Edward Lewis Deci - US grants

This proposal is for a four-year grant whose aims are: to trace the development of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation through middle childhood; to relate motivational development to internalization and to the individual difference variables of self-regulatory styles; to determine the role of self-regulation in a nomological network of self-related constructs; to explore environmental variables that affect motivational development and self-regulation; and to relate both motivation and self-regulation to learning outcomes. To do this we will develop a questionnaire and an interview procedure to assess the strength of the four motivational orientations that are the basis of the self-regulatory styles: intrinsic, extrinsic, introjected, and identified. The new procedures will be used to assess individual differences which will be related to measures of other self-system constructs and they will be used to gather 30-month longitudinal data both for describing and for testing hypotheses about motivational development and internalization. Motivational development and the internalization of regulations, as assessed by these measures, will be predicted from child variables, from children's perceptions of teacher and parent variables, and from actual teacher and parent variables related to control styles. This will be complemented by two experiments that explore environmental effects on internalization. Finally self-regulatory styles will be explored as they interact with learning environments to affect rote and conceptual learning and the retention of each.

This proposal is for a five-year continuation of our current NICHD grant that has focused on: the development of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation over middle childhood; the relation of that motivational development to autonomous self-regulation (as assessed by our perceived autonomy questionnaire); the relation of adjustment; and the effects of social contexts (classroom and homes) on the development of autonomous self- regulation. The proposed work will employ laboratory experiments, field observations, and questionnaire studies to explore how the dynamic interaction of perceived autonomy (i.e., self-regulatory styles) and perceived control/competence influence motivated action patterns, referred to as engagement versus disaffection with school. (Engagement versus disaffection describes children's actual behavior and affect and is viewed as a mediator between self-perceptions and educational outcomes). The proposed work will also explore children's coping processes as the links between ongoing engagement and re-engagement following problems, and it will evaluate the effectiveness of five behavior-focused and five emotion- focused coping processes. Further, cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses will be used to investigate: (1) social contextual influences on perceived autonomy, perceived control/competence, engagement versus disaffection, coping processes, achievement, and adjustment; (2) the reciprocal influence of active engagement and social contexts (as mediated by self-perceptions of autonomy and control/competence and by achievement and adjustment); (3) the individual developmental trajectories of children's engagement as influenced by the reciprocal interaction of context and action. The outcome of this research program would be an empirically tested, developmentally sensitive conceptual model that relates: the social-contextual dimensions of autonomy support, structure, and involvement; the self-perceptions of autonomy and control/competence; the differentiated conception of engagement and coping; and the educational outcomes of achievement and adjustment.

The proposed-research will explore issues related to the motivation and self-determination of individuals in Bulgaria and the U.S. The overriding aim is to understand better how cultures (i.e., economic, political, and sociological factors) affect motivational processes of individuals. There are two major projects in the proposed work. The first is a comparative study of the interactions of managers and subordinates in major Bulgarian and American office-machines firms. The questions of interest are whether, in the two cultures: (1) managers' orientations toward supporting subordinates' autonomy are differentially related to the perceptions, affects, importance rankings, and satisfaction of their subordinates; (2) individuals' work satisfactions are differentially predicted by their perceptions, affects, and importance rankings; and (3) individual differences in motivational orientations (e.g., autonomous self- regulation) will differentially predict perceptions, affects, importance rankings, and satisfactions. The primary focus will be on differences in patterns of relations among variables; however, mean-level differences on relevant variables will also be examined. The second major project is a 20-month longitudinal study within Bulgaria focused on changes in work-related perceptions, affects, needs, satisfactions, and managerial styles during the period of cultural transition that is currently in process in Eastern Europe. Of interest will be: (1) mean-level changes in these variables over time; (2) differences in the patterns of within-time correlations for Times 1 and 2; and (3) prediction of individual change on work-related variables, within the cultural context, from individuals' motivational orientations. In addition to the two main projects, there is a preparatory project of translating instruments, and a supplemental project of qualitative interviews. The work will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. George Kalushev of Bulgaria's Council of Ministers.