Mechanisms in Self-Determined Exercise Motivation. A PhD Thesis Summary

Abstract

human behaviour and how to tailor successful interventions, programs and policies would be to study motivational aspects and self-determination theory [6-8] is a promising framework in this area of research [9,10]. The core message in self-determination theory is that motivation quality and satisfaction of basic psychological needs will fuel the direction of human behaviour and psychological well-being [7,8]. According to self-determination theory, psychological need satisfaction will be promoted to the extent that the social environment is autonomy supportive, i.e. when fundamental human needs for autonomy (volition and feelings of choice), competence (feeling efficient and capable) and relatedness (feeling connected to and cared for by others) are nourished. It is also suggested that motivation quality matters more than mere motivation magnitude and that motivation quality is suggested to vary on a continuum ranging from completely self-determined (intrinsic) motivation, via various degrees of controlled behavioural regulations (extrinsic motivation) to amotivation (lack of motivation) at the other end. It is suggested that more self-determined forms of motivation will facilitate behaviour adoption and maintenance as well as psychological well-being. Psychological need satisfaction will also promote internalization of motivational regulations into more self-determined forms of motivation [7,8]. Recent research have suggested that a given behaviour can be fuelled by a combination of different motivational regulations simultaneously [11], also called