The “What” and “Why” of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-Determination of Behavior (2000)
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BibTeX
@MISC{Deci00the“what”,
author = {Edward L. Deci and Richard M. Ryan},
title = { The “What” and “Why” of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-Determination of Behavior},
year = {2000}
}
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Abstract
Self-determination theory (SDT) maintains that an understanding of human motiva-tion requires a consideration of innate psychological needs for competence, auton-omy, and relatedness. We discuss the SDT concept of needs as it relates to previous need theories, emphasizing that needs specify the necessary conditions for psycholog-ical growth, integrity, and well-being. This concept of needs leads to the hypotheses that different regulatory processes underlying goal pursuits are differentially associated with effective functioning and well-being and also that different goal contents have different relations to the quality of behavior and mental health, specifically be-cause different regulatory processes and different goal contents are associated with differing degrees of need satisfaction. Social contexts and individual differences that support satisfaction of the basic needs facilitate natural growth processes including intrinsically motivated behavior and integration of extrinsic motivations, whereas those that forestall autonomy, competence, or relatedness are associated with poorer motivation, performance, and well-being. We also discuss the relation of the psycho-logical needs to cultural values, evolutionary processes, and other contemporary motivation theories. Most contemporary theories of motivation assume that people initiate and persist at behaviors to the ex-tent that they believe the behaviors will lead to desired outcomes or goals. Beginning with the work of Lewin (1936) and Tolman (1932), this premise has led moti-vation researchers to explore the psychological value people ascribe to goals (e.g., T. Kasser & Ryan, 1996; Vroom, 1964), people’s expectations about attaining goals (e.g., Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978;
Keyphrases
goal pursuit human need target article different goal content moti-vation researcher effective functioning need lead different relation basic need facilitate natural growth mental health different regulatory process evolutionary process necessary condition kasser ryan contemporary theory psycho-logical need sdt concept self-determination theory cultural value extrinsic motivation individual difference previous need theory human motiva-tion psycholog-ical growth social context desired outcome contemporary mo-tivation theory be-cause different regulatory process forestall autonomy innate psychological need psychological value people
