Essay Example on Unlock Your Potential: Self-Determination and You

Introduction

Self-determination

Self-determination is the ability of an individual to make their own choices, therefore having control of their life. They need to maintain self-determination to maintain good mental health and to live peacefully. Not only do they make their own choices, but they feel that they can do so freely. It motivates them, and they can look at the outcome when making a decision. It is applicable in various fields like health, parenting, and education. Self-determination remains a core element in a successful person. Autonomous motivation is as a result of self-determination as applicable in teaching students.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Self-determination theory

It defines the motivation an individual has to grow to meet the needs they feel they should have. The requirements are autonomy, connection, and competence. It describes the rewards an individual gets when they engage in activities to better themselves. Richard Ryan and Edward Deci are the pioneers of self-determination theory. They base the argument on the motivation of an individual to get fulfillment as they work on themselves to grow. The approach has two assumptions. The first is that an individual seeking to change their behavior to fulfill their ambition. It means that they become more active in realizing growth. They can take on challenges as they develop confidence. The second assumption is autonomy. It implies an individual seeks independence and growth mentally and not material wealth.

Autonomous motivation

It is adopting a particular behavior that comes from an individual's goals or the ambition to grow and be consistent. It is as a result of self-determination. With autonomous motivation, an individual makes their own choices freely with more confidence than before (Wijsman et al., 2018). They get interested in what they are doing and get satisfaction from it. They are most likely to be consistent and persistent as long as they get the same feeling. Autonomy, therefore, means the effort an individual put in to be a free agent in their niche and to have more control of their life and decision (Baars et al., 2017). They do not need any external forces to remain consistent in what they are doing. They are the ones that initiate the behavior, too, without help, and they can regulate themselves effectively. The opposite of autonomous motivation is control motivation (Delrue et al., 2019).

It is engaging in a behavior to show off, to avoid inevitable consequences, or to gain a reward. Mostly, the individual does not want to feel guilty about the conduct they adopt. They get pressure to give themselves an obligation to satisfy external forces (Domen et al., 2019). When the pressure releases, they are most likely to stop the behavior. They cannot regulate themselves as they lean on such pressure. They end up not getting satisfaction as they just want to fulfill their needs (Garaus et al., 2016).

Research Questions

• How does self-determination theory work?
• What are the various measures of autonomous motivation?
• What is the Influence of Autonomous Motivation and Control Motivation on Pupils' English?

Research objectives

• The research aims to show the influence of autonomous motivation and control motivation on Pupil's English.
• It aims to show how self-determination theory works in an individual.
• It aims to reveal the measures in autonomous motivation and how it applies self-determination.

Statement of Problem

Autonomous motivation is as a result of self-determination. There are measures of autonomous motivation that reveal its degree in various levels. Self-determination theory shows how an individual seeks to achieve their ambition. Autonomous motivation and control motivation is the opposite, and they have different effects on learning.

Literature review

Self-determination theory

It describes three crucial features to satisfy it, and they include autonomy, connection, and competence. Independence is the sense of being a free agent in the behavior and objectives one has in life. An individual, therefore, directs their own life, resulting from self-determination. It means even in failure; such an individual can admit their mistakes and strive to perform better next time (Guay et al., 2017). Without self-determination, an individual often looks for reasons to incline their mistakes, yet they are responsible. They lose control, and they do not believe further action helps the situation (Isik et al., 2017).

Self-determination requires persistence and consistency. Socially, such an individual need to be in a clean environment (Jungert et al., 2017). Apart from social status, other factors also influence self-determination. They include feedback and external factors, as feedback is inevitable in any field of work. It can either build or destroy. It is an advantage if it is positive as it adds to the confidence of the individual. With more confidence, they become confident, and they are most likely to succeed. External factors also work just like feedback, as it takes both sides. It can add to motivation or can drag the individual towards controlled autonomy (Ketonen et al., 2018).

Autonomous and controlled motivation and their influence

Autonomous motivation has up-to five types, and they include external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic (Li et al., 2018). External means outside factors control the behavior of an individual, and it is the lowest form of autonomous motivation. The next level is "introjected," which is the avoidance of after-feelings like shame and guilt of behavior. An individual seeks approval rather than their success. It inclines more to controlled motivation than autonomous. Identified motivation is the middle-level autonomous motivation, and an individual seeks value in their behavior as they work for themselves (Orsini et al., 2019). Integrated motivation is where an individual defines their own identity. Intrinsic is the highest level of autonomous motivation. It involves enthusiasm and consistency in behavior to achieve one's goals and ambitions. Controlled motivation, on the other hand, refers to an individual's response to get a reward or to escape a challenge or punishment (Maulidia & Usman, 2019).

Autonomous and control motivation influence a pupil's English learning who use the self-determination theory (Ronen & Donia, 2018). The energy of a student is directly proportional to the teacher's motivation. Autonomous motivation creates a comfortable environment for a pupil. They get more enthusiasm and positive energy toward the subject. They adjust their behavior, and they are most likely to get positive results (Tam et al., 2019). They relate better with their teacher, creating a bond that breeds success. Controlled motivation creates an environment of fear as the pupil strives to get results without necessarily forming an attachment with the subject or with the teacher. The pupil is likely to pass, but will not create enthusiasm of the pupil towards the subject (Valenzuela et al., 2017).

Significance of the study

Motivation is a crucial aspect of a pupil's learning. Different teachers use different forms of motivation. The best way still turns out to be autonomous motivation. A pupil gets self-determination to achieve their objectives.

Research methodology

The research methodology is qualitative. It involves the use of interviews and document review. Meetings are with teachers with experience of applying different forms of motivation. It gives first-hand information from them on the mixed results of the types of motivation. Document review provides in-depth knowledge from various researchers and professionals studying the forms of motivation.

References

Baars, M., Wijnia, L., & Paas, F. (2017). The association between motivation, affect, and self-regulated learning when solving problems. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01346

Delrue, J., Soenens, B., Morbee, S., Vansteenkiste, M., & Haerens, L. (2019). Do athletes' responses to coach autonomy support and control depend on the situation and athletes' personal motivation? Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 43, 321-332. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2019.04.003

Domen, J., Hornstra, L., Weijers, D., Veen, I., & Peetsma, T. (2019). Differentiated need support by teachers: Studentspecific provision of autonomy and structure and relations with student motivation. British Journal of Educational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12302

Garaus, C., Furtmuller, G., & Guttel, W. H. (2016). The hidden power of small rewards: The effects of insufficient external rewards on autonomous motivation to learn. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 15(1), 45-59. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2012.0284

Guay, F., Roy, A., & Valois, P. (2017). Teacher structure as a predictor of students' perceived competence and autonomous motivation: The moderating role of differentiated instruction. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 87(2), 224-240. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12146

Isik, U., Wouters, A., Ter Wee, M. M., Croiset, G., & Kusurkar, R. A. (2017). Motivation and academic performance of medical students from ethnic minorities and majority: a comparative study. BMC Medical Education, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-017-1079-9

Jungert, T., Van den Broeck, A., Schreurs, B., & Osterman, U. (2017). How colleagues can support each other's needs and motivation: An intervention on employee work motivation. Applied Psychology, 67(1), 3-29. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12110

Ketonen, E. E., Dietrich, J., Moeller, J., Salmela-Aro, K., & Lonka, K. (2018). The role of daily autonomous and controlled educational goals in students' academic emotion states: An experience sampling method approach. Learning and Instruction, 53, 10-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2017.07.003

Li, J., Deng, M., Wang, X., & Tang, Y. (2018). Teachers' and parents' autonomy support and psychological control perceived in junior-high school: Extending the dual-process model of self-determination theory. Learning and Individual Differences, 68, 20-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2018.09.005

Maulidia, J., & Usman, O. (2019). Effect of self-efficacy, learning motivation, fear of failure and parent's social support towards academic procrastination. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3510145

Orsini, C., Binnie, V., & Jerez, O. (2019). Motivation as a predictor of dental students' affective and behavioral outcomes: Does the quality of motivation matter? Journal of Dental Education, 83(5), 521-529. https://doi.org/10.21815/jde.019.065

Ronen, S., & Donia, M. M. (2018). From abusive supervision to work outcomes: The role of autonomous and controlled motivation. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2018(1), 11550. https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2018.11550abstract

Tam, A. Y., Baharun, R., & Sulaiman, Z. (2019). Motivation in health behaviour: Role of autonomous and controlled motivation. Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, 10(9), 929. https://doi.org/10.5958/0976-5506.2019.02558.0

Valenzuela, R., Codina, N., & Pestana, J. V. (2017). Self-determination theory applied to flow in conservatoire music practice: The roles of perceived autonomy and competence, and autonomous and controlled motivation. Psychology of Music, 46(1), 33-48. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735617694502

Wijsman, L. A., Saab, N., Warrens, M. J., Van Driel, J. H., & Westenberg, P. M. (2018). Relations of autonomous and controlled motivation with performance in secondary s...