SUBJECT : MAED 603 (BIO – PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS)

PROFESSOR : LORNA D. CAPITO, Ed.D.

Professor II

REPORTERS : JAYSON C. CAJATE

TOPIC : MOTIVATION AND EMOTION

SUB-TOPIC : PSYCHOLOGICAL NEEDS & MENTAL HEALTH

DATE : January 22, 2022

I. INTRODUCTION

A more recent theory developed by Ryan & Deci (1985, 2000), called Self-
Determination Theory (SDT), looks at the degree to which behaviors are volitional or
self-determined. Human beings are believed to have innate tendencies towards
psychological growth and self-development. The key ingredients for growth and
development are psychological needs, which are believed to be universal and innate.
The extent to which these are satisfied has a direct effect on personal growth,
psychological development and self-actualization.

II. OBJECTIVE

 Understand the Basic Psychological Needs and Mental Health of Self-

Determination Theory

III. CONTENT

Psychological needs and Mental Health

Definition

• any need that is essential to mental health or that is otherwise not a biological
necessity. It may be generated entirely internally, as in the need for pleasure,
or it may be generated by interactions between the individual and the
environment, as in the need for social approval, justice, or job satisfaction.

Self-Determination Theory

Psychological Needs
 Defined in a more specific and narrow way, a psychological nutrient essential for
individuals’ adjustment, integrity, and growth (Ryan, 1995).

• Hold the key to emotional well-being, life satisfaction, and success.

• One mini-theory of SDT, that satisfied to foster well-being and health.
(autonomy, competence, and relatedness).

SDT Basic Psychological Need

 Autonomy
 Competence
 Relatedness

Autonomy 
 refers to the experience of volition and willingness. When satisfied, one
experiences a sense of integrity as when one’s actions, thoughts, and feelings
are self-endorsed and authentic. When frustrated, one experiences a sense of
pressure and often conflict, such as feeling pushed in an unwanted direction.
 ability to feel in control of one's behavior and destiny, and involes self-
initiation and self-regulation of one's own behavior.
 Autonomy involves being able to make your own decisions and is
associated with feelings of independence.

Relatedness 
 denotes the experience of warmth, bonding, and care, and is satisfied by
connecting to and feeling significant to others. Relatedness frustration can
come with a sense of social alienation, exclusion, and loneliness.
 describe someone who has sufficient qualities to perform a given task or to
describe the state of having sufficient intellect, judgment, skill, and/or
strength.

Competence 
 concerns the experience of effectiveness and mastery. It becomes satisfied
as one capably engages in activities and experiences opportunities for
using and extending skills and expertise. When frustrated, one experiences
a sense of ineffectiveness or even failure and helplessness
 ability to feel a sense of both attachment to other people and a sense of
belonging amongst other people. Relatedness involves feelings of
closeness and belonging to a social group.
1. Autonomy - Psychological need to experience self-direction and personal
endorsement in the initiation and regulation of one’s behavior.

Perceived Autonomy

Subjective Qualities with the experience of autonomy

 Internal perceived focus of casualty- Individuals understanding of the

casual source of his or her motivated actions.
 Volition (Feeling free) – Heartfelt and unpressured willingness to engage
in an activity.
 Perceived choice over one’s actions. – Subjective experience that one
may decide tp an act or to act, or to pursue one course of action rather
another course of action.

The conundrum of choice

Not all choices promote autonomy

 “either or “Choice of offerings – Choice among options offered by others fails

to into, and involve, the need for autonomy.
 True choice – Meaningful choice that reflects one’s values and interests
 Enhances the sense of need-satisfying autonomy.
 Enhances intrinsic motivation, effort, creativity, preference for challenge,
and performance.

Supporting Autonomy Definitions

Autonomy support
 Interpersonal sentiment and behavior to identify, nurture, and develop
another’s inner motivational resources.
Control
 Interpersonal resources sentiment and behavior to pressure another toward
compliance with prescribed way of thinking, feeling, or behaving.

Supporting Autonomy: enabling condition

Autonomy support
 Takes the other person’s perspective
 Values personal growth opportunities
Control
 Pressure the other person toward prescribed outcome
 Targets a prescribed outcome.

Supporting Autonomy: Instructional behaviors

 Autonomy support
 Nurtures inner motivational resources
 Provides explanatory rationales
 Listens empathically and displays patience
 Acknowledge and accepts negative effect
Control
 Relies on outer sources of motivation
 Relies on pressuring language
 Neglects explanatory rationales
 Assert power to silence negative affect and to resolve conflict.

Ways of supporting autonomy

1. Nurture inner motivational resources
2. Provide explanatory rationales
3. Listen emphatically
4. Use informational language
5. Displays patience
6. Acknowledge and accept displays of negative affect

1. Nurture inner motivational resources

Autonomy-supportive motivators
 Encourage initiative of others by identifying their interests, preferences,
and competencies.
 Find ways to allow others to behave in easy that express there interest,
preferences, and competencies.
Controlling motivators
 Forgo inner motivational resources
 Rely on extrinsic motivators (e.g., incentives, consequences, and
deadlines).

2. Provide explanatory rationales

Autonomy-supportive motivators
 Communicate the value, worth, meaning, utility or importance of
engaging in behavior.
 Explain why the request is truly worth the other’s time and effort.
Controlling motivators
 Do not take the time to explain why the activity is worth ding (e.g.,
saying “Just get it done” or Do it because I told you to do it”).

3. Listen emphatically

Autonomy-supportive motivators
 Treat listlessness, poor performance, and inappropriate behavior as
motivational problems to be solved.
 Listen empathically to understand why others is struggling
 Use flexible, non-controlling & informational language.
 Controlling motivators
 Adopt a controlling communication style
 Try to motivate by including feelings of guild, shame, and anxiety (e.g.,
saying “you should try harder” or “you must finish the project”).

4. Displays patience

Autonomy-supportive motivators
 Give others time and space to explore better ways of behaving, to plan
out and try out alternative ways of behaving, and to alter personal
goals and problem-solving strategies.
 Do a lot of listening, perspective taking, and postpone giving advice.
Controlling motivators
 Impatiently rush in, take over, and show the other person what to do
and how to solve the problem.

5. Acknowledge and support

Autonomy-supportive motivators
 Listen carefully to the expressions negative affect and resistance and
accept them as valid reactions.
 Work collaborative with the other person to solve the underlying cause
of the negative affect and resistance.
Controlling motivators
 Make it clear that such expressions of negative affect are
unacceptable.
 Saying thig s like “It’s my way or the highway”.

Moment-to-moment autonomy support

What autonomy-supportive and controlling people say and do to motivate others

Autonomy support Controlling

 Listen carefully
 Allow others time to talk
 Provide rationale
 Encourage effort
 Praise progress, mastery
 Ask others what they want to do
 Respond to questions
 Acknowledge the other’s
perspective
 Hog resources
 Show and tell correct answer
 Give directives, commands
 Should, must have statements
 Ask controlling questions
 Seem demanding
 Benefits from
2. Competence - A psychological needautonomy support
to be effective in interactions with the environment.
Motivation  Autonomy, competence, relatedness
 Intrinsic motivation
 Mastery motivation & perceived control
 Curiosity
 Internalized
Engagement  Engagement
 More positive emotion
 Less negative emotion
 Better attendance and retention
 Persistence
Development  Self-worth
 Creativity
 Preference for optimal challenge
Learning  Conceptual understanding
 Deep processing
 Active information processing
 Self-regulation strategies
Performance  Grades
 Task performance
 Standard test score
Psychological  Psychological well-being
well-being  Vitality
 School life satisfaction

Involving competence

Key environment conditions

Optimal challenge and  Flow- a state of concentration that involves a
flow holistic absorption in an activity
Structure  Information about the pathways to desires
outcomes
 Support & guidance for pursuing these
pathways
Feedback  Setting stage for challenge
 Performance feedback
Failure  Considerable error making is essential for
optimizing learning
 Failure produces opportunities for learning
 Supporting competence

Positive feedback
 Task itself
 Comparison of one’s current performance with:
- One’s own past performance
- The performance of others
 Evaluation of others

Pleasure of optimal challenge and positive feedback

 Optimal challenge is interesting and making progress is enjoyable
 Harter’s anagram study (1974, 1978b) Children experiences the
greatest pleasure following success in the context of moderate
challenge.

3. Relatedness – A psychological need to establish close emotional bonds and

attachments with other people. The desire to be emotionally connected to, warm,
positive relationships.

Nurturing relatedness

Nurturing relatedness
Involving relatedness: Emotionally positive interactions and interaction
Interaction with others partner
Satisfying relatedness: Intimate and high-quality relationship that involve
Perception of social bond perceived caring, liking, accepting and valuing
Communal & exchange In communal relationships. People care for the needs
relationship of the other, and feel an obligation to support the
other’s welfare
Benefits of relatedness Engagement, development growth, health and well-
need satisfaction being

Environmental factors that involve and satisfy psychological needs

Psychological Need Environmental Condition Environmental Conditions
that Involves the Need that Satisfies the Need
Autonomy Opportunities for self- Autonomy support
direction
Competence Optimal Challenge Positive Feedback
Relatedness Social Interaction Communal relationship
 SDT-based model of health behavior change

IV. Assessment
1. What are the three basic psychology needs of well-being?
2. How this Basic Psychological Needs helps improve human behavior?
3. Think about your psychological needs in life in general. How satisfied do you
feel in autonomy, competence and relatedness? What effect does it have if
one or more of your psychological needs are not satisfied?

V. References
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