated to do something how can I get that person less motivated to do something they really the focus is always on amount but from the beginning Ryan and I have believed that it was important to think about types of motivation rather than the amount of motivation our primary distinction is between what we call autonomous motivation and controlled motivation autonomous motivation describes or names what you're doing when you're feeling a full sense of willingness volition and choice whatever the activity is if you're doing it with a real sense

of interest enjoyment and value then it's likely that you're autonomously motivated in contrast is controlled motivation controlled motivation refers to doing something in order to get some reward or to avoid some punishment it means doing something because you're feeling pressured demanded obliged to be doing it I think when most people think about motivation they're more often thinking about controlled motivation than autonomous motivation but we have found that when people are more autonomously motivated the performance their wellness their engagement all of those things are greater when you're autonomously motivated than when you're controlled in your motivation

so that's the the first important distinction that we make in self-determination Theory the second important point is we believe that all human beings have a set of basic psychological needs the needs that we believe are important are the need for competence that is to say to feel confident and effective in relation to whatever it is you're doing second to feel relatedness that is to say to feel cared for by others to care for others to feel like you belong in various groups that are important to you and the third need is autonomy I've already said

a bit about autonomy but now I'm making the point that autonomy is actually a human need and a human need is something that people must get satisfied for optimal wellness and optimal performance if they don't get it the need satisfied then there will be negative psychological consequences that follow the concept of psychological needs being universal is an important one because it's what lets us know and understand what it is that will mode autonomous motivation when people feel competent when they feel related to others and when they're feeling a sense of volition they will be autonomously

motivated and the positive consequences will follow from that so the importance of this is that when you ask questions like how do you promote effective motivation in the workplace or in schools or in health care clinics wherever it is whatever domain of life you're talking about if you are interested in producing optimal outcomes the way in which you can do that as a parent or a teacher or an employer the way that you can do that is create the circumstances so that people who are learning or playing or performing for you so that they will

be optimal in their outcomes what you need to be doing is supporting their basic psychological needs now when it comes to autonomous motivation there are actually two types of autonomous motivation when I first started doing this work I was very interested in the concept of intrinsic motivation to do something because you're intrinsically motivated means you do it because you find it interesting and enjoyable that contrasts with extrinsic motivation which means you do it because it leads to some separable consequence okay so intrinsic motivation is one type of autonomous motivation the other type of autonomous motivation

was really developed by Richard Ryan it was he who got interested in the idea of extrinsic motivation and whether X turns motivation could be autonomous or not and what he found in research and in other research that we did together is that people can actually internalize extrinsic motivation in such a way as they own it as their own and when they do that when they understand the value of the activity that may be rewarded or requested of them when they do that and identify with the value of it and integrate it so that it's a

part of themselves they will be autonomously motivated and the outcomes that you observe in such situations will be very positive [Music]