On the existence and the consequences of automatically activated motivation.

Abstract

In recent years, social psychological processes, such as attitudes, and goals, have been shown to be in part automatic (Bargh, 1997). The purpose of the present thesis was to apply the concept of automaticity to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 1987, 1991). The present thesis is composed of two articles. The first article comprises two studies designed to verify if intrinsic and extrinsic motivation could be in part regulated by automatic nonconscious processes. Using the Scramble Sentence procedure (Srull & Wyer, 1979), we automatically activated either an intrinsic or an extrinsic motivation in an initial task. Then, participants were asked to work on a subsequent task presented as unrelated to the initial task. Results of these two studies showed that, participants primed in the initial experiment with an intrinsic motivation were more motivated, performed better, were more interested, and perceived more choice while working on the subsequent task than participants primed with an extrinsic motivation. The findings of the first article supported the hypothesis that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can be in part regulated by automatic processes. The second article is also composed of two studies that examined the interplay of chronically accessible and temporary primed intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. In the first study of the second article, a measure designed to assess individuals' chronically accessible academic motivational orientations was developed. In the second study, the hypothesis about the motivational resilience of intrinsic and extrinsic chronics to nonconsciously primed motivation was specifically tested. Results showed that the level of motivation, perceptions, and behavior of individuals without a chronically accessible motivational orientation were affected by a temporary primed motivation. In contrast, intrinsic and extrinsic chronics spontaneously resisted the influence of a primed competing motivation. All these effects took place without individuals' conscious guidance or awareness. The susceptibility of nonchronics to the nonconsciously primed motivation in combination with the absence of susceptibility of chronics supported the existence of a motivational resilience regulated by automatic processes. The implications of the findings of the present thesis will be discussed in relation to Self-Determination Theory and the study of motivation in general.