Changes in students’ goal pursuits and motivational regulations toward healthy behaviors during the pandemic: A Self-Determination Theory perspective

Occupational health nurses motivate employees to engage in healthy behaviors. Both clinicians and researchers need strong theories on which to base decisions for health programs (e.g., healthy diet) and experimental interventions (e.g., workplace walking). The self-determination theory could be useful as it includes concepts of individual autonomy, competence to perform healthy behaviors, and relationships as predictors of health behaviors and outcomes. In this article, the self-determination theory is described and evaluated using Walker and Avant’s criteria. The theory is applied to a population of federal employees who smoke. By increasing employees’ ability to autonomously choose smoking cessation programs, support their competence to stop smoking, and improve their relationships with both others who smoke and employee health services, smoking cessation should increase.

Download Full-text

Advancing from Activated Patient to Autonomous Patient

10.1093/med/9780195386585.003.0008 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Mark D. Sullivan

Keyword(s):

Patient Autonomy ◽

Patient Empowerment ◽

Self Determination Theory ◽

Self Determination ◽

Identity Shift ◽

Healthy Behaviors ◽

Health Action ◽

Patient Confidence ◽

Lasting Change

Patient action in chronic disease care may not be best understood as “behavior.” Healthy patients do not just emit healthy behaviors but act as agents in their own lives. Bandura revolutionized health psychology through his “agentic” approach that emphasized patient confidence or self-efficacy. Now, the personal importance of behavior change is elicited using techniques like motivational interviewing. These and other approaches that include personal goals and identity shift our focus from behavior to action. Health action includes not just management of a disease separate from the self, but self-transformation. Achieving lasting change in health actions requires attention to the autonomous quality of patient motivation. Self-determination theory offers a useful theory of intrinsic motivation and an understanding of the process of internalization of motivation. This helps us understand the promise of shared decision-making and its difference from informed consent. Ultimately, patient empowerment must be understood as fostering patient autonomy.

Download Full-text

Frustration and Violence in Mobile Video Games

Swiss Journal of Psychology ◽

10.1024/1421-0185/a000236 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 79 (2) ◽

pp. 63-70

Author(s):

Petr Květon ◽

Martin Jelínek

Keyword(s):

Video Games ◽

Video Game ◽

Implicit Association Test ◽

Self Determination Theory ◽

Psychological Needs ◽

Basic Psychological Needs ◽

Self Determination ◽

Mobile Video ◽

Violent Content ◽

Before And After

Abstract. This study tests two competing hypotheses, one based on the general aggression model (GAM), the other on the self-determination theory (SDT). GAM suggests that the crucial factor in video games leading to increased aggressiveness is their violent content; SDT contends that gaming is associated with aggression because of the frustration of basic psychological needs. We used a 2×2 between-subject experimental design with a sample of 128 undergraduates. We assigned each participant randomly to one experimental condition defined by a particular video game, using four mobile video games differing in the degree of violence and in the level of their frustration-invoking gameplay. Aggressiveness was measured using the implicit association test (IAT), administered before and after the playing of a video game. We found no evidence of an association between implicit aggressiveness and violent content or frustrating gameplay.

Download Full-text

Modeling Self-Determination Theory Motivation Data by Using Unfolding IRT

European Journal of Psychological Assessment ◽

10.1027/1015-5759/a000629 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-9

Author(s):

Philipp A. Freund ◽

Annette Lohbeck

Keyword(s):

Ideal Point ◽

Self Determination Theory ◽

Self Determination ◽

Dominance Model ◽

Irt Model ◽

Autonomous Behavior ◽

Location Parameters ◽

Unfolding Models ◽

Using Data ◽

Item Location

Abstract. Self-determination theory (SDT) suggests that the degree of autonomous behavior regulation is a characteristic of distinct motivation types which thus can be ordered on the so-called Autonomy-Control Continuum (ACC). The present study employs an item response theory (IRT) model under the ideal point response/unfolding paradigm in order to model the response process to SDT motivation items in theoretical accordance with the ACC. Using data from two independent student samples (measuring SDT motivation for the academic subjects of Mathematics and German as a native language), it was found that an unfolding model exhibited a relatively better fit compared to a dominance model. The item location parameters under the unfolding paradigm showed clusters of items representing the different regulation types on the ACC to be (almost perfectly) empirically separable, as suggested by SDT. Besides theoretical implications, perspectives for the application of ideal point response/unfolding models in the development of measures for non-cognitive constructs are addressed.

Download Full-text

Challenge Demands, Hindrance Demands, and Psychological Need Satisfaction

Journal of Personnel Psychology ◽

10.1027/1866-5888/a000122 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 70-79 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Simon L. Albrecht

Keyword(s):

Work Engagement ◽

Job Demands ◽

Self Determination Theory ◽

Structural Equations ◽

Need Satisfaction ◽

Self Determination ◽

Job Resources ◽

Mediating Effects ◽

Psychological Need ◽

Practical Implications

The job demands-resources (JD-R) model provides a well-validated account of how job resources and job demands influence work engagement, burnout, and their constituent dimensions. The present study aimed to extend previous research by including challenge demands not widely examined in the context of the JD-R. Furthermore, and extending self-determination theory, the research also aimed to investigate the potential mediating effects that employees’ need satisfaction as regards their need for autonomy, need for belongingness, need for competence, and need for achievement, as components of a higher order needs construct, may have on the relationships between job demands and engagement. Structural equations modeling across two independent samples generally supported the proposed relationships. Further research opportunities, practical implications, and study limitations are discussed.

Download Full-text

Control in Flexible Working Arrangements

Journal of Personnel Psychology ◽

10.1027/1866-5888/a000121 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 61-69 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Cornelia Gerdenitsch ◽

Bettina Kubicek ◽

Christian Korunka

Keyword(s):

Self Determination Theory ◽

Digital Natives ◽

Self Determination ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Similar Extent ◽

Decision Latitude ◽

Media Technologies ◽

Exploratory Approach ◽

Flexible Working ◽

Temporal And Spatial

Supported by media technologies, today’s employees can increasingly decide when and where to work. The present study examines positive and negative aspects of this temporal and spatial flexibility, and the perceptions of control in these situations based on propositions of self-determination theory. Using an exploratory approach we conducted semi-structured interviews with 45 working digital natives. Participants described positive and negative situations separately for temporal and spatial flexibility, and rated the extent to which they felt autonomous and externally controlled. Situations appraised positively were best described by decision latitude, while negatively evaluated ones were best described by work–nonwork conflict. Positive situations were perceived as autonomous rather than externally controlled; negative situations were rated as autonomously and externally controlled to a similar extent.

Download Full-text