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Numerous social and educational psychologists propose that intrinsic motivation generated by personal interests and spontaneous satisfactions is qualitatively different from extrinsic types of motivation generated by external compensations and also that intrinsic motivation is more beneficial to learning than extrinsic types of motivation. However, in the field of neuroscience, intrinsic motivation has been little studied while extrinsic types of motivation (e.g., incentive motivation) have been thoroughly studied. The purpose of the present studies was to expand the neural understanding of motivation to include intrinsic motivational processes. To do so, a series of three event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies were conducted. Study 1 and Study 2 compared the neural activities when participants decided to act for intrinsic reasons (i.e., self-determined volitional and agentic behavior) versus when they decided to act for extrinsic reasons (i.e., non-self-determined volitional and agentic behavior). Both studies showed that the anterior insular cortex, known to be related to a sense of agency, was more activated during self-determined behavior associated with intrinsic reasons for acting while the posterior parietal regions (e.g., posterior cingulate cortex, angular gyrus), known to be related to a sense of a loss of agency, were more activated during non-self-determined behavior associated with extrinsic reasons for acting. These findings confirm the existence of neural-based intrinsic motivational processes, differentiate intrinsic motivation from incentive motivation, and document the important neural activities which function for generating self-determined agentic action. Study 3 examined these same neural activities as participants engaged in interesting and uninteresting versions of two experimental tasks. Results confirmed the results of the earlier two studies, as the anterior insular cortex was more recruited when participants performed the interesting, but not the uninteresting, version of the tasks. Results also extended the findings from Studies 1 and 2 in an important way in that the ventral striatum, a well-known brain region for reward processing, was more activated when participants performed the interesting, but not the uninteresting, version of the experimental tasks. These findings suggest that intrinsic motivation is generated based on the feeling of intrinsic need satisfaction (from anterior insular cortex activations) and the feeling of reward (from ventral striatum activations). Overall, the present research established three new findings: (1) the neural bases of intrinsic motivation lies largely in increased anterior insular cortical activities; (2) when people made decisions about self-determined intrinsically-motivated behavior, they show enhanced insular cortical activities and suppressed posterior parietal cortical activities; and (3) when people engaged in actual self-determined intrinsically-motivated behavior, they show enhanced insular cortical and ventral striatal activities. In establishing these new findings, the paper introduces a new area of study for motivational neuroscience--namely, intrinsic motivation.

Modern education systems tend to focus on the use of external pressures to motivate students to learn. Intrinsic motivation - motivation to do something because it is enjoyable in and of itself – by contrast, is more valuable in these environments as it has multiple benefits, such as better conceptual understanding and more sustained learning behaviour. The primary way to facilitate intrinsic motivation is to meet the three basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. Games are inherently effective at satisfying these needs and have in recent years begun to be used in non-game contexts, like education, in order to attempt to improve motivation. This is commonly known as gamification, although gameful design is the more beneficial counterpart thereof since it is directly based on a deep understanding of what makes games good motivators. This study addresses the question of how gameful design can be used to facilitate intrinsic motivation in a tertiary education setting. This is done through an examination of existing literature in order to inform the design of a gameful intervention, which is the focus of this research. This intervention includes a new website, additional exercises on course content as well as changes to lectures. The intervention (in the form of a pilot study and a final implementation) is used in a first year undergraduate module in the Multimedia degree at the University of Pretoria. When the intervention has been used by the students for a full semester, data are collected in the form of questionnaires, focus groups, Google Analytics, website database logs and observation. The results indicate that the gameful intervention meets the three basic psychological needs of those students who interacted with it. As a result of this, students are more intrinsically motivated to interact with the intervention and therefore spend more time engaging with the course content. This study contributes a list of guidelines for educators wishing to use gameful design in their own modules. It also provides the details of the design of the intervention in order to aid the understanding of how gameful design can be used to facilitate intrinsic motivation. This approach to “gamifying” education is rare in the existing literature and can therefore be considered a valuable contribution. / Dissertation (MIS)--University of Pretoria, 2018. / Information Science / MIS / Unrestricted

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Adolescent hookah pipe use is a public health concern because it poses several health, environmental, and economic risks. Self-determination theory (SDT) posits that people are motivated to engage in certain behaviours in an attempt to satisfy their basic psychological

Coronapandemin och den drastiska omställningen till distansarbete har varit källor till oro för många organisationer. Ett vanligt fenomen är att chefer tenderar att söka sig till hårdare styrning under oförutsägbarhet, vilket kan få konsekvenser på anställdas inre motivation och arbetsinsats. Med utgångspunkt i SCARF-modellen och Self-determination theory, ämnar studien undersöka om oförutsägbarheten innebär en hårdare styrning och vad den får för konsekvenser på anställdas inre motivation och arbetsinsats. Utifrån det teoretiska ramverket genomfördes 11 semistrukturerade intervjuer med både chefer och anställda i fyra olika företag, verksamma i olika branscher. Resultatet indikerar på att kravet på uppföljning och rapportering ökar i de företag vars tillvaro varit mer oförutsägbar och förblir oförändrat i de företag vars tillvaro varit mer förutsägbar. Styrningens förväntade negativa inverkan på anställdas inre motivation och arbetsinsats kan inte bekräftas. Resultatet indikerar istället på positiva effekter som förbättrad känsla av produktivitet, ökad tydlighet och struktur.

Sverige ligger i framkant när det gäller medlemsantalet i idrotts-och motionsföreningar samt jämställdhetsarbetet i förhållande till andra europeiska länder. Svenska tjejer i åldern 16–18 år ägnar sig åt fysisk aktivitet i mindre omfattning till skillnad från killarna. Syftet med studien var att få djupare förståelse och kunskap för vad som motiverar tjejer i åldrarna 16–18 år som idrottar regelbundet till att utöva idrott. Studien utgick ifrån självbestämmandeteori av Deci och Ryan. Det genomfördes åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer med en tillhörande intervjuguide och urvalet var idrottande tjejer i den nämnda åldern. Dataanalysen genomfördes genom en tematisk analys. Resultatet delades in i tre huvudteman som beskrev vad som motiverar tjejer till att utöva idrott: Jämförelse och positionering, den sociala interaktionens inverkan och medvetna inre positiva affektiva reaktioner. Resultatet diskuteras utifrån inre- och yttre motivation och de psykologiska behoven. Studien kan tillföra kunskap och förståelse för vad tjejer motiveras av inom idrottsutövandet. / Sweden is at the forefront when it comes to the number of members in sports- and exercise associations and the gender equality work in relation to other European countries. Swedish girls at the age of 16–18 engage in physical activity to a lesser extent, unlike boys. The purpose of the study’s was to gain a deeper understanding and knowledge of what motivates girls at the ages of 16–18 to practice sports regularly. The study was based on the theory of self-determination by Deci and Ryan. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with an interview guide and the sample was sports girls at the said age. The data analysis was carried out through a thematic analysis. The results were divided into three main themes that described what motivates girls to play sports: Comparison and positioning, the impact of social interaction and conscious inner positive affective reactions. The results are based on discussions around internal and external motivation and the psychological needs. The study can add knowledge and understanding of the motivated factors for girls to do sports.

<p> There is little research that examines differences in perceptions of need-supportive practices between teachers and students. In the current study, three research purposes were (1) to examine variabilities of teacher and student absolute or relative rating gaps in need-supportive practices, (2) to investigate the relations between absolute or relative rating gaps of teacher and student perceived need-supportive practices and student outcomes, and (3) moderating effects on the relations between teacher-student perceptions gaps of need-supportive practices and student outcomes. Participants were 581 5^th and 6^th students and their 29 teachers in Seoul, South Korea. Students completed questionnaires about teacher need-supportive practices, motivation, basic psychological needs (perceived autonomy, competence, and relatedness), and autonomous motivation. Teachers also answered questionnaires about their own need-supportive practices and autonomous motivation. One-way ANOVA and Tukey post-hoc tests were used to examine the variabilities of teacher and student rating gaps of need-supportive practices. Also, hierarchical linear modeling was employed to test the hypothesized models. Student sex and their beginning-of-year achievement were controlled for throughout the analyses.</p><p> The results showed that absolute rating gap for structure was significantly smaller than the absolute rating gaps for both autonomy support and involvement. Also, the relative rating gap for autonomy support was significantly smaller than the relative rating gap for both structure and involvement, but the relative rating gap of involvement was significantly larger than the relative rating gaps for autonomy support and structure. Regarding relations between rating gaps and student outcomes, a smaller teacher-student absolute rating gap for involvement was related to greater student autonomous motivation, and perceived competence and relatedness. Additionally, students with overestimating teachers tended to report lower student autonomous motivation, and low need satisfaction than students with underestimating teachers. Teacher autonomous motivation and teacher experience functioned as moderators.</p><p> The findings revealed the importance of reducing perception gaps between teachers and students about need-supportive practices. In particular, the findings showed the significance of perception gaps about involvement for student outcomes. In addition, the current study indicates the importance of examining both absolute and relative rating gaps between teachers and students.</p><p></p>

The diploma thesis focuses on the topic of motivation for physical activity. Possibilities of increasing motivation by creating optimal conditions for fulfillment of three basic psychological needs, in combination with optimal goal setting process using smartphone apps are discussed. The theoretical part of the thesis is dedicated to the theory of self-determination and its` contribution in context of motivation for physical activity. The thesis also focuses on gamified environment used in the smartphone apps. Gamification elements are suitable for use in goal-setting context, as well as in a pursuit of fulfillment of three basic psychological needs. The research focuses on the use of smartphone apps for goal-setting purposes and influence of the set goals on increasing the average daily number of steps. In the sample of 100 participants, a statistically significant effect of goal on the average number of steps performance was observed during a 28-day period of the study. An influence of different goal difficulty on performance was also questioned, without significant effect on performance to have been found.

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