Intrinsic Motivation

and Self-Determination
in Human Behavior
PERSPECTIVES IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

A Series of Texts and Monographs • Edited by Elliot Aronson

INTRINSIC MOTIVATION
By Edward L. Oed

SCHOOL DESEGREGATION
By Harold B. Gerard and Norman Miller

HUMAN AGGRESSION
By Robert A. Baron

UNIQUENESS: The Human Pursuit of Difference

By C. R. Snyder and Howard L. Fromkin

SCHOOL DESEGREGATION: Past, Present, and Future

Edited by Walter G. Stephan and Joe R. Feagin

THE BELIEF IN A JUST WORLD: A Fundamental Delusion

By Melvin J. Lerner

NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

By Richard Heslin and Miles Patterson

INTRINSIC MOTIVATION AND SELF-DETERMINATION IN HUMAN BEHAVIOR

By Edward L. Oed and Richard M. Ryan

THE PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS PHENOMENA

By Gordon L. Patzer

REDEFINING SOCIAL PROBLEMS

Edited by Edward Seidman and Julian Rappaport

A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring delivery of
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Intrinsic Motivation
and Self-Determination
in Human Behavior

Edward L. Deci
and

Richard M. Ryan
University of Rochester
Rochester, New York

SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA. LLC

 library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Oed, Edward L.
Intrinsic motivation and self·determination in human behavior.
(Perspectives in social psychology)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Intrinsic motivation. 2. Psychology-Philosophy. 3. Personality. I. Ryan,
Richard M. ll. Title. III. Title: Self·determination in human behavior. IV. Series.
BF503.D43 1985 153.8 85·12413
ISBN 978-1-4899-2273-1 ISBN 978-1-4899-2271-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-2271-7

10987654

© 1985 Springer Science+Business Media New York

Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1985
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To Our Parents:
Janice M. and Charles H. Oed
Jean M. and C. James Ryan
Preface

Early in this century, most empirically oriented psychologists believed

that all motivation was based in the physiology of a set of non-nervous-
system tissue needs. The theories of that era reflected this belief and
used it in an attempt to explain an increasing number of phenomena.
It was not until the 1950s that it became irrefutably clear that much
of human motivation is based not in these drives, but rather in a set of
innate psychological needs. Their physiological basis is less understood;
and as concepts, these needs lend themselves more easily to psycho-
logical than to physiological theorizing. The convergence of evidence
from a variety of scholarly efforts suggests that there are three such
needs: self-determination, competence, and interpersonal relatedness.
This book is primarily about self-determination and competence
(with particular emphasis on the former), and about the processes and
structures that relate to these needs. The need for interpersonal relat-
edness, while no less important, remains to be explored, and the findings
from those explorations will need to be integrated with the present
theory to develop a broad, organismic theory of human motivation.
Thus far, we have articulated self-determination theory, which is offered
as a working theory-a theory in the making. To stimulate the research
that will allow it to evolve further, we have stated self-determination
theory in the form of minitheories that relate to more circumscribed
domains, and we have developed paradigms for testing predictions from
the various minitheories.
In working toward a broad motivation theory, we hope to contribute
to the accelerating movement toward a motivational analysis of human
functioning. For the past several years, theorists have been increasingly
turning to motivational variables as central explanatory concepts in order
to explain phenomena that were not well handled by previous theories
that focused exclusively on behavioral or cognitive variables.

vii
viii PREFACE

Our goal is to develop a truly organismic theory within empirical

psychology. By assuming human agency (i.e., an active organism), by
exploring the needs, processes, and structures that relate to it, and by
exploring both the possibilities for and the limitations to human agency,
we are attempting to explicate the dialectic of the organism's acting on
and being acted upon by the social and physical environments. Since
metatheories can be judged in part by the coherence and empirical utility
of the theories that are built upon their foundation, we have tried to
develop a theoretical framework that would give credence to this phil-
osophical perspective.
Finally, our overriding, sociopolitical interest is_examining the pos-
sibilities and obstacles for human freedom. In our thinking, this pertains
not only to social, political, and economic structures, but also to internal
psychological structures that reflect and anchor the external ones. It is
our hope that, by engaging in a serious investigation of motivational
issues, we can make some small contribution toward the larger goal of
human freedom.
Preparation of this book, along with some of the research described
in it, was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation
(BNS 8018628) and by the Xerox Corporation, through the efforts of John
W. Robinson. The Department of Psychology at the University of Roch-
ester has also supported our efforts. We are deeply indebted to all three
organizations for helping to make this project possible.
For the past few years, we have been working to create the Human
Motivation Program at the University of Rochester. Through the jux-
taposition of scholars interested in motivation from the divergent view-
points of social, developmental, personality, and clinical psychology,
we have been able to stimulate dialogue, to facilitate research and schol-
arship, and to provide doctoral training in motivation as it relates to
those basic areas and to their applied ramifications. Much of the work
presented in this book has been done in collaboration with other people
affiliated with the Human Motivation Program. In particular, James P.
Connell has worked closely with us in developing the theory of inter-
nalization that appears in Chapters 5 and 9. We are indebted to Jim as
well as to other faculty members in the Department of Psychology with
whom we have collaborated, and we are grateful to all of the graduate
students who have contributed to the research effort. We would espe-
cially like to acknowledge the significant empirical contributions of Wendy
Grolnick, Richard Koestner, and Robert Plant. In addition, we express
our appreciation for the efforts of our colleagues at other universities
who have contributed greatly toward an explication of the issues raised
in this book. Robert J. Vallerand made comments on several chapters
PREFACE ix

of the book, and Elliot Aronson has been an important source of moral
support. We thank both of them.
Betsy Whitehead did a heroic job of typing and editing the manu-
script. Not only did she continually retype to keep up with our rewriting
and with new word processing systems, but she continually spotted
errors and inconsistencies in construction and content. We thank Betsy,
and we also thank Cathy Ward and Shirley Tracey for their clerical
assistance.
EDWARD L. DECI
RICHARD M. RYAN
Contents

PART I: BACKGROUND

1. An Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Motivation Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Drive Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Intrinsic Motivation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Self-Determination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Alternative (Nonmotivational) Approaches. . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The Organismic Approach ............ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Self-Determination Theory: An Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 9

2. Conceptualizations of Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination.. 11

Historical Background ................ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 11
Empirical Drive Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 12
Psychodynamic Drive Theory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 18
White's Proposal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Optimal Stimulation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 20
Optimal Arousal ................................... 20
Optimal Incongruity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 22
Needs and Affects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 26
The Need for Competence .......................... 26
Interest-Excitement and Flow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 28
The Need for Self-Determination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 29
Intrinsic Motivation Conceptualized. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 32
Self-Determination: A Brief History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 35
Self-Determination Conceptualized. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 38
Summary ............................................ 39

xi
xii CONTENTS

PART II: SELF-DETERMINATION THEORY

3. Cognitive Evaluation Theory: Perceived Causality and Perceived

Competence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 43
The Effects of Monetary Rewards ..................... . 44
Perceived Causality: Internal to External ............... . 49
Other Extrinsic Rewards ........................... . 49
Reward Salience and Expectancy .................... . 52
Constraints and Other Extrinsic Factors ............. . 54
Perceived Causality: External to Internal ............... . 57
Perceived Competence: Increases ..................... . 58
Perceived Competence: Decreases ..................... . 60
Cognitive Evaluation Theory ......................... . 62
Proposition I ...................................... . 62
Proposition II ..................................... . 63
Proposition III ......, .............................. . 63
Evolution of the Theory ............................ . 64
Motivationally Relevant Processes ................... . 65
Reward Administration and Types of Tasks ............ . 72
Reward Contingencies ................. '............ . 72
The Nature of the Task ............................ . 81
Summary ............................................ 85

4. Cognitive Evaluation Theory: Interpersonal Communication and

Intrapersonal Regulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 87

Interpersonal Contexts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 88
Performance-Contingent Rewards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 88
Positive Feedback ...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 91
Self-Administration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 93
The Meaning of Controlling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 95
The Meaning of Informational . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 96
The Communicator and the Context ................. 98
Characteristics of the Perceiver/Recipient ............... 99
Sex Differences: Information and Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Individual Differences in the Perceiver . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 102
Intrapersonal Regulation: Information and Control ...... 105
Proposition IV ,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 107
Experimentallnvestigations ......................... 108
Self-Determination and Causality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 111
Summary ............................................ 112
CONTENTS xiii

5. Toward an Organismic Integration Theory: Motivation and

Development . ............................................. 113
The Nature of Development ........................... 113
The Organismic Integration Process .................... 116
Intrinsic Motivation and Development. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 120
Intrinsically Motivated Behavior ..................... 121
The Effects of the Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 122
The Development of Intrinsic Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . .. 127
Extrinsic Motivation and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 129
Evidence for Internalization ......................... 132
Internalization and the Integrative Process. . . . . . . . . . .. 133
Individual Differences in Children's Self-Regulation ... 140
Internalization and the Environment ................. 143
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 147

6. Causality Orientations Theory: Personality Influences on Motivation 149

Behaviors and Initiating Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 151
Causality Orientations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 152
The Autonomy Orientation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 154
The Control Orientation ............................ 157
The Impersonal Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 159
The Development of Causality Orientations. . . . . . . . . .. 160
The General Causality Orientations Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 163
Self-Determination ................................. 163
Self-Actualization ................................... 164
Self-Esteem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 165
Locus of Control ................................... 166
Self-Consciousness ................................. 168
Other Constructs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 169
Emotions and Attitudes ............................. 171
Behaviors .......................................... 172
Summary of Scale Development ..................... 174
Summary ............................................ 175

PART III: ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES

7. Operant and Attributional Theories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 179

Operant Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 180
Rewards and Response Rates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 181
"Failures" to Replicate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 182
xiv CONTENTS

Competing Responses and Boredom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 184

The Focus of One's Analysis ........................ 185
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 188
Cognitive Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 189
Interpersonal Attributions ............................. 190
Attribution Theories ................................ 191
Attributing Motivation .............................. 194
Self-Attributions ...................................... 200
Perceiving Intrinsic Motivation in Oneself and Others ... 206
Metatheoretical Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 208
Summary ............................................ 211

8. Information-Processing Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 213

Expectancy Theories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 215
Vroom's Model .................................... 215
Atkinson's Model .................................. 218
The Issue of Task Difficulty ......................... 221
Bandura's Theory .................................. 223
Hunt's Theory ..................................... 225
Inadequacies of the Cognitive Theories. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 228
Self-Determination Theory: An Information-Processing
Representation ................................... 229
Inputs of Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 229
Causality Orientations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 231
Self-Determined Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 231
Non-Self-Determined Behavior ...................... 239
Summary ............................................ 242

PART IV: APPLICATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

9. Education ................................................ 245

Intrinsic Motivation in the Classroom .................. 246
Classroom Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 250
The Interpersonal Context: Teachers' Orientations ..... 252
Intrinsically Motivated Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 256
Extrinsic Motivation in the Classroom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 261
Reinforcement Programs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 261
Organismic Integration ............................. 264
Factors Affecting the Teacher .......................... 266
Pressure from Above ...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 266
CONTENTS xv

Pressure from Below. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 268

Summary .................. : ......................... 270

10. Psychotherapy ............................................. 273

The Therapeutic Process as Development ............... 274
Maintenance and Transfer of Treatment Gains . . . . . . .. 277
Approaches to Therapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 284
Behavior Therapies ......, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 285
Psychoanalytic Therapies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 286
Humanistic Therapies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 288
General Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 291
Summary ............................................ 291

11. Work .................................................... 293

Self-Determination in Organizations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 294
Theories Y and Z. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 295
Reward Structures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 298
Research on Self-Determination in Organizations ........ 301
The Interpersonal Context. .......................... 302
Individual Differences .............................. 304
Experimental Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 306
Summary ............................................ 310

12. Sports ................................................... 313

Cognitive Evaluation Theory and Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 315
Self-Determination and Perceived Locus of Causality .. 315
Optimal Challenge and Perceived Competence. . . . . . .. 318
Competition and Intrinsic Motivation .................. 321
Indirect Competition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 322
Direct Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 323
Competition and Ego-Involvement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 325
Sex Differences in Competitive Settings .............. 326
Goals and Values ................................... 329
Motivation and the Experience of Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 330
Summary ............................................ 332
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 335
Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 359
Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 367