Unit 4: Intrinsic and extrinic motivations

Psychology of Motivation and Emotion

Faculty of Psychology, Universitat de València
Academic year 2022/23
Prof. Sandra Simó
Competencies

• To know the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

• To value the extent of each one and the motivational quality that
results from one or another.
• To know the basic psychological needs.
• To know the different perspectives on the study of intrinsic motivation.
Contents
1. Extrinsic motivation
2. The limit between intrinsic-extrinsic motivation: "The hidden cost of
reward”
3. Theoretical perspectives on the study of intrinsic motivation
4. Psychological needs involved in intrinsic motivation
5. How to support the expression of organismic psychological needs
A. Supporting autonomy
B. Supporting competence
C. Supporting relatedness
 MATERIAL WE WILL USE
(and you will use to study for the exam)

• Chapter 5: Extrinsic motivation and internalization (7ª Ed). Reeve, J. (2018). Wiley.
• Chapter 6: Psychological needs. Understanding motivation and emotion (7ª Ed).
Reeve, J. (2018). Wiley.
• Chapter 15: Growth motivation and positive psychology. Understanding motivation
and emotion (7ª Ed). Reeve, J. (2018). Wiley.
• Slides.
Types of happiness

Hedonic Eudaimonic
• Experience of pleasure, • Experience of seeking out challenges, exerting
absence of problems, and effort, being fully engaged and experiencing
the living of a relaxed and flow in what one is doing, acting on one´s true
good life. values, and feeling fully alive and authentic
 prioritizing pleasure, (Ryan & Deci, 2001)
comfort/painlessness In its essence, eudaimonic well being is self-
realization. It is active engagement in a
meaningful life, even if that active engagement
takes one through hardships and long periods of
the absence of positive affect episodes.
 prioritizing authenticity, excellence, growth.

Page 387-388, Unit 15, Reeve, 2018

Eudaimonic well-being Hedonic well-being
• Life meaning “I think my life is useful and • Positive affect “I enjoy a lot of little things
worthwhile” every day”
• Self-acceptance “I am satisfied with myself” • Negative affect “I have a lot of bad moments
in my daily life”
• Personal growth “My life is full of learning
experiences and challenges that make me
grow”
• Relatedness “I feel very connected to the
people around me”
• Perceived control “I feel able to solve the
majority of my daily problems”
• Autonomy “I think that I can be myself on the
important things”

Extracted from the Pemberton Happiness Index (Hervas y Vázquez, 2013)

 Extrinsic motivation arises from some
consequences that is separate (extrinsic)
from the activity itself.
Extrinsic Motivation

An environmentally created reason (e.g., incentives or consequences)

to engage in an action or activity.

“Do this in order to get that” type of motivation

requested behavior extrinsic incentive or consequence

“What’s in it for me?” type of motivation

 Intrinsic motivation is a natural inclination
toward exploration, spontaneous interest, and
environmental mastery that emerges from
innate strivings for personal growth and from
Intrinsic Motivation experiences of psychological need satisfaction.

The inherent desire to engage one’s interests and to exercise and

develop one’s capacities (Ryan & Deci, 2017).

“I am doing this because it is ….” type of motivation

engaged activity interesting,

fun, enjoyable,
Satisfying psychological needs
(i.e., autonomy, competence, relatedness)
Origins of intrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation

Psychological need
satisfaction

Autonomy Competence Relatedness

Need to be effective in
Need to experience Need to establish close
interactions with the
self-direction and emotional bonds and
environment. Reflects
personal endorsement attachments. Reflects
the desire to exersice
in the initiation and the desire to be
one´s capacities and
regulation of one´s emotionally connected
skills. Master optimal
behavior to others.
challenges.

Support from the environment and relationships

Benefits of intrinsic motivation
Conceptual Optimal
persistence creativity understanding/ functioning and
High qualitylearning well-being

The greater people

experience
The higher a Greater self-
interest, Flexible thinking,
person´s intrinsic actualization.
enjoyment, active information
motivation, the Greater subjective
satisfaction, and processing.
greater will be his vitality, less anxiety,
challenge of the Learning in
or her persistence greater self-
work itself, the conceptual ways.
on that task. esteem…
higer people being
creative.
 Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

INTRINSIC MOTIVATION
Inherent desire to engage one´s interests and to exercise
and develop one´s capacities.
To seek out and master optimal challenges
Emerges spontaneously from psychological Motivation comes from
needs and innate strivings for growth. environmental incentives and
consequences that promote a sense
of “want to”.
We follow hedonistic tendencies.
We do it for an instrumental reason.
Motivation arises from some consequence that is separate
from the activity itself

EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION
1. Extrinsic motivation
External regulation of motivation
Based on operant conditioning (process by which a person learns how to
operate effectively in the environment.

Incentives Consequences Rewards

Reinforcers (“Do it”)

Positive reinforcers: Any offering from one
An environmental event
increases action to get person given to another
that attracts or repels a
more of a desirable person in exchange for his
person toward or away
quality. or her service or
from initiating a particular
Negative reinforcers: achievement.
course of action. Precede
increases action (escape) May or may not serve as
behavior and create
to get less of an positive reinforcers.
expectancies. Excite or
indesirable quality. Rewards sometimes do
inhibit the initiation of
Punishers: “stop it”: and sometimes do not
behavior.
decreases action to avoid work.
undesirabl quality)
 Do Punishers Work?
Do They Suppress Undesirable Behavior?
Research shows that punishment is an ineffective motivational strategy (popular but
ineffective nonetheless)
A punisher is any environmental stimulus that, when presented, decreases the future
probability of the undesired behavior.

“side effects”

Negative Emotionality Impaired relationship Negative modeling

(e.g.), between punisher and of how to cope with
• crying, punishee. undesirable behavior in
• screaming, others.
• feeling afraid
 Rewards:
How Rewards Work—Do They Facilitate Desirable Behavior?

 An extrinsic reward enlivens  When events take an

positive emotion and unexpected turn for the better,
facilitates behavior because then dopamine release and
it signals the opportunity for BAS neural activation occur, as
a personal gain. the brain inherently latches
onto the environmental signal
of the unexpected gain.
2. The limit between intrinsic-extrinsic motivation:
"The hidden cost of reward”
Hidden Cost of Rewards:
the unexpected, unintended, and adverse effects that extrinsic rewards
sometimes have on intrinsic motivation, high-quality learning, and
autonomous self-regulation.

Using a reward to engage someone in an activity

Intended Primary Effect Unintended

Primary Effect
 Promotes Compliance
(Behavioral Engagement  Undermines Intrinsic Motivation
in the Activity)
 Interferes with the Quality and
Process of Learning
 Interferes with the Capacity for
Autonomous Self-Regulation
Benefits of incentives, consecuences and rewards

• When there is no intrinsic motivation to be undermined

(uninteresting tasks), rewards can make an otherwise
uninteresting task seem suddenly worth pursuing
• Use rewards in uninteresting tasks that have less intrinsic appeal
like:
• Increasing old adult´s participation in physical activities.
• Teaching autistic children to initiate conversations.
• Developing daily living skills, such as dressing.
• Getting motorists to stop at stop signs.
• Participating in recycling.
• Use rewards that are unexpected and verbal.
 Four Reasons Not to Use Extrinsic Motivation
(even for uninteresting endeavors)

Extrinsic motivators still undermine the quality of performance

and interfere with the process of learning.

Using rewards distracts attention away from asking the hard question
of why another person is being asked to do an uninteresting task in the
first place.

There are better ways to encourage participation than extrinsic

bribery.

Extrinsic motivators still undermine the individual’s long-term capacity

for autonomous self-regulation.

Deci, E. L., Koestner, R., & Ryan, R. M. (1999). A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation.
Psychological Bulletin, 125, 627–668.
Lepper, M. R.,&Greene, D. (1975). Turning play into work: Effects of adult surveillance and extrinsic rewards on children’s intrinsic motivation. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 31, 479–486.
3. Theoretical perspectives on the study of intrinsic motivation.
 Cognitive Evaluation Theory

 Cognitive evaluation theory provides a way for predicting the effects

that any extrinsic event will have on motivation.

 The theory explains how an extrinsic event (e.g., money, grade,

deadline) affects intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, as mediated by the
event’s effect on the psychological needs for competence and
autonomy.

All external events have two functions:

• Control behavior
• Inform competence

Which functions more salient determines how the external

event will affect intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Ryan, R.M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation,
social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 68–78.
Cognitive Evaluation Theory
 Any External Event (Rewards)

Controlling Function Informational Function

“Because you
“If you do X, were able to do X,
that means
then you get Y.” you are effective,
competent.”

1. Decreases intrinsic motivation 1. Increases intrinsic motivation

2. Interferes with quality of learning. 2. Enhances high-quality learning.
3. External regulation increases; 3. Enhances self-regulation.
Self-regulation undermined
 Cognitive Evaluation Theory
for intrinsic motivation to
flourish, both competence and
autonomy must be high (Fisher,
1978), and for both competence
and autonomy to be high, the
offered external event—such as
praise or competition—needs to
be presented in a way that is
both noncontrolling and
competence informing.

Ryan, R.M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social
development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 68–78.
Self-determination continuum showing
types of EXTRINSIC motivation
Nonself-determined Self-determined
Behavior

amotivation Extrinsic motivation Intrinsic motivation

Motivation

Regulatory
Non-regulation External R Identified R Intrinsic regulation
styles
Introjected R Integrated R

Perceiced
Locus of impersonal external Somewhat Somewhat internal internal
Causality external internal

Non- Compliance, Self control, Personal Congruence, Interest,

Relevant intentional, external egoinvolvement importance, awareness, enjoyment,
regulatory nonvaluing, rewards and internal conscious synthesis with inherent
incompeten punishments rewards and valuing self satisfaction
processes
ce, lack of punishments
control
Ryan y Deci, 2000
 Types of Extrinsic Motivation
Self-determination theory posits that different types of motivation can be organized
along a continuum of self-determination or perceived locus of causality.

Extrinsic Motivation

External Introjected Identified Integrated

Regulation Regulation Regulation Regulation

Introjected Regulation Identified Regulation Integrated Regulation

(slightly autonomous) (highly autonomous) (fully autonomous)
The taking in, but not Voluntarily accepting as Fully transforming an
truly accepting or one’s own the merits and identified regulation (way
personally endorsing, utility of other people’s of thinking, feeling, or
other people’s suggested suggested ways of behaving) into the self in a
ways of thinking, feeling, thinking, feeling, or coherent and conflict-free
or behaving. behaving. way.
Four types of extrinsic motivation, illustrated by different reasons of
“why I recycle”.
Type of extrinsic External The reason I Illustrative quotation
motivation contingency at recycle is…
stake
External Incentives, To get a I recicle to make 5 cents on each can.
regulation consequences consequence
Introjected Avoid guilt, Because i should I recycle because I ought to, if I am
regulation boost self- going to feel good about myself.
esteem

Identified Valuing, sense Because it is I recycle because it is important for a

regulation of importance important cleaner environment.

Integrated Value Because it reflects I recicle because it reflects and

regulation congruence my values expresse who I am and what I believe
Three Part Experience of Amotivation
It is a state of motivational apathy in which people possess little or no reason (no motive) to
invest the energy and effortthat is necessary to learn or to accomplish something. With
amotivation the person turns passive, ineffective, and lacks purpose. No intention to act.
Conclusions:
• The phenomenon of motivation is multifaceted, and motivational sources are often complex and
dynamic. To live the most rounded life, it is important to establish and maintain a healthy balance
of the different types of motivation.
• Intrinsic motivation has potentially profound benefits including life understanding, purpose, and
meaning, heightened functionality and well-being, overall enjoyment of life, and self-
actualization.
• Rewards, incentives, and punishment undermine and cause harm to intrinsic motivation. Despite
contrary belief, these should be avoided when aiming to foster intrinsic motivation.
• To foster intrinsic motivation, environments that facilitate competence, autonomy, and
relatedness should be sought out and provided. Additionally, individuals should work to uncover
what is truly important to them - as this will allow them to realize their passions; and ultimately
live an effective, wholesome life.
4. Psychological needs involved in intrinsic motivation. Promoting
intrinsic motivation
Psychological needs

• Psychological needs: An inherent source of motivation that generates the

desire to interact with the environment so as to advance personal growth,
social development, and psychological well-being.
• Psychological needs generate proactive energy: it promotes a willingness to
engage in an environment that we expect will be able to nurture our
psychological needs.

• As humans, our natural state is to: explore, play, experiment, undertake

challenges, ask questions …
when an activity involves our psychological needs, we feel interest.
when an activity satisfies our psychological need, we feel enjoyment.
Motivating Others to Do Uninteresting Activities

Ways to Promote More Autonomous Types of Extrinsic Motivation

Providing a Rationale Building Interest

Explain why the Involves first catching
uninteresting activity one’s situational
is important and interest in an activity
useful enough to and then holding that
warrant one’s initial interest over
volitional time by developing an
engagement individual interest in
the activity.
 The Essence of an Explanatory Rationale
• “Doing this activity has been shown to be useful. The benefit is <state
benefit>. This benefit occurred because …”

• “Revising your paper multiple times is a useful thing to do. By revising your
paper, you give yourself an opportunity to become a better writer. Revising
helps your writing skill develop because you have the time to evaluate your
writing decisions and strategies—topic sentences, active voice, vivid
imagery, conclusion sentences, etc.”

So, this is more about The motivational question therefore shifts from:
“become a better writer” than • Do you want to revise your paper? (no, it is boring) to:
• Do you want to improve your writing? (yes, it is important).
it is about “revise your paper”. If the person does not want to improve their writing, then your explanatory rationale has not
been sufficiently satisfying to that person.
Internalization
Definition
The process through which a person transform a formerly externally
prescribed way of thinking or behaving into an internally-endorsed
one.
Values, goals to strive for, attitudes, beliefs,
standards of excellence, opinions, preferences, etc.

• Instead of thinking this way, how about thinking this other way?
• Instead of behaving this way, how about behaving this other way?

Prescriptions: “Do this.”

Proscriptions: “Don’t do this, do that.”
 Organism: entity that is alive Organismic Approach to Motivation
and in active Exchange with
its environment
Two Assumptions

People are inherently People need supportive,

active—always in active rather than hostile,
exchange with their environments.
environment.
• Need satisfaction leads to growth
• Because the environments offers and adaptive functioning.
the organism what it needs to be • Need frustration leads to defense
well, to grow, and to actualize its and maladaptive functioning
potential

Organisms depends on its environment  Environments constantly change

 Organisms need flexibility to learn, develop new skills and adapt
 Psychological needs are universal. All
humans have the same psychological
Benefits of Need Satisfaction needs.

Engagement: how active a person is in the Need satisfaction increases initiative, effort,
activity. enthusiasm, and planning.

Personal Growth: how mature, responsible, Need satisfaction increases personal

authentic, interpersonally connected, self-motivating. development.

Intrinsic Motivation: spontaneous activity Need satisfaction increases how interesting

done for the enjoyment of the activity itself. and how enjoyable the task is.

Internalization: taking in of beliefs, behaviors, Need satisfaction increases volitional

and regulations from other people and transformed into engagement in uninteresting tasks.
volitional self-regulations of one´s own.

Need satisfaction increases a health-

Health: functional efficiency of the mind and the body. promoting lifestyle.

Well-Being: positive emotionality, presence of Need satisfaction increases positive emotion

psychological need satisfaction. and a sense of purpose.
 Dual Process Model in Supportive and Thwartive
Relationships
Environments (and relationships) are generally both somewhat supportive and somewhat
thwartive.
5. How to support the expression of organismic psychological needs

A. Supporting autonomy
B. Supporting competence
C. Supporting relatedness
A. Supporting autonomy
Autonomy
(as a Psychological Need)

• The psychological need to experience self-direction and

personal endorsement in the initiation and regulation of one’s
behavior.
• Motivation and behavior are autonomous when they originate
within the students’ own personal interests, wants, goals,
values, preferences, etc.
• When motivation and behavior originate from (and are caused
by) these inner motivational resources, students say
• “I want to do it…”
• I want to = an inner endorsement of behavior.
The subjective qualities within the experience of
autonomy Behavior is autonomous (or self-
determined) when our interests,
preferences, and wants guide our
decision-making process to engage or not
Perceived autonomy to engage in a particular activity.
Autonomy: The inner endorsement of
one’s behavior.

Internal perceived Perceived choice

locus of causality over one´s actions
(PLOC) Volition (feeling free) sense of choice we
an individual’s an unpressured experience when we
understanding of the willingness to engage are in environments
causal source of his in an activity that provide us with
or her motivated decision-making
actions flexibility that affords
us with many
opportunities to
choose

(Reeve, 2009)
 Motivating Styles
The contrasting interpersonal tones between an autonomy-
supportive vs. a controlling motivating style
Interpersonal sentiment
Interpersonal sentiment and behavior to pressure
and behavior to identify, another toward
nurture, and develop compliance with a
another’s inner prescribed way of thinking,
motivational resources feeling, or behaving
Not all choices promote autonomy.

“either-or” choice offerings

Choice among options offered by others

• True choice over people’s actions

• Meaningful choice that reflects people’s values & interests

Enhance a sense of need- Enhance intrinsic motivation,

satisfying autonomy effort, creativity, preference for
challenge, and performance
Motivating Styles
The contrasting interpersonal tones between:

autonomy-supportive Controlling
ENABLEING CONDITION ENABLEING CONDITION
 Takes the other person’s perspective  Pressures the other person toward a
 Values personal growth opportunities
prescribed outcome
 Targets a prescribed outcome
INSTRUCTIONAL BEHAVIORS
 Nurtures Inner Motivational Resources INSTRUCTIONAL BEHAVIORS
 Relies on Informational Language  Relies on outer sources of motivation

 Promoting Valuing  Relies on pressuring language

 Acknowledges and Accepts Negative  Neglects explanatory rationales

Affect  Asserts power to silence negative
affect and to resolve conflict
Starting Point to Enact an
Autonomy-Supportive Motivating Style
Enabling Conditions or Prerequisites

1. Adopt, value, and appreciate the other’s

perspective.

2. Invite and welcome the other’s thoughts, feelings,

and behaviors into the flow of the activity.
Ways of Supporting Autonomy
a) Nurture inner motivational resources
Vitalization of the other’s interest, enjoyment, psychological need satisfaction (autonomy,
competence, relatedness), curiosity, and personal goals and values during the engagement of a
requested activity.

b) Provide explanatory rationales

 Verbal explanations that help students understands why self-regulation of the activity would
have personal utility.

c) Use informational language

•  Communications that minimize pressure (absence of “shoulds,” “musts,” and
“have to’s”) and convey a sense of choice and flexibility in the locution of behavior.

d) Acknowledge and accept negative affect

•  Tension-alleviating acknowledgments that the request one is making of the other
is in conflict with his or her personal inclinations and that his or her feelings of
conflict are legitimate (yet not necessarily inconsistent with activity engagement).
a. Nurture Inner Motivational Resources:
Autonomy-Supportive Instructional Behavior #1
When Teachers Need It Most:
* When introducing a learning activity or making a transition to a new activity.
* When seeking student’s active engagement (attention, effort, initiative, participation).

Autonomy-Supportive Instruction Controlling

Encourage Student Initiative by Involving Inner Motivational Instruction
Resources, such as:
Encourage Student Initiative by Relying on
• Psychological Needs Environmental Sources of Motivation, such as:
• Intrinsic Motivation
• Curiosity, Personal Preferences • Directives, Commands
• Self-Endorsed Goals and Values • Compliance Requests, Assignments
• Incentives
• Rewards (External Contingencies)

Why It Is Important:
* Allows students to feel like origins, rather than pawns, during learning activities.
* Aligns what students do with an authentic sense of wanting to do it.
b. Provide Explanatory Rationales
(Autonomy-Supportive Instructional Behavior #2)
When Teachers Need It Most:
* When asking students to engage in uninteresting (but important) lessons.
* When asking students to engage in requested activities, rules, or procedures.

Autonomy-Supportive Instruction Controlling

Provide Explanatory Rationales by Communicating or Instruction
Revealing the Endeavor’s Underlying:
Neglect to Communicate Why an Activity Is Worth
Doing or a Rule is Worth Following.
• Importance Hence, Students Experience:
• Personal Usefulness to the Student
• Activities as Meaningless Busy Work
• Value, Especially Hidden Value
• Rules as Arbitrary; Counter to their
• Meaning, Personal Significance
Wishes
• Directives, without Explanation

Why It Is Important:
* Promotes internalization.
* Students need help to transform what is not worth doing into what is worth doing.
c. Use Noncontrolling, Informational Langauge
(Autonomy-Supportive Instructional Behavior #3)
When Teachers Need It Most:
* When communicating requirements, responsibilities, and feedback.
* When addressing motivational and behavioral problems.

Autonomy-Supportive Instruction Controlling

Communicate Classroom Requirements and Instruction
Address Problems through Messages that Are:
Communicate Classroom Requirements and
Address Problems through Messages that Are:
•Non-evaluative
• Evaluative
• Flexible
• Rigid
• Invitational (You may…”)
•Commanding (“You must…”)
• Informational
• Pressuring

Why It Is Important:
* Maintains a positive teacher-student relationship.
* Helps student diagnose their motivational, behavioral, and performance problems
while maintaining their personal responsibility for those problems.
d. Acknowledge and Accept Expressions of Resistance and Negative
Feelings
When Teachers Need It Most:
* During conflict between what teachers want versus what students want.
* When students’ preferences are at odds with the teacher’s requests and requirements.

Autonomy-Supportive Instruction Controlling

Acknowledge and Accept Students’ Expressions of Instruction
Resistance and Negative Feelings:
Counter and Try to Change Students’ Expressions of
• Acknowledge Resistance and Negative Affect:
• Accept • Counter
• Even Welcome • Argue Against
• Try to Change
Such Affect as Potentially Valid Reactions to Such “Bad Attitude” Is Unacceptable and Needs to Be
Imposed Demands, Structures, and Constraints. Changed, Fixed, or Reversed into Something more
Acceptable to the Teacher.

Why It Is Important:
* Maintains a positive teacher-student relationship.
* Helps student diagnose their motivational, behavioral, and performance problems
while maintaining their personal responsibility for those problems.
Moment- to Moment Autonomy Support
What Autonomy-Supportive and Controlling People Say and Do to Motivate Others

What Autonomy-Supportive People What Controlling People

Say and Do Say and Do

 Listen carefully  Hold/Hog learning materials

 Allow others time to talk  Show correct answers
 Provide rationale  Tell correct answers
 Encourage effort  Speak directives, commands
 Praise progress, mastery  Should, must, have to
 Ask others what they want statements
to do  Ask controlling questions
 Respond to questions  Seem demanding
 Acknowledge the other’s
perspective
Autonomy-Supportive Interpersonal Behaviors
Controlling Interpersonal Behaviors
Benefits to Students Who Receive Teacher-Provided
Autonomy Support
B. Supporting competence
Competence
(as a Psychological Need)

• A psychological need to be effective in interactions with the

environment.
• It reflects the desire to exercise and to extend one’s skills and
capacities and, in doing so, seek out and master optimal
(developmentally-appropriate) challenges. It generates a
willingness to seek out those optimal challenges.
Challenge & Optimal Challenge

• The essence of challenge: “Can you do it?” Can you cope

successfully? Can you handle whatever it is the environment is
asking or requiring you to do (Can you make friends? Can you
dance? Can you jump over the fence? Can you run a mile
without collapsing?).

• The essence of optimal challenge: “Can you do a little better

than you have done in the past?” Given your developmental
stage in relation to this task, Can you improve? Can you do
better? Can you grow and develop your skill further?
 Involving Competence
Key Environmental Conditions

1. Optimal Challenge and • Flow: a state of concentration that involves a

Flow holistic absorption in an activity.

• Information about the pathways to desired

2. Structure outcomes.
• Support and guidance for pursing these pathways.

• Setting the stage for challenge.

3. Feedback
• Performance feedback.

• Considerable error making is essential for

4. Failure Tolerance optimizing learning.
• Failure produces opportunities for learning.
FLOW theory

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on flow:

http://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_
flow.html

“How to live life as a work of art, rather than as a chaotic

response to external events..."
Flow theory asserts that any activity can be made to be an
enjoyable one. Identify a relatively common but largely
boring activity and restructure how people spend time
on that activity (using flow theory) so that it could
become a significantly more interesting/enjoyable
activity.
• What makes an activity to be enjoyable?
• Which are the phenomenological characteristics that
define the flow situation?
Flow Model
Flow experience:
• Completely involved,
focused.
• Sense of ecstasy - of being
outside everyday reality.
• Great inner clarity -
knowing what needs to be
done and how well it is
going.
• Sense of serenity - no
worries about self.
• Timeliness - thoroughly
focused on present, don't
notice time passing.
• Intrinsic motivation -
whatever produces "flow"
becomes its own reward
 Flow channel

Flow

Challenge

low Personal skills high

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper & Row
Structure
• Structure is the amount and clarity of information one person
gives to another regarding what to do and how to do it (so to
develop desired skills and to achieve desired outcomes).

• In practice, providing structure is typically a 3-step process of

• communicating clear expectations and high standards,
• helping the other adjust their behavior in ways that they can meet those
expectations and standards, and
• providing a future pathway to more effective functioning (see next
slide).
 Three Aspects of a Structured Environment

Structure

Clear Expectations Guidance Feedback

What should I do? Am I doing this correctly? Is this any good?

What represents good Will I be able to do this What should I work on

performance? well? next?

How good is good How can I improve—how How can I advance from
enough? can I do better? good to great?
Structure-Providing Interpersonal Behaviors
We Learn more from Failure than from Success
(because failure produces three unique learning opportunities)

1. Failure urges people to identify its causes

(and remedy them).

2. Failure prompts people to revise and

update the quality of their coping strategies.

3. Failure prompts people to realize their

need for advice and guidance.
C. Supporting relatedness
Relatedness
(as a Psychological Need)

• A psychological need to establish close emotional bonds and

attachments with other people (caring, responsive, reciprocal,
warm relationships).

• It reflects the desire to be emotionally connected to and

interpersonally involved in warm relationships.
 Two Key Conditions that Satisfy the Need for
Relatedness

Relatedness Satisfaction

Responsiveness Social Bond

The other person offers: The other person:

• Understanding • Cares about my welfare

• Validation • Likes me
• Caring
Relatedness

Involving Relatedness: • Emotionally positive interactions and interaction

Interaction with Others partners.

Satisfying Relatedness:
• Intimate and high-quality relationships that
Perception of involve caring, liking, accepting, and valuing.
a Social Bond

• In communal relationships, people care for the

Communal & Exchange
needs of the other, and both feel an obligation to
Relationships
support the other’s welfare.

Fruits of Relatedness Need • Engagement, developmental growth, health and

Satisfaction well-being.
Why Relatedness Is Important,
Educationally Speaking

Relatedness provides the social context to:

• Support internalization.
• Promote vitality, engagement.
• Promote happiness (prevents loneliness, depression)

The presence of emotions such as sadness, depression, jealousy,

and loneliness are telltale signs of a life lived in the absence of
intimate, high-quality, relatedness-satisfying social bonds and
relationships.
Key Elements of Relatedness Support
Quality of a Relationship
Communal vs. Exchange Relationships
Exchange Relationship
• Relationships between acquaintance or between people who have business
together.
• No obligation exists to be concerned with the other’s needs or welfare.
• Okay to be neglectful or uncaring of the other’s needs.
• What people in exchange relationships want: A fair deal on material outcomes
(time, money).
• Exchange Relationships: DO NOT satisfy the relatedness psychological need.
Communal Relationship
• Relationships between people who care about the welfare of the other (e.g.,
friendships, family, romantic partners).
• Both partners care for the needs of the other, and both want to support the other’s
welfare. Instead of “keeping score” of each other’s input, contributions, and
outputs (time, money, help, benefits), partners monitor and keep track of (and
actively support the) other’s needs.
• Communal Relationships: DO satisfy the relatedness psychological need.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGEHER:
SOCIAL CONTEXTS THAT SUPPORT PSYCHOLOGICAL NEEDS
Environmental Factors that Involve and Satisfy the Psychological Needs

Environmental
Psychological Environmental Condition
Condition that Involves
Need that Satisfies the Need
the Need

Autonomy Opportunities for Autonomy support

self-direction

Competence Optimal challenge Positive feedback

Relatedness Social interaction Communal relationships

 Engagement
The Engagement Model Based on Psychological Need Satisfaction (Reeve, 2018)
 Positive emotion and
What Makes for a Good Day? psychological well-being.

To perceive an internal
locus of causality
Daily
Autonomy

Psychological
To feel effective dealing
with daily activities
Nutriments To feel close and
for Good connected with others
Days
Daily Daily
Competence Relatedness

Psychological Nutriments necessary for

Good Days, and Positive Well-Being.
 Supporting Autonomy
Key Environmental Conditions
• Vitalization of the other’s interest, enjoyment,
1. Nurture inner motivational psychological need satisfaction (autonomy, competence,
resources relatedness), curiosity, and personal goals and values
during the engagement of a requested activity.

2. Provide explanatory rationales

• Verbal explanations that help students understands why
self-regulation of the activity would have personal utility.

• Communications that minimize pressure (absence of

3. Use informational language “shoulds,” “musts,” and “have to’s”) and convey a sense of
choice and flexibility in the locution of behavior.

• Tension-alleviating acknowledgments that the request one

is making of the other is in conflict with his or her personal
4. Acknowledge and accept
inclinations and that his or her feelings of conflict are
negative affect legitimate (yet not necessarily inconsistent with activity
engagement).
 Involving Competence
Key Environmental Conditions

1. Optimal Challenge and • Flow: a state of concentration that involves a

Flow holistic absorption in an activity.

• Information about the pathways to desired

2. Structure outcomes.
• Support and guidance for pursing these pathways.

• Setting the stage for challenge.

3. Feedback
• Performance feedback.

• Considerable error making is essential for

4. Failure Tolerance optimizing learning.
• Failure produces opportunities for learning.
Relatedness
Key Environmental Conditions
Involving Relatedness: • Emotionally positive interactions and interaction
Interaction with Others partners.

Satisfying Relatedness:
• Intimate and high-quality relationships that
Perception of involve caring, liking, accepting, and valuing.
a Social Bond

• In communal relationships, people care for the

Communal & Exchange
needs of the other, and both feel an obligation to
Relationships
support the other’s welfare.

Fruits of Relatedness Need • Engagement, developmental growth, health and

Satisfaction well-being.
• Unit 4 ends here!!