This study investigated how students perceived their motivation in high school social studies classes in school and to determine if a correlation exists between students’ grade level, race, gender, and their motivation. The sample included 337 high school students in Broward County, Florida. To assess students’ perceptions on their motivation the academic self-regulation questionnaire was utilized. Results indicate that social studies students show high levels of external regulation, with a mean score at 22.31 on a scale of 36 points. The results show a mean score of 24 on a scale of 28 points for identified regulation among social studies students. Findings revealed that student motivation could be gauged. No statistical significance was found between high school students’ grade level, race, gender, and their motivation in social studies classes. The findings of this study have shown that students at Boyd H. Anderson High School want to learn social studies.

Although there is a well-known relationship between physical activity and well-being, particularly among women, this association is complex. There is a call for more research regarding key moderating processes that will help to explain the circumstances under which physical activity can lead to optimal well-being. The overall purpose of this dissertation was to examine the influence of situational motivation (Self-Determination Theory; Deci & Ryan, 1985) and passion (Dualistic Model of Passion; Vallerand et al., 2003) as predictors of the relationship between physical activity and indicators of well-being, namely affect and vitality, in active women with multiple life roles. The influence of perceived intensity (RPE) was also investigated. Study 1 followed a within-subject experimental design (N = 40). Article 1 revealed a significant interaction effect between RPE and introjected regulation whereby at low levels of introjection, RPE was positively associated with changes in positive affect with a running task. In Article 2, identified and introjected regulations were positively associated with pre- to post-running increases in positive affect. Moreover, participants with high introjection reported a greater increase in positive affect with a running task but also a greater decline in affect after a non-physical control task. Study 2 employed the Experience Sampling Method over a 14-day period (N = 66). Article 3 revealed a novel motivational sequence whereby introjected regulation was associated with higher RPE, intrinsic motivation (as well as RPE), was positively related to post-physical activity positive affect and the positive influence of identified regulation on affect appeared 3-hours post-activity. Lastly, Article 4 revealed that women’s daily affect was related to engaging in their passionate activity (i.e., physical activity) and that higher harmonious passion and lower obsessive passion led to more stable positive affect across days. Vitality, as measured at endpoint, was negatively predicted by obsessive passion and positively by harmonious passion. The findings are discussed in relation to theoretical tenants and previous studies. The unique results give rise to interesting avenues of future enquiry such as exploring motivational profiles. It is recommended that wellness interventions should emphasize women’s internalization of physical activity in hopes of achieving balanced, sensible physical activity.

The overall purpose of this Master’s thesis was to gain an in-depth understanding of university student-athletes’ contributions. The first manuscript included in this thesis assesses the suitability of the Positive Youth Development Very Short Form (PYD-VSF) for use with an emerging adult athlete population, using data from 74 university student-athletes who completed an online questionnaire. The findings suggest that the PYD-VSF is not an appropriate measure for this population. The second and third manuscript used data from 10 interviews. The second manuscript examined university student-athletes’ motivations to contribute and found participants reported that contributing served as a way to satisfy the basic psychological needs and possessed multiple motives simultaneously. The third manuscript explored the facilitators and barriers relating to university student-athletes’ contributions and found that academic and athletic time constraints were significant barriers to contribution and teammates, coaches, and staff members of the athletics department facilitated contributions.

Environmental degradation and biodiversity loss are worldwide problems caused by human activities, which can often be classified as a resource dilemma. This thesis examines one of the more studied interventions in social dilemmas for increasing cooperative behaviour, namely sanctioning systems, in conjunction with one of the least studied factors in this area, i.e., intraindividual motivation and goals. Across three studies, and using Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as a framework, this thesis examines the relationships between motivation, goals, sanctioning systems and proenvironmental behaviour (PEB) in a resource dilemma (RD). The resource dilemma used in this thesis was a virtual, iterated, 2-person partnered design where each participant was required to make decisions about recreational fishing harvests in a small, private lake with an inferred partner. The ‘partner’ was not real, but was simulated by the program in order to maximize experimental control. Study 1 used mediational analysis to demonstrate that quality of motivation will affect goal content, and goal content will predict proenvironmental behaviour in an RD. Study 2 introduced a centralized sanctioning system to the RD, and found that this type of sanctioning system increased PEB in the RD when added, and decreased PEB when removed, concomitantly affecting the quality of participant motivation. Study 3 introduced a decentralized sanction system to the RD concomitant with pre-written communication for/against the inferred partner. Results demonstrated that self-determined motivation positively predicted the use of positive feedback messages, and negatively predicted the use of monetary sanctions. The results of this thesis expand upon SDT, and point to the potential importance of thorough examinations into the relationship between motivation and cooperation in RDs, and the importance of intraindividual factors in RD research. Moreover, it highlights the potential benefits and drawbacks of relying on sanctioning systems to increase PEBs in RDs.

The ethnographic study utilized the research techniques of observations, content analysis, and semi-structured interviews with tween participants (i.e., 9 through 13 year-old youth) during an 8-week literary blog project. Twenty-six participants created individual blog pages within a member-only classroom blog site that allowed for online communication between members. the blog project incorporated social networking applications with which youth frequently engage. the research questions ensured data regarding what facets participants found appealing and motivating during the project was collected. the questions allowed for determining if participants utilized peer blogs for reading material selection or repurposed the blogs to discuss other topics. Components of self-determination theory and engagement theory underlay the project design and aided in identifying motivational aspects of the data. Frequency tables outlined the identified patterns and structures of participants’ online activity. Participants found the ability to change the colors of their blog backgrounds and to design their individual blogs and the giving and receiving of feedback to be the two most appealing features of the project. Participants chose books from peer suggestions in the online world but also selected materials from recommendations they received in face-to-face interactions with their peers, their teacher, and the school librarian. Little evidence of repurposing the blog for social topics was observed. Participants engaged in discussions predominantly based around the books they were currently reading or had read. Implications for incorporating social networking applications within the classroom environment are discussed.

Magister Artium (Sport, Recreation and Exercise Science) - MA(SRES) / Over the last ten years, research has shown that adolescent activity has decreased in both developed and developing countries. One way of meeting desirable physical activity levels for adolescents in schools is through physical education. Structured physical education is the ideal form of what physical education should entail, however unstructured physical education can also be incorporated as a method to increase physical activity. Because little is known about the benefits of both these types of physical education, this study aimed to investigate the perceived benefits of structured and unstructured physical education lessons as perceived by Grade Eight and Grade Nine learners and physical education and/or life orientation educators in Cape Town high schools.

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The purpose of this research was to understand educator experiences associated with a lateral career move. Qualitative narrative interviews were conducted with six educators, including four administrators and two teachers, who met specific research participation criteria. Thematic analysis and axial coding were performed on the collected data. A framework based on self-determination theory was used to further interpret the research findings. Research findings included participant accounts related to organizational perceptions, emotional effects, and perceptions of superordinate behaviors, before and after making a lateral move. Participants reported experiences associated with negative wellbeing and thwarting the basic psychological needs satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and relatedness prior to making a lateral move. Participants reported experiences associated with positive wellbeing and supporting the satisfaction of basic psychological needs after making a lateral move. The tenets of self-determination theory were supported. Recommendations for professional practice and future research are included.

Nonprofit organization senior leaders conduct business in an increasingly complex and competitive market environment relying on monetary donations to sustain the capacity of their organizations to meet service requirements. The purpose of this single case study was to explore the strategies that nonprofit organization senior leaders used to motivate donors to make monetary donations to their organizations. The target population of the study was 3 senior leaders of a nonprofit organization in the southeastern United States who implemented effective strategies to motivate donors to make monetary donations to their organization. The conceptual framework used for this study was self-determination theory. Data collection for this study consisted of semistructured participant interviews, a review of public and internal organization documentation, and organization performance outcomes. Data for this study were manually coded and thematically organized. The analysis of the data identified relationships, effective communication, active listening, and social media marketing as 4 key themes affecting donors’ motivation to donate to nonprofit organizations. The implications of this study for positive social change include the potential to provide practical strategies that nonprofit organization senior leaders can use to motivate donors to make monetary donations to their organizations, thereby enhancing senior leaders’ capacity to provide critical services to members of the communities in their organizations’ dedicated service areas.

Syfte Studiens övergripande syfte är att undersöka om fotbollstränare för herrlag på elitnivå i Sverige försöker skapa en inre motivation hos sina spelare. Frågeställningar Hur får fotbollstränarna sina spelare att känna autonomi? Hur får fotbollstränarna sina spelar att ska känna sig kompetenta? Hur får fotbollstränarna sina spelare att känna tillhörighet? Metod Fem fotbollstränare på svensk elitnivå på herrsidan valdes ut då de ansågs inneha den erfarenhet och kompetens för att besvara studiens syfte. Dessa fem fotbollstränare intervjuades. Semistrukturerade intervjuer gjordes utifrån en intervjuguide. Intervjuerna spelades in för att sedan transkriberas och analyseras. Resultat Resultatet visade att tränarna fostrar en inre motivationskänsla hos sina spelare men att olika tränarfilosofier gör att de skapar autonomi, kompetens och tillhörighet på olika sätt. Autonomi uppnåddes genom att spelarna fick vara med och sätta individuella mål och bestämma över den individuella träningen. Tränarna utvärderade spelarnas kompetens genom videoanalyser och datastatistik från matcher, individuella samtal och genom feedback. Både individuell feedback och kollektiv feedback.  Genom att skapa en bra och trivsam miljö för spelarna och ett ärligt och rättvist ledarskap försöker tränarna få spelarna att känna en tillhörighet samt genom att resa tillsammans och göra aktiviteter utanför idrotten.  Slutsats Slutsatsen som drogs i denna studie var att tränarna försöker skapa en inre motivation men gör det på olika sätt. Ekonomiska resurser kan sätta vissa gränsen men den största faktorn till att de skapar inre motivation på olika sätt är att de har olika arbetssätt.