As many of the previous blog posts written here have postulated, there is an admitted bent towards personal development and a high degree of emphasis on postulating terminology, ideology, and proficient practices that can increase the performance actuality and additional capacity for increased performance skill levels. Increasing levels of capacity for those individuals that follow along with the readings. Today is an introduction to Organismic Integration Theory and evolves into Self-Determination Theory. The former is the methodology by which one turns extrinsic motivation factors into intrinsic associations, or purpose. Intrinsic motivation being considered the highest level of motivation (some will arguably opine that addiction is the highest level of motivational influence but for today we accept the axiom that intrinsic motivation is King).
Edward Dici, and Richard Ryan are the psychologists responsible for both theories, and the extended relationship between one another. Research conducted and written instruments from these two men during the 1970’s and 1980’s are where the origination points are discovered. Suffice it to say that many other practitioners’ postulations and written instruments have been added to the literature and research concerning the ideas of self-regulating motivation and responsibility for performance influences. The main differentiation or extension for organismic integration is the internalization component of actionable reliance. The integration to take external environmental influences and internalize those influences to become intrinsic concerns or motivators is the key element. Again, much more depth is found when the construct is thoroughly examined for personal efficacy.
Development, especially personal development, is the systematic process of opening or becoming one’s full potential thereby continuing to expand said potential with each growth or evolutionary step. Some will posit a finite capacity and others will opine that an infinite capacity is a potential for all to assume. The differences being in sections or specificity of ability and growth potential. i.e. one might expand by becoming adept at rhythm and balance where they have reached a peak for strength and speed, or one might grow in the field of writing where they were prior a functional mathematician that reached skill capacity or a motivation limit in the former field of interest or practice. Personal development being unlimited in potential methods for expanding skill acquisitions or levels of performance mastery alike in the process of personal growth.
Self-determination Theory places an emphasis on three main components for individual need and capacity of all personal limitations, perspectives of limitations, or technical/psychological adjustments. Postulating that the mind and the psycho-motor integration must be both innate and environmentally influenced by individual choice and purpose for adapting or overcoming, or adjusting to specific reality restrictions, or potential enhancements available to the individual. The cause and effect being that self-regulation is both a controlled motivation exercise while simultaneously integrating or creating altered positions that eventually become autonomous motivators. These three components are:
Autonomy – Individuals want to know they are masters or at least the influencers of their own destiny. The rights of passage, trial and error, participation, and adjudication is within their own control and they are rewarded or punished as a result of those choices and actions. A lifetime of such participation provides associations for them. Personal development by individual choice and willingness to engage being the result!
Competence – The idea being that a person wants to become competent at what they achieve through mastery. However, the bar for this has unfortunately been set lower in new teachings, and many in the World are OK with being just OK. Self-determination allows this position but the original intent was introduced with the assumption that individuals want to become the best that they can become – they want to be better as individuals, and they will seek competence in all that they endeavor from a proficient practice rather than a sufficient acceptance. Technically though self-determination allows for sufficient mindsets to rest here and accept mediocrity as a level of achievement. (We at Madzook generally disagree with mediocrity unless it was achieved by someone that was performing at a level lower than mediocrity in the first place. Mediocrity is only an acceptable achievement if it is an improved position from a prior capacity)
Psychological/Social/or connective relatedness – In other words self-determination is extremely influenced by humans need and desire to feel connected to humanity as a whole. The idea being that one will seek to become or to perform better if the individual believes or feels that their actions are meaningful and connected to a greater external population. This could be a spouse, partner, offspring, work group, civic organization, team, neighborhood, race, gender, Deity association, country, or the whole encompassing humanity as a species. The capacity is highly individualized here but the construct of feeling a sense of connected belonging is the synthesis of all interactive activity for any and all individuals – simply put the meaningfulness or connection is influential with the specificity of the individual and the feeling satiated by the choices and actions taken.
In summation, an individual seeks personal choice to feel competent and connected to their version or perspective of a contextual world in which they participate as an individual. The choices, and actions taken are all in direct relationship to the three constructs and how those constructs integrate for that individual – specifically.