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Each day is a game of decision dominoes.
We decide when to wake up, what to eat for breakfast, and how to spend our free time. And each decision affects the next. If we get up early, we can catch that spin class before work. If we eat the last of the granola, we won’t have it the following morning.
Most decisions we make in a day are mindless — we don’t question why we choose one thing instead of another. Making all of those decisions demands energy, which is why some people experience decision fatigue. Having too many options or decisions to make overwhelms us and can contribute to stress and anxiety.
But have you ever wondered why you feel the impulse to act a certain way, or how you make a decision in the first place?
Self-determination theory is a social-psychological framework that explains how different types of motivation affect our day-to-day well-being and decisions. Motivation determines human behavior, and some motivations push us to do things (sacrifice sleep to meet an important deadline) or not (miss a deadline to rest).
Once you learn what pushes you to make one decision over another, you can make better choices and avoid decision fatigue.
What is self-determination?
Self-determination refers to intentional actions and decisions people make of their own free will.
Self-determination is a learned behavior. As we develop into young adults, we construct a unique identity, experiment with independence and self-control, and learn to set goals and plan for the future. All of this helps us build a worldview with our distinct values and ethics.
People with a strong sense of self-experience have more autonomy over their lives, while those with a low sense of self feel like external forces control their experience. This can also be understood as one’s locus of control.
Your locus of control is an important part of your physical and emotional well-being. If you feel responsible for your experiences and actions, you know you can change untoward situations. Lacking this sense of control means you’ll feel trapped or overwhelmed more often.
Understanding what motivates you and why you make certain decisions will help determine where you fit on this spectrum.
What is the Self-Determination Theory?
In 1985, psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan created an analysis of human motivation via their framework for self-determination. Their work analyzed why individuals think, act, and develop themselves in certain ways and defined the conditions humans need to improve performance, persist past roadblocks, and continuously grow. This is known as the Self-Determination Theory of Motivation.
Their seminal piece, "Self-Determination and Intrinsic Motivation in Human Behavior," hypothesized that people are inherently motivated in their decision-making by a necessity to grow and feel good.
The ability to improve and do things we enjoy is determined by intrinsic motivations — actions motivated by internal rewards. When you feel intrinsically motivated to do something, the activity itself gives you pleasure, and completing the activity fills you with an inherent sense of satisfaction, importance, and well-being.
For example, if you’re a creative type that enjoys painting still life, practicing painting is a motivation in itself. Continuously learning how to use different types of paints, brushes, and techniques provides happiness which motivates you to continue developing your painting skills.
Deci and Ryan further broke down the relationship between motivation and decision-making with their cognitive evaluation theory, which defines the social and environmental factors that facilitate or impede our motivations. Cognitive evaluation theory defines three basic psychological needs:
- Autonomous motivation (or autonomous regulation): This defines the ability to act independently and of our own volition in a way consistent with our authentic self.
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Feelings of competence: Our feeling of competence is derived from a series of successful experiences and the positive emotions we derive from them. We feel competent when we can apply new skills to meet a social environment’s demands.
- Relatedness: This addresses our feeling connected to, cared for, and validated by other people.
When these three psychological needs are satisfied, we have the optimal conditions to set and accomplish goals that are rewarded by internal needs like:
- Personal growth
- Overcoming challenges
- Fulfilling curiosities
- Feeling good about ourselves
Here are a few self-determination examples of goals and their intrinsic rewards:
Goal: Spend time with a difficult family member
- Intrinsic reward: Overcome challenges
Goal: Dedicate time to regular physical activity
- Intrinsic reward: Feel good about your health
Goal: Learn to play a musical instrument
- Intrinsic reward: Fulfill curiosity
Non-self-determination
Deci and Ryan also defined non-self-determination or extrinsic motivation.
This type of motivation can be split into two categories:
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Autonomous motivation: This refers to actions motivated by a feeling of obligation, often from our social contexts. You may enjoy the task, like attending a networking event. Still, the ultimate motivating factor is the obligation to connect with other professionals to move up the career ladder.
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Controlled motivation: This describes actions we perform because we want to obtain an extrinsic reward or avoid punishment.
Here are a few examples of goals with extrinsic rewards:
Goal: Build deeper relationships with colleagues and take on extra leadership responsibilities
- Extrinsic reward: Get promoted
Goal: Volunteer at a senior home
- Extrinsic reward: Looks good on a college application
Goal: Post a photo on Instagram
- Extrinsic reward: Gain followers
Extrinsic motivation isn’t inherently bad. Sometimes we need an outward incentive to achieve our goals. But when the only motivation is extrinsic, our determination may be affected by the absence of intrinsic motivators.
Imagine you’re a manager for a consulting agency. Offering a competitive commission might motivate employees to work harder to bring on new contracts.
But poor teamwork, a toxic work environment, and reprimands for low sales will likely negatively impact their motivation by reducing their sense of control, competence, and relatedness.
Employees who want to succeed for their development and the good of the team will help meet goals without compromising the team’s dynamic.
Self-determination and behavioral development
Psychologists Richard Koestner and Reneé Landry have done extensive studies applying self-determination theory to behavioral development in infants and toddlers. They found connections relevant to adulthood.
Koestner studied how parents instill values and social rules so children become productive members of society while also encouraging expressive freedom and independent interests.
Landry and Koestner evaluated how parents successfully taught children to develop a sense of self-regulation and unenjoyable necessary social behaviors, like cleaning, doing their homework, or eating vegetables.
In both studies, these researchers found that one of the most important factors to successful action was autonomy.
Children who expressed having a sense of autonomy over their decision-making were more motivated to develop positive social behaviors. Children who received negative feedback felt alienated by their decisions or were pressured to act a certain way were less likely to develop the same positive social behaviors.
Children were more likely to eat their vegetables if their parents talked to them about why vegetables are good rather than forcing their children to finish their plates, for example.
The same concept can be applied to the success of psychotherapy in adults. Adults who feel in control of their reality and self-motivated to explore their mental health are more likely to embrace their wellness journey than those who feel obligated by external forces to go to therapy. And healthcare professionals that encourage autonomy see higher success rates in treatment.
Examples of self-determination in practice
Our individual perspectives profoundly impact how we behave. Imagine you’re studying for a final exam and have difficulty understanding a particular concept.
If you’re a person with high self-determination, you’ll likely accept there’s a problem, believe you can overcome the challenge, and proactively work to understand the concept. You might consult a different textbook, review your notes again, or stop by your professor's office with questions.
Your self-determination pushed you to act creatively and problem-solve. If the result is a good grade, that positive reinforcement of your autonomy, competence, and relatedness to the task will increase your motivation in the future.
Now imagine you’re a person with low self-determination faced with the same dilemma. Because you feel external factors control your situation, you’ll likely make excuses, blame the professor for assigning work that's too hard, and feel like understanding the concept is out of your control.
Getting a bad grade as a result may only feed your low self-determination and create a vicious cycle.
Nurturing self-determination in yourself
Since self-determination is a learned behavior, our exposure to autonomous motivation, competence, and relatedness must be consistently nurtured, even for people naturally wired to be more goal-oriented and self-sufficient.
One of the most important predictors of our self-determination is whether our relationships and experiences foster or thwart our personal growth by nurturing or denying our autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
If you want to increase your self-determination or offer autonomy support for others, here are four things to focus on:
- Balanced extrinsic rewards: Accomplishing intrinsic goals may lead to extrinsic rewards, but the reward isn’t the primary motivator. In some cases, extrinsic rewards can lower intrinsic motivation. If you’re only doing something for a material reward, your sense of autonomy will likely feel challenged and your motivation may diminish.
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Positive affirmations: A regular gratitude practice and positive self-talk boost morale and our sense of self-determination. When you reaffirm your actions, you root your behavior with meaning and purpose, which can lead to intrinsic fulfillment.
- Healthy interpersonal relationships: Enjoying positive, healthy relationships makes us feel supported, capable, and related to our environment.
Self-determination as a management strategy
Employee turnover is on every manager's mind. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic and the Great Resignation, the average American worker switched positions twice as often in their first five years than workers did 30 years ago.
Employers can no longer disregard the importance of employee satisfaction. Workers increasingly feel empowered to center themselves in their personal and professional lives.
Self-determination theory is a pathway toward stimulating motivation. But the benefits don't stop there. Studies show that setting up the conditions for autonomy, competence, and relatedness improves financial performance, talent retention, affective engagement, and general well-being.
Here are a few great ways to nurture self-determination in your workforce:
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Delegate responsibilities: Giving people an active role or greater responsibility on a task makes them feel ownership and stimulates their competencies and connection to an activity.
- Give positive encouragement: Positive feedback, displays of gratitude, and encouragement from peers and authority figures improve morale and reassure people they’re good at what they do and that their work is valuable.
- Practice inclusivity: When people feel isolated or irrelevant to their organizations, they disengage. Managers need to respect their workers so they feel valued and more in control of how they’re treated.
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Encourage autonomy: A more active way of promoting autonomy amongst employees is directly asking them whether they feel like active participants in the team’s decision-making, competent enough to excel in their role, and closely connected with their coworkers.
A one-on-one meeting is great for this sort of conversation, so they don’t feel put on the spot in front of colleagues. If they’re unsatisfied with any of the three areas, provide support such as upskilling mentorships or social hours.
Taking control of your life
Imagine you spend a lot of time coding. Over the years, you’ve honed your skills, learned different coding languages, and built several software programs. According to Ryan and Deci, your level of autonomous motivation will be predictive of how you feel when coding, even if the result is the same.
When your motivation is more self-determined and less controlled, you’ll feel and perform better, which improves your psychological well-being.
If you code because you enjoy the challenge or it fulfills a curiosity, you’re more likely to feel positive when doing it. The act of coding might even better your emotional well-being.
Trying to understand your underlying motivations is already an act of autonomy. And the self-determination theory framework gives you the tools needed to make better decisions that fulfill intrinsic motivators.
