The DOI matches its Crossref record; 153 of the 153 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Building a science of motivated persons: Self-determination theory’s empirical approach to human experience and the regulation of behavior.
Open accessAbstract
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.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
The "what" and "why" of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000) · Psychological Inquiry · doi:10.1207/s15327965pli1104_01 · Cited by 34,210
Self-citationIntrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985) · doi:10.1007/978-1-4899-2271-7 · Cited by 26,772
Self-citationSen, A. (2009) · Rugman Reviews · doi:10.1007/978-1-137-28787-8_94 · Cited by 15,837
Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior
Miller, K. A., Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1988) · Contemporary Sociology · doi:10.2307/2070638 · Cited by 15,312
Self-citationThe psychology of interpersonal relations.
Heider, F. (1958) · doi:10.1037/10628-000 · Cited by 13,457
The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being
Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M. (2003) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.84.4.822 · Cited by 13,448
Self-citationThe Psychology of Interpersonal Relations.
Newcomb, T., & Heider, F. (1958) · American Sociological Review · doi:10.2307/2089062 · Cited by 11,822
Kilzer, E., & Skinner, B. F. (1953) · The American Catholic Sociological Review · doi:10.2307/3707860 · Cited by 8,943
Deci, E. L., Koestner, R., & Ryan, R. M. (1999) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.125.6.627 · Cited by 7,176
Self-citation
Cited by
Self-Determination Theory and HCI Games Research: Unfulfilled Promises and Unquestioned Paradigms
Tyack, A., & Mekler, E. D. (2024) · ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction · doi:10.1145/3673230 · Cited by 57
AI Paradox in Higher Education: Understanding Over-Reliance, Its Impact, and Sustainable Integration
Khlaif, Z. N., Hamamra, B., & Hussein, E. T. (2025) · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-6127885/v1 · Cited by 5
Lafreniere, B., Audet, É. C., Kachanoff, F., Christophe, N. K., Holding, A. C., Janusauskas, L., & Koestner, R. (2023) · Journal of Community Psychology · doi:10.1002/jcop.23043 · Cited by 4
Chapter 1: Problem-based learning: A 21st-century teaching and learning strategy
Research Unit Self-Directed Learning, F. O. E., Golightly, A., Sebatana, M. J., & School of Mathematics, S. A. T. E. (2023) · NWU Self-Directed Learning Series · doi:10.4102/aosis.2023.bk409.01 · Cited by 1
Metadata
- Authors
- Ryan, R. M., Deci, E. L., Vansteenkiste, M., & Soenens, B.
- Venue
- Motivation Science
- Published
- 2021-06
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 97-110
- ISSN
- 2333-8113 (ISSN-L)
- 2333-8121
- OpenAlex
- W3186713194
- Cited by
- 394
- References
- 153
- FWCI
- 51.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Building a science of motivated persons: Self-determination theory’s empirical approach to human experience and the regulation of behavior. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1037/mot0000194
- The paper
- Ryan, R. M., Deci, E. L., Vansteenkiste, M., & Soenens, B. (2021). Building a science of motivated persons: Self-determination theory’s empirical approach to human experience and the regulation of behavior. Motivation Science. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000194
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.