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Abstract. Background: In November 2020, many European governments imposed severe limitations on social contacts and festive gatherings to avoid a further outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Aims: At the moment when it was still unclear whether Christmas gatherings would be allowed, the present vignette study was conducted to evaluate four hypothetical scenarios varying in restrictiveness (i.e., 1, 2, 4, or an unlimited number of visitors). Method: In total, 5,756 Belgian participants (65.7% female; Mage = 45.6, range: 18–89) evaluated each scenario in terms of the perceived strictness, probability of adherence, and expected psychological advantages (i.e., autonomy, relatedness, pleasure) and disadvantages (i.e., concerns). Results: Evidence for a curvilinear pattern was found, such that the expected psychological benefits increased with an increasing number of allowed visitors till 4, with this effect being reversed in case of an unlimited gathering. Yet, these main effects were qualified: Older adults, those living together, and those scoring high on risk perception and autonomous motivation to adhere to the corona measures expected the more restrictive scenarios to be equally beneficial compared to the more relaxed scenarios. Limitations: Limitations are self-selection of the sample, no counterbalancing of the scenario’s and the vignette-based methodology. Conclusion: The present findings suggest that people’s risk perception and autonomous motivation are key to secure and stimulate the acceptance of life-restricting measures.

Motivation plays a key role in individuals’ persistence, well-being, and performance. A common assumption is that everyone fares better when strongly motivated. Yet, as the authors of this essay point out, this is not always true. Although a lack of motivation is problematic, more motivation is not necessarily better. According to self-determination theory, autonomous motivation (“wantivation”) represents ideal motivation with a clear-cut pattern of desirable effects, while controlled motivation (“mustivation”) represents a mixed bag, yielding both desirable and undesirable outcomes. Extensive research now allows motivational researchers to safely conclude that “not all types of motivation are created equal.” Although a lack of motivation is problematic, for motivation to carry durable positive effects, it is strongly desirable that individuals display high wantivation instead of high mustivation.

Teachers, leaders, parents, and sport coaches often rely on their intuition to motivate others. Although sometimes effective, intuition can also misguide motivating agents. Intuition needs to be sharpened by theoretical insights. Grounded in self-determination theory, this essay presents a motivating compass featuring a variety of motivating (e.g., guiding, attuning) and demotivating (e.g., domineering, abandoning) approaches situated in a circular structure. Whereas some practices in the model relate to greater engagement and high-quality motivation because of their need-satisfying properties, other practices come with a motivational cost and predict disengagement because of their need-frustrating effect. This motivating compass provides concrete indications of how to motivate others.

Whether a universal recipe exists for motivating others is an intriguing question. Most people would probably doubt this possibility, instead arguing that one needs to adjust one’s motivational approach according to the person and situation at hand (i.e., motivational tailoring). To be effective, a motivational practice first needs to nurture the psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. These three needs serve as essential nutrients for every person’s long-term motivation, engagement, and well-being regardless of age, cultural background, gender, or personality. These needs represent the critical “vitamins” for individuals’ psychological growth and flourishing. Although the satisfaction of these psychological needs is said to be universally important, people differ in their perception of contextual support and in the way they deal with contexts that thwart their needs.

Although the existence of a set of physical needs is well accepted within biology, the question whether humans have a parallel set of psychological needs has been more controversial within the psychological landscape. The identification, characterization, and study of basic needs has been central to the research agenda of Basic Psychological Needs Theory, one of SDT’s six mini-theories. In this chapter, we provide an in-depth characterization of the nine criteria that characterize the basic needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence: essential, psychological, pervasive, universal, inherent, distinct, content-specific, directional, and explanatory. We elaborate on the theoretical and research implications of these criteria and provide a selective review of this rapidly growing body of empirical work. We conclude that basic needs provide a universal and parsimonious framework to account for people’s growth and flourishing as well as their stagnation and problem behavior, while also accounting for the growth-conducive versus toxic effects of different environments.

Grounded in self-determination theory (SDT), this chapter provides an overview of the nascent literature on the dynamic interplay between basic psychological needs and the physical need for sleep, thereby covering three recent lines of research. The chapter reviews recent studies indicating that psychological need-based experiences relate to diverse self-reported and objective indicators of sleep at both the between- and within-person level in nonclinical and clinical samples. It presents evidence from diary and experimental research demonstrating a reciprocal effect of sleep on psychological need-based experiences. Finally, it discusses evidence for intervening mechanisms that help to explain these associations, focusing especially on the role of arousal processes, subjective energy levels, and present-moment awareness. The chapter reflects on the limitations of these findings, as well as their implications for research on the interplay between SDT’s basic psychological needs and other physical needs.

According to self-determination theory (SDT), people have a natural propensity to develop toward higher levels of psychosocial maturity. This growth tendency requires ongoing support for the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Using Erikson’s theory as an organizing framework, this chapter provides an overview of SDT-based developmental research on the role of psychological need satisfaction in psychosocial adjustment across the lifespan. This research increasingly shows that psychological need satisfaction contributes to age-specific and cumulative psychosocial strengths in every stage of human life. Although support for the basic psychological needs (e.g., by attachment figures) is crucial throughout the lifespan, the specific manifestations of contextual need support differ somewhat depending on individuals’ developmental stage. Moreover, as they age, people increasingly contribute in proactive ways to their own need-based experiences. Ultimately, satisfaction of the basic psychological needs and contextual need support represent essential resources for people to tackle developmental challenges and to experience psychosocial growth.

Self-determination theory (SDT) represents a comprehensive framework for the study of human motivation, personality development, and wellness as evidenced by the breadth and variety of chapters in this Handbook. This introductory chapter provides a review of the basic assumptions, philosophy of science, methods, and mission of SDT. It also includes a brief history of SDT, linking various developments within the theory to the contributions found in this volume. Finally, discussion focuses on the place of SDT within the landscape of past and contemporary theoretical psychology, as well as its relations with modern historical and cultural developments, in part explaining the continued growth of interest in SDT’s basic research and real-world applications.

To support motivation, growth, and performance it is critical to foster individuals’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. To achieve this goal, socializing agents, such as teachers, sport coaches, and managers, can make use of a broad array of need-relevant strategies that can either support or thwart students’, athletes’, and employees’ psychological needs. Central to this chapter is the discussion of a circumplex approach, which allows for an integrative and fine-grained study of different need-relevant styles. The chapter discusses the basic tenets of this approach, reviews recent supportive studies, highlights its advantages and potential for practice, and provides recommendations for future research.

During the initial outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic, many countries imposed a total lockdown (containment at home). Although it was still allowed in Belgium to be physically active or exercise with people from your household in the vicinity of your home, engaging in sports or physical activity in a group or club context was no longer permitted. To examine whether a lack of physical activity was potentially threatening to the mental well-being of citizens and vice versa, the present study examined concurrent and reciprocal relationships between physical activity and anxiety, depressive symptoms, and sleep quality during the COVID-19 lockdown in a 9-week longitudinal design. In a sample of 983 Belgian adults (75.1% female; Mage = 43.78, range = 18–82 years), we explored these relationships at both the between- and within-person levels through random intercept cross-lagged panel models. The findings indicate that more physical activity was associated with lower symptoms of anxiety and depression and better sleep quality, a finding observed both at the between-person (across weeks; βanxiety = − 0.25, βdepression = − 0.30, βsleep quality = 0.24, p < .001) and within-person level (within weeks; βanxiety = − 0.10, βdepression = − 0.14, βsleep quality = 0.11, p < .05). Moreover, at the within-person level, an increase in feelings of anxiety and depression at one moment predicted lower levels of physical activity one week later (βanxiety = − 0.04, βdepression = − 0.06, p < .05). Since poor mental health poses a threat to the maintenance of physical activity, the current findings suggest that it is critical to invest in the mental health of individuals during distressing times.

Grounded in self-determination theory, this study examined the explanatory role of teachers' need-based experiences in the association between teachers' perceived social pressure (i.e., from the principal, colleagues, and students) and their personal adjustment and motivating teaching style. In total, 482 secondary school teachers (M age = 39.9 years) participated in this questionnaire-based study. Teacher need satisfaction was primarily related to adaptive work adjustment (i.e., job satisfaction) and a motivating teaching style (i.e., provided autonomy support and structure), while need frustration was primarily related to maladjustment (i.e., emotional exhaustion) and a demotivating teaching style (i.e., provided control and chaos). Need-based experiences played either a partial or fully mediating role in the relation between different sources of social pressure and all but one outcome (i.e., chaos). Pressure from students yielded the strongest relation to teacher outcomes, suggesting that the need for targeting this source in intervention research and daily school life. Overall, the present findings highlight the unifying role of need-based experiences as a critical mechanism underlying the relation between different sources of pressure and both teachers' personal adjustment and their motivating teaching style.

Background: People’s perceived risk to be infected and to have severe illness has been thought as a motivational source of adherence to behavioral measures during the COVID-19 crisis. Methods: We used online self-reported data, spanning 20 months of the COVID-19 crisis in [blinded] (n = 241,275; 34% vaccinated; July 2020 - March 2022). Results: The findings demonstrate, especially among vaccinated persons, that people’s perceived severity was more prominent than perceived probability for infection, up until Omicron emerged. At both the between-persons and between-day levels, perceived severity was the most strongly related to autonomous motivation, a pattern that was less pronounced for unvaccinated people towards the end of the crisis. Conclusions: These findings show that variation in risk perceptions largely accounts for the variation in both between-individuals’ and day-to-day variation in motivation to adhere to the measures, thereby showing a sensitivity to the characteristics of the variants of the virus and the role of one’s vaccination status.

This vignette-based study examined in a sample of unvaccinated Belgian citizens (N = 1918; M-age = 45.99) how health care workers could foster reflection about and intentions to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by experimentally varying their communication style (i.e., autonomy-supportive vs. controlling) and the reference to external motivators (i.e., use of a monetary voucher or corona pass vs. the lack thereof). Each participant was randomly assigned to one of six conditions and rated a vignette in terms of anticipated autonomy satisfaction, perceived effectiveness, reflection, and vaccination intention. An autonomy-supportive, relative to a controlling, communication style predicted greater autonomy need satisfaction, which in turn related positively to perceived effectiveness, reflection, and vaccination intention. External motivators failed to generate positive effects compared to the control condition. The findings highlight the critical role of autonomy support in promoting a self-endorsed decision to get vaccinated.

Feelings of competence play a key role in youth athletes' sport experiences and behaviors. Although competence is affected by both contextual and personal characteristics, most studies have focused on the role of either context or athletes' personality in competence. To study competence from a Person-x-Context perspective, the current experimental field study examined the unique and interactive role of self-critical perfectionism and normative feedback in youth competitive tennis players' (N = 59, M-age = 15.47, SD = 1.63) competence need satisfaction and subsequent tension and enjoyment. Participants first filled out a measure of self-critical perfectionism and then performed a series of tennis exercises, presented as a competition in which their results were compared to an interpersonal standard. Positive, compared to negative, normative feedback enhanced competence need satisfaction, while self-critical perfectionism yielded a negative relation. Both predictors interacted such that self-critical perfectionism exacerbated the impact of negative normative feedback on competence. In turn, competence played an intervening role in the association between normative feedback and self-critical perfectionism on the one hand, and players experienced enjoyment and tension on the other hand. Overall, the results testify to the importance of studying competence dynamics from a Person-x-Context perspective.

Due to the COVID-19-pandemic, all cycling races during spring 2020 were cancelled, thus requiring cyclists to act in resilient ways. This cross-sectional study examined in a sample of 207 cyclists (M age = 26.81) whether different motivational profiles can be identified and whether these profile differences relate to (a) the extent to which cyclists get their basic psychological needs satisfied during this pandemic and (b) the type of self-regulation strategies cyclists use to motivate themselves to continue their training. Cluster analyses revealed four motivational profiles (i.e., a good quality, high quantity, low quantity, and poor quality profile) that differed in terms of autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and amotivation. Results indicated that the profile characterised by autonomous motivation (i.e., good quality) yielded the most adaptive outcomes, while the profile characterised by the combination of controlled motivation and amotivation (i.e., poor quality) yielded the least optimal outcomes. This research shows that cyclists’ capacity to cope with the pandemic in a resilient way depends on the presence of both a sufficient dose and high-quality motivation. © 2021 International Society of Sport Psychology.

According to Self-Determination Theory, intrinsic motivation is a natural growth tendency that fuels students’ learning, development, and well-being. In this chapter, we sketch a developmental model of intrinsic motivation, thereby describing an evolution from fleeting and undifferentiated interests to the gradual unfolding of an enduring, refined, and well-anchored intrinsically motivated identity. To foster such mature forms of intrinsic motivation, learners’ psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness need to be supported on both the short and long run. Yet, because not all learning material and school-related activities are interesting, a critical task for socializing figures is to foster the growth process of internalization, such that learners experience a sense of ownership regarding extrinsically motivated activities. Teachers and school climates that are conducive to learners’ psychological needs promote learners’ endorsement of the learning activity at hand, while also allowing them to ground their functioning on a deeper set of values, commitments, and preferences, which serve as a more stable basis for regulating their day-to-day learning activities. Apart from discussing these growth processes and the energizing role of psychological needs, we review past work which provides insights in the way how teachers can foster learners’ intrinsic motivation and internalization.

Objective. Across nationwide rollout of COVID-19 vaccination, people in Belgium differed widely in their vaccination intention. In the present study, we examined (a) how people’s vaccination intentions changed during the vaccination rollout and (b) whether changes in motivation (i.e., autonomous, controlled, and distrust-based (a)motivation) predicted changes in vaccination intention, thereby taking into account people’s vaccination intention at baseline.Methods. Using four subsamples of participants who were vaccinated at different time points (ntotal = 10,799) between December 2020 and June 2021, we used latent Change Modeling and Latent Growth Curve Modeling to examine the associations between initial levels and changes in vaccination motivation and vaccination intention. Results. Across subsamples, changes in vaccination intention were found to be qualified by changes in motivation. An increase in autonomous motivation was related to a positive shift in vaccination intention, while an increase in both controlled motivation and distrust-based amotivation was related to a negative shift in vaccination intention. Moreover, autonomous motivation predicted especially an increase in vaccination intention among those initially low in vaccination intention, whereas an increase in either controlled motivation or distrust-based amotivation especially predicted a decrease in vaccination intention among those initially high in vaccination intention . Conclusions. Findings suggest that a growing sense of ownership and a reduction in distrust is critical for individuals to develop a stronger intention to get vaccinated, particularly when people had initially low vaccination intentions. We discuss conceptual, methodological, and practical implications.

To explain why there is substantial heterogeneity in the degree to which adolescents suffer from psychologically controlling parenting, it is important to take into account adolescents' active contribution to the socialization processes and to their coping with controlling parenting in particular. This study aimed to examine whether adolescents' coping with controlling parenting (i.e., oppositional defiance, compulsive compliance, negotiation, and accommodation) moderated associations between psychologically controlling parenting, adolescents' experiences of psychological need frustration, and their internalizing and externalizing problems. A total of 161 adolescents (M age = 15.56 years; SD age = 1.14; 61.5% female) and either their mother or their father participated in 7-day diary study. As expected, accommodation played an adaptive role, thereby buffering within-person (daily) associations between psychologically controlling parenting, adolescents' need frustration, and subsequent problems. Unexpectedly, compulsive compliance played a similar adaptive role. Overall, the moderating effects of coping were rather limited, suggesting that adolescents' coping can alter the daily negative consequences associated with psychologically controlling parenting only to a certain extent.

The procedural justice model is a common framework for understanding how and why fair procedures conveyed by legal authorities (such as police officers) shape the legal socialization process. The present contribution draws upon self-determination theory (SDT) to advance the procedural justice model through its focus on internalization, in terms of identification and external regulation. Study 1 is a questionnaire-based study conducted among 268 Belgian adolescents that provides initial evidence for the incremental value of the SDT-based operationalization of internalization, above and beyond the classic operationalization (i.e. obligation to obey), for explaining why perceived procedural justice is linked to more compliance and less defiance. These results are corroborated in Study 2, which involves an experimental, vignette-based study (N = 210) contrasting a procedurally just versus unjust situation. The discussion focuses on how SDT may inform the legal socialization literature., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Introduction. Satisfaction of adolescents’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness contributes to their well-being. Socialization figures (e.g., parents) can assist adolescents in getting these needs met. In addition, adolescents can engage in need crafting, thereby proactively managing their behavior towards improved need satisfaction. This research aimed to develop a need crafting measure and to examine the role of need crafting in adolescents’ need-based experiences and mental health. Method. A cross-sectional study in 233 Flemish students (Study 1; Mage=16.6, 58.4% female) addressed the psychometric properties of a need crafting measure and its associations with relevant constructs. Using a three-wave longitudinal study in 436 Flemish students (Study 2; Mage=16.33, 66,0% female), we investigated the role of need crafting in adolescents’ mental health and the intervening role of need-based experiences. Results. In Study 1, a CFA yielded evidence for the psychometric quality of the need crafting measure. Need crafting was related in meaningful ways with different validation constructs and with adolescents’ need-based experiences. Study 2 showed that need crafting was related to adolescents’ mental health, both at the level of inter-individual differences and at the level of intra-individual change. Need-based experiences accounted partly for the mental health benefits associated with need crafting, with the effects remaining significant after controlling for perceived maternal need-support. Conclusion. The findings provide initial evidence for the importance of adolescents’ need crafting in mental health. Future research needs to further examine factors that determine adolescents’ ability to manage their own psychological needs.

Building on recent self-determination theory research differentiating controlling coaching into a demanding and domineering approach, this study examined the role of both approaches in athletes' motivational outcomes when accompanied by autonomy support or structure. Within team-sport athletes (N = 317; mean age = 17.67), four sets of k-means cluster analyses systematically pointed toward a four-cluster solution (e.g., high-high, high-low, low-high, and low-low), regardless of the pair of coaching dimensions used. One of the identified coaching profiles involved coaches who are perceived to combine need-supportive and controlling behaviors (i.e., high-high). Whereas combining need-supportive and domineering behaviors (i.e., high-high) yields lower autonomous motivation and engagement compared with a high need-support profile (i.e., high-low), this is less the case for the combination of need-supportive and demanding behaviors (i.e., high-high). This person-centered approach provides deeper insights into how coaches combine different styles and how some forms of controlling coaching yield a greater cost than others. ispartof: Journal Of Sport & Exercise Psychology vol:42 issue:6 pages:452-462 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Although it has been hypothesized that gifted students are at risk for adopting a fixed mindset, research revealed inconsistent results. We aimed to clarify this by differentiating between two operationalizations of giftedness (high cognitive ability and formal identification as gifted) and how these relate to students’ beliefs about intelligence and effort. Also, we examined the role of parental antecedents on students’ beliefs. Participants were 3,329 7th-grade students and their parents. Only being labeled as gifted was related to adopting a fixed mindset. Regarding parental antecedents, parents’ intelligence and effort beliefs were related to students’ corresponding beliefs. Further, parental feedback was associated with students’ beliefs, which was most pronounced when student-reports of feedback were used. In particular, person-oriented feedback related positively to a fixed mindset and negatively to students’ appreciation of the role of effort in academic performance, while process-oriented feedback showed the opposite pattern. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. ispartof: Gifted Child Quarterly vol:66 issue:3 pages:220-237 status: published

While bivariate associations between motivation and academic achievement have been soundly established, only a handful of studies have documented evidence for its incremental predictive role above and beyond other student features related to student achievement, such as intelligence and personality. Moreover, it is not yet clear which motivational processes are most essential for academic achievement. The current study considered how an array of motivational processes related to academic achievement, controlling for intelligence and personality, in a large sample of Flemish 7th graders. Students’ intelligence and need for cognition, that is, the personal preference to engage in cognitively demanding work, proved to be strong predictors of academic achievement. Yet, even after controlling for intelligence and personality, several motivational processes explained additional, unique variance in achievement, totaling about a quarter of the explained variance in school results. In particular, academic self-concept proved to relate most strongly to achievement, while achievement goals, achievement motivation, autonomous motivation, and effort beliefs additionally explained a unique portion of the variance in academic achievement. Although these findings were largely consistent across different operationalizations of achievement, motivational constructs explained more variance when achievement was measured with school grades instead of standardized tests. Given the more malleable nature of motivational dynamics compared to intelligence and personality differences, the unique, positive associations between motivation and achievement suggest that improving student motivation is a worthwhile undertaking. ispartof: Journal Of Educational Psychology vol:114 issue:4 pages:772-790 status: published

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a threat not only to individuals' physical health but also to their mental health. Self-Determination Theory assumes that the satisfaction of basic psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness and competence promotes psychological well-being during destabilizing times. Yet, the pandemic seriously hampered individuals' opportunities to satisfy their needs. The current study provides a preliminary test of the effectiveness of a 7-session online program, LifeCraft, that promotes individuals' proactive attempts to uplift their need-based experiences (i.e., need crafting). Next to the effects on individuals' need crafting skills, we examined program-effects on adults' need-based experiences and mental health and we explored the role of participants' program engagement. An experimental study among 725 Belgian adults [

OBJECTIVE: Although intellectually gifted individuals are often portrayed as perfectionists, evidence for an association between cognitive ability and perfectionism is inconclusive. This study investigates the relations between cognitive ability and two distinct dimensions of perfectionism and addresses the role of parental antecedents of perfectionism in adolescents at different levels of cognitive ability. METHOD: In a community sample of 3,168 adolescents and their parents, cognitive ability was assessed and perfectionism levels and parenting practices were surveyed. RESULTS: Adolescents higher in cognitive ability reported higher levels of Personal Standards (i.e., setting ambitious objectives) but lower levels of Concern over Mistakes (i.e., worrying excessively about mistakes). Parental criticism, high parental expectations, and conditionally regarding parenting were associated positively with Concern over Mistakes, and high parental expectations were related positively to Personal Standards. These associations were generally independent of adolescents' cognitive ability. Parents of adolescents higher in cognitive ability relied less on parenting practices associated with the development of perfectionism. CONCLUSION: Cognitive ability is related to a higher pursuit of personal standards, yet does not constitute a risk factor for excessive concerns about mistakes. Parental antecedents were related similarly and in theoretically meaningful ways to adolescent perfectionism across different levels of cognitive ability. ispartof: JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY vol:89 issue:4 pages:652-671 ispartof: location:United States status: published

This study investigated the protective role of maternal adaptive emotion regulation in applying controlling parenting practices while assisting their toddler in completing two different problem-solving tasks. More specifically, the role of maternal emotion regulation was examined relative to significant situational (i.e., task difficulty) and child-related (i.e., toddlers’ temperamental negative affectivity) risk factors for controlling parenting. Results showed that (1) mothers’ integrative emotion regulation was negatively related to observed maternal control across tasks, (2) mothers were more controlling during a difficult task compared to an easy task, and (3) toddlers’ temperamental negative affectivity related positively to the use of observed maternal control, albeit only during a difficult task. These results highlight the relevance of maternal emotion regulation processes during parenting practices beyond contextual and temperamental correlates. Directions for future research and clinical implications are discussed.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine the interplay between the personality vulnerability dimensions of self-criticism and dependency and experienced satisfaction or frustration of the basic psychological needs in relation to adolescents' depressive symptoms. In doing so, we investigated both indirect associations between personality and depressive symptoms (through need-based experiences) and interactions between personality and need-based experiences (i.e., moderation). METHOD: A total of 149 adolescents (52% female, Mage = 15.20 years at initial assessment, SD = 3.09) participated in this three-wave longitudinal study with 6-month intervals. At each wave, adolescents reported on their personality, need-based experiences, and depressive symptoms. RESULTS: Multilevel analyses showed that dependency and self-criticism related to experiences of need frustration and depressive symptoms at both the between-person level (i.e., the level of interindividual differences) and the within-person level (i.e., the level of intraindividual change). In turn, need frustration was related to adolescents' depressive symptoms at both levels of analysis. Personality did not significantly moderate the associations between the psychological needs and depressive symptoms. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that self-criticism and dependency are related to experiences of psychological need frustration and depressive symptoms at the level of both interindividual differences and within person-change. ispartof: JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY vol:88 issue:6 pages:1145-1161 ispartof: location:United States status: published