Link
Notes
- not the main point of the paper, but I think a good broader point about how we should think about this things (as interactive systems, not binary, hard-wired, etc.)
As with most debates in psychology, the resolution of these debates involves replacing the “ors” with “ands.” Both person and situation variables affect behavior; similarly, both phenomenological and mechanistic variables affect behavior. Descriptions of either person or environment variables have been able to account for a reasonable amount of variance in behavior; however, a fuller understanding of behavior requires a focus on the interactive nature of the two types of variables.
Background
- first step = behaviorism, BF Skinner, posits that all things are at one point or another learned from our environment and our behaviors can be all explained by this observable stimulus/response framework
- second step = not just about behavior, but also a result of cognitive processes internal to ourselves, our brains turning its gears (beyond our conscious awareness) and affect the eventual behavior
- third step = environment and cognitive processes are still important, but to say we are only the byproduct of the environment and our internal cognitive processes is to discredit the effect that our vivid conscious experiences have on us (the phenomenological).
Ideas
- And so in order to really understand how we formulate our decisions and motivations, we have to take into account the different flavors of informational inputs that we take in any given moment as we are making a decision. That is, taking into account the interplay of environment variables and person (internal) variables as well distinguishing between the mechanistic (cognitive processes) and phenomenological variables (conscious experience).
- At its broadest level, there are two types of motivated behavior — those that are consciously chosen in service of some need (intrinsic/extrinsic) i.e. “self-determined behaviors” and those that are not consciously chosen, or “automated behaviors”. So self-determined behaviors are the ones that conscious processing of information (phenomenological), where the relationship between the “mind” and the “brain” can be observed, and are chosen based on one’s expectation of the outcome.
- Self-determined behaviors
- information comes from our environment, of which is in part selected itself (note: selective attention), based on our salient needs (internal variables).
- Not all information that we perceive and will be used to decide on a behavior makes it to our conscious awareness. E.g. we could see and perceive someone’s outfit, draw upon our pre-existing judgments and/or associations of similar outfits, and use that information to inform our behavior.
- Those that do enter our conscious awareness are from here on referred to as “conscious motives”.
On the basis of these conscious motives, people select behaviors that they expect, based on an evaluation of anticipated outcomes, to provide the greatest satisfaction of the conscious motives that are salient at that time.
- Our conscious experience is then aware of (possibly) multiple motives and expectations, all of which may not be possible to satisfy in a given decision moment. So our “active” experience of making this decision involves both: (a) mediating behavior to begin with throughout this process itself and (b) deliberating choosing one of others, a judgment call to decide what we consider to be the “best” outcome or most “important” desire (approximately)
- The primary fuel/energy source for this decision-making process is what they consider “intrinsic motivation”. The underlying need to interact with our environment in a competent (why else would we care to deliberate before we behave if we didn’t want to be right?) and self-directed way.
- Furthermore they claim that the act of choosing in and of itself is intrinsically motivated and gratifying. In other words, even in choosing say a profession for purely money-making (extrinsic) needs, the cognitive act of choosing and deciding what behavior to act on is motivated by our intrinsic needs
- (perhaps to gain a sense of agency/control over our lives? This is not explored in the paper, but just a thought)
- In summary, the self-determined cognitive process goes something like: information inputs → conscious motives → selection of behavior based on expectation → feedback from reality → repeat (if still a salient motivation)
Automated Behaviors
- These are the behaviors that we’ve learned to do (maybe even conditioned) and now do them without even thinking we did them. This is advantageous to us from the brain’s perspective since we get to maintain our limited energy and attention to more interesting/important things.
- Distinguish between automated behaviors that are easier to “re-program” than others. Those that are easy = automatized behaviors (e.g. driving stick to driving automatic) vs those that are hard = automatic behaviors (e.g. overeating)
- Further, the claim is that automatic behaviors are inflexible precisely because their motives are unconscious. Whether conscious motive or unconscious motive, there still exists a need that our brains will want to gratifying. But with motives that fly under our conscious awareness, we have a hard time catching instances of these behaviors (and probably do whatever is most convenient/comfortable for us to satisfy this need)
Motivational Subsystems
- these subsystems are like a set of beliefs, attitudes and programs that inform our motivational processes.
- intrinsic = only reward is the experience of the behavior and effect within a person
- extrinsic = behavior is propelled by an external reward, effect includes others
- amotivational = non-relationship between behaviors and outcomes, linked to depression
- This framework helps us explain the apparent inconsistencies of motivational processes and decision-making (namely comparing different situations). This paper claims that even across different situations, behaviors motivated by the same subsystem will be consistent and those across subsystems will have important distinctions
Cognitive Evaluation theory
- Self-determination is thus inherently tied to this intrinsic subsystem. When one perceives the “locus of causality” (i.e. the point/place where something is caused) to be internal, we feel more self-determined and are more intrinsically motivated — the reverse is also true.
- So our environment informs this, and shapes our perception of this locus of causality — if we are surrounded by strong external control structures, we start to believe/expect causality to be primarily external (we’ll be less self-determined, be less intrinsically motivated, etc.). The reverse is also true.
- A self explanatory section on the tie between this feeling of competence and both the intrinsic and amotivational subsystems:
Further, information implying incompetence will tend to weaken one’s intrinsic need and promote a relative shift from the intrinsic to the amotivational subsystem. Changes in perceptions, feelings and behaviors will accompany this shift. Incompetence means that one is unable to attain desired outcomes, that behavior and outcomes are independent, so one will tend to behave less. Information implying competence will tend to strengthen one’s intrinsic need and promote a relative shift from the amotivational to the intrinsic subsystem, with accompanying changes in perceptions, feelings and behaviors… (41, emphasis my own)
Personality Orientations
- shifting perceptions and attitude/beliefs between motivational subsystems is an important dynamic, but doesn’t necessarily mean our environment controls us in this realm entirely. Personality factors moderate (i.e. influence the strength of) these effects — they call these our “causality orientations”, and reflect our general beliefs of the relationship between our behaviors and outcomes.
- internal causality orientation = behaviors and outcomes are related, outcomes follow from one’s initiaitions
- external causality orientation = behaviors and outcomes are related, behaviors are controlled by outcomes
- impersonal causality orientation = behaviors and outcomes are not related, behaviors are not instrumental to attaining desired outcomes