Objective
From a self‐determination theory perspective, individuals are assumed to benefit and suffer from, respectively, the satisfaction and frustration of the psychological need for autonomy, even ...if they score low on autonomy strength. Yet, previous studies on need strength are scarce, operationalized need strength differently, and produced inconsistent findings.
Method
In two studies among 224 South African adults (Mage = 24.13, SD = 4.25; 54.0% male) and 156 Belgian prisoners (Mage = 38.60, SD = 11.68; 88.5% male), we investigated the moderating role of autonomy valuation and desire in the relations of autonomy satisfaction and frustration with a variety of well‐being and ill‐being indicators.
Results
Study 1 provided some evidence for the moderating role of mostly explicit autonomy desire (rather than explicit autonomy valuation). In Study 2, neither explicit nor implicit autonomy desire played a consistent moderating role.
Conclusions
Overall, these findings are congruent with a moderate (albeit not with a strong) interpretation of the universality claim made within self‐determination theory, provide initial evidence for a differentiation between deficit‐based and growth‐oriented interpersonal differences in need strength, and indicate that the potential moderating role of need strength deserves continued attention before any firm conclusions can be drawn.
This diary study provided the first classroom-based empirical test of the relations between student perceptions of high school science teachers' various autonomy supporting and thwarting practices ...and students' motivation and engagement on a daily basis over the course of an instructional unit. Perceived autonomy supporting practices were hypothesized to predict autonomous motivation and engagement outcomes, while perceived autonomy thwarting practices were hypothesized to predict controlled motivation and disaffection outcomes. In line with this prediction, multilevel modeling results based on regular reports of 208 high school students in 41 science classes across 6 weeks suggested that 4 perceived daily supports (choice provision, consideration for student preferences and interests, rationales for importance, and question opportunities) and 1 daily thwart (use of uninteresting activities) predicted changes in daily autonomous motivation and engagement. In contrast, changes in students' daily controlled motivation and disaffection were predicted primarily by 3 perceived daily thwarts (controlling messages, suppression of student perspectives, and use of uninteresting activities). Results also suggested that practices interacted such that the perception of thwarts generally bolstered desirable daily relationships between perceived supports and students' motivation and the perception of supports generally mitigated undesirable daily relationships between thwarts and motivation. Supplemental exploratory results suggested that the effects of choice and suppression of student perspectives may be heterogeneous and depend on the outcome and/or the presence of other practices. Implications of the findings are discussed.
Educational Impact and Implications Statement
The results of a 6-week classroom-based diary study with 208 high school students in 41 science classes suggested that students' autonomous motivation and engagement increased (since the prior class day) on days when students perceived their teachers to support their autonomy by providing choices, considering their preferences and interests in course activities, communicating rationales for the importance of activities, providing opportunities to ask questions, or avoiding uninteresting activities. In contrast, controlled motivation and disaffection increased on days when students' perceived their teachers to thwart their autonomy by using controlling messages, suppressing student perspectives, or using uninteresting activities. Students' perceptions that teachers' used thwarting practices simultaneously with supportive practices bolstered the desirable relationship between perceived supports and motivation, and mitigated the undesirable relationship between thwarts and motivation. Results suggest the importance of focusing motivation interventions on training high school teachers to implement specific daily practices geared at supporting students' experience of autonomy and minimizing the use of specific thwarting practices to both promote autonomous motivation and engagement and reduce controlled motivation and disaffection. Results highlight the importance of targeting a profile of autonomy-relevant practices that teachers use each day when attempting to maximize student motivation and engagement.
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CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ
Preliminary research operationalized autonomy strength narrowly as hope for autonomy satisfaction, while neglecting to consider fear of frustration as an important source of motivation. However, ...developmental antecedents and outcomes of hope and fear components of motives are distinct. Thus, we took a differentiate perspective on autonomy strength, which proposed fear of being controlled as a fear component, to comprehensively investigate whether a reciprocal relationship exists between autonomy-based experiences and autonomy strength. The current findings supported for some of the key predictions from the proposed interplay using longitudinal data collected in 2 years. Specifically, we found these transactional processes of autonomy-satisfying experiences with autonomy valuation and autonomy-frustrating experiences with autonomy desire over 2 years. Fear of being controlled predicted subsequent increases in autonomy frustration and decreases in autonomy satisfaction after 2 years, but not vice versa. This study provides valuable insights into autonomy strength and highlights the transactional process between autonomy-based experience and autonomy strength.
•Autonomy valuation positively interplayed with autonomy satisfaction during 2 years.•Autonomy desire and autonomy frustration mutually reinforced each other during 2 years.•Fear of being controlled led to more autonomy frustration, and less satisfaction after 2 years.
Drawing from self-determination theory, three studies explored the social-environmental conditions that satisfy versus thwart psychological needs and, in turn, affect psychological functioning and ...well-being or ill-being. In cross-sectional Studies 1 and 2, structural equation modeling analyses supported latent factor models in which need satisfaction was predicted by athletes’ perceptions of autonomy support, and need thwarting was better predicted by coach control. Athletes’ perceptions of need satisfaction predicted positive outcomes associated with sport participation (vitality and positive affect), whereas need thwarting more consistently predicted maladaptive outcomes (disordered eating, burnout, depression, negative affect, and physical symptoms). In addition, athletes’ perceptions of psychological need thwarting were significantly associated with perturbed physiological arousal (elevated levels of secretory immunoglobulin A) prior to training. The final study involved the completion of a diary and supported the relations observed in the cross-sectional studies at a daily level. These findings have important implications for the operationalization and measurement of interpersonal styles and psychological needs.
Academic Freedom Ignatieff, Michael; Roch, Stefan
2018, 20180215, 2018-02-15
eBook
Academic freedom—the institutional autonomy of scientific, research and teaching institutions, and the freedom of individual scholars and researchers to pursue controversial research and publish ...controversial opinions—is a cornerstone of any free society. Today this freedom is under attack from the state in many countries—Russia, Turkey, Venezuela, Hungary, China—but it is also under question from within academe. Bitter disputes have erupted on American campuses, for example, about the limits of free speech and about whether liberal academic freedoms have degenerated into a form of coercive political correctness. Beyond the academy itself, among the general public, academic freedom is contested ground. As Robert Post of Yale Law School has put it, academic freedom is “the price the public must pay in return for the social good of advancing knowledge." Populist currents of political opinion are questioning the price a society pays for the freedom of its ‘experts’ and professors.
The article is dedicated to presenting the experience of conducting debates on the impact of university autonomy on the improvement of higher education quality. It emphasizes that university autonomy ...is a fundamental academic value and a strategic direction of development for the European Higher Education Area, as well as a key feature of a democratic society and a condition for enhancing the quality of higher education and research. Debates are characterized as an educational technology and their role in the development of professional and general competencies of third-level (educational-scientific level) higher education seekers, enhancing the level of communication skills and interactive ability for partnership interaction, teamwork skills, as well as affirming democratic values, tolerance, honesty, and respect for opponents. The arguments presented by members of the affirmation team during the debates demonstrated that university autonomy in all four dimensions (organizational, personnel, financial, and academic) allows for the creation of a self-regulated and authoritative environment conducive to improving the quality of higher education, and also obliges universities to bear responsibility to society, as they play a key role in the development of a democratic and inclusive society, sustainable and environmentally safe economic and social development, in the development of the economy and improvement of living standards. In contrast, the opposing team argued the possibilities of centralized regulation by the state in enhancing the quality of higher education and in the implementation of universities’ social responsibility.
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