Need satisfaction and the self-regulation of learning

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Self-regulation is analyzed in terms of self-determination theory using the concepts of intrinsic motivation and the internalization of extrinsic motivation. Laboratory experiments and field studies are reviewed indicating that: (1) intrinsic motivation and fully internalized extrinsic motivation are posi-tively associated with high quality learning and personal adjustment; and (2) maintaining intrinsic motivation and internalizing extrinsic motivation are facili-tated by social contexts that allow satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Such contexts are ones that are charac-terized by the provision of choice, optimal challenge, informational feedback, interpersonal involvement, and acknowledgment of feelings. Our analysis of self-regulation places individuals ’ experiences at its core. For an action to be considered fully self-regulated, people must experience a sense of volition-a sense of unpressured willingness to engage in the action. When behaviors are truly self-regulated, people do them with full and unconflicted endorsement. Think of a tenth-grade girl who is genuinely eager to become a veterinarian. She spends the weekend before her biology exam quite willingly studying because it is personally important for her to learn the material and do well in the course. Her experience is one of wanting to study biology-of valuing the activity-so she is wholly engaged with the task. In contrast, imagine her classmate who, on that same weekend, sits in front of her open biology text primarily because she feels pressure from her parents to do so. Unlike the first student, she is not volitional in her studying. She does not want to study so she is resentful and half-hearted in doing it. Her eyes skim the pages, but she takes in little of what is on them.