Self Determination Theory And Actualization Of Human Potential

The idea of national self-determination is beneficial to those living in a nation-state, however, the prerequisites required to make it available to many is too difficult to attain. Nation-states are said to be the ideal regime: a system by the people, for the people. However, things in theories do not always work out in practice. In this paper, I will explore concepts regarding self-determination through its definitions, origins, theories, and practices, following with a number of complications that restrict practical use and potential reasons of why the idea of self-determination may be impractical to use on a global scale.

In order to answer the question of what is required for an individual as he exists in society to be free, we must first understand what freedom is. In synthesizing ideas from the texts studied this semester, thus far, I have arrived at the conclusion that freedom can be described as the ability to pursue activities that fulfill oneself, and contribute to our own happiness, and self-actualization as an individual. To say that freedom can be “defined” would imply placing limits on freedom, and would be counterintuitive. Erich Fromm states that “[Freedom’s] meaning changes according to the degree of man’s awareness and conception of himself as an independent and separate being (23).” The less a person is bound to obligations albeit moral, economic, social, or political, and more self-actualized, the more likely he will be to seek happiness through activities that are free from influence of these aforementioned entities.

In the novel Passing, Nella Larsen explores the intricacies of the social and ethical pressures mounted on the middle class bourgeoisie black community. The middle class black, as they aspired to embody the stereotypical image of middle class which boader on white values, represses their individuality and “blackness”. Some of the mixed race, African Americans who were pale enough to pass for white, take that opportunity to marry white men and escape the burden of racism and segregation and also escape the poverty line. This is the case of one of the novel’s protagonist Clare. However, some of these mixed race African Americans took pride in staying “true” to their race and kind, but ironically gives in to the pressure by “passing” when it is beneficial to them. Irene and Brian Redfield are the Gold standard of the middle class bourgeoisie family. Brian, a doctor and Irene the accessory, wife and perfect hostess, both struggle in their loveless marriage as they try to balance their need for self fulfillment with the pressures of appealing to their social class. As they acknowledge, confront and pursue their search for personal fulfillment, it becomes imperative that they repress their sexual and racial proclivities being that they are black. More so, their sense of personal fulfillment is inevitably tied to the fulfillment of the demands of their social class which deceptively boaders on white values of

As Colin Powell put it wisely “A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.” Unfortunately though, it seems that in America countless people have set aside the attributes of determination and hard work, and have taken up the unfortunate characteristic of laziness and irresoluteness. In today’s day and age, we have given ourselves over to a lack of dedication and determination contrary to those who preceded us. If we do not fix this problem, it will become greatly detrimental to the United States of America. All in all, Determination has brought America through troubled times, stands as one of the most overlooked attributes in our community today, and if practiced today has the chance to drastically

Through the collection of research, it has been noted that training and development (T&D) has a positive connection with intrinsic aspects of human needs within the workplace. Autonomy support and the self-determination theory (SDT) were found to be the most common concepts in relation to training and development and intrinsic human needs. Autonomy support (or autonomy-supportive teaching) relates to “the interpersonal behavior teachers provide during instruction to identify, nurture, and build students’ inner motivational resources” (Deci, 1975; Reeve, Deci, & Ryan, 2004). Self-determination theory is a theory of motivation that suggests that people tend to be driven toward growth and “distinguishes between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations”

The authors noticed there was a lack of research in examining how global autonomous motivation and global perceived control work together in influencing subjective well-being. There was also a lack of knowledge around how global autonomous motivation and global perceived control are related to each other and whether they influence emotional well-being. The authors also argued that it was important to study young adults’ global sense of control across different areas of life and their global motivation towards their goals. This study defined autonomous motivation as motivation that is high in self-determination. Global perceived control was defined as the extent to which one regards one’s life-chances as being under one’s own control. The authors expected baseline measures of perceived control and autonomous motivation would interact in predicting goal progress and improvements in emotional well-being over time. They also predicted that autonomously motivated individuals with high levels of perceived control were expected to predict adaptive behavior and inversely those who were not autonomously motivated would generally show lower levels of adaptive behavior. They also predicted that goal progress would statistically relate to effects of global autonomous motivation and perceived control in predicting emotional

“Self-determination theory (SDT) is a macro-theory of human motivation concerned with the development and functioning of personality within social contexts. In order for subjects to be considered “healthy”, they will exhibit high levels of autonomy, competence, and relatedness”. (Deci & Ryan, 2008). Humans have studied the idea of motivation as how to make themselves or others reach a specific goal, or find energy to act in front of a struggle in life. Such struggles include grades, evaluations, opinions they fear others might have of them, or many other challenging situations in life, or to find and keep moving forward in order to achieve goals of all kinds. many times a person feels tired, frustrated, or have a lack of energy to continue trying to solve or act somehow for their own good or even for others. Psychologists have found often that people are motivated by their needs, interests, curiosities or incentives in a short or long term, the midpoint between persons’ motives and needs to achieve their goals is part of the self-determination theory. A description of the respective roles and types of motivation in cognitive and social development and in individual differences, and also how social factors influence the initiative of the individuals such as competence, relatedness, and autonomy shows the strongest forms of motivation.

Self-determination is defined as the ability to act autonomously through self-regulated behaviors. It leads a person to make choices and decisions based on their own preferences and interest without external influence or interference (Weyhmeyer, 1992, Ryan & Deci, 2000). Self-determined individuals seek to satisfy three internal psychological needs, autonomy, competence, and relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Autonomy represents the need to have personal choice. Through this, we seek to be causal agents in our life. Competence represents the need to be capable of achieving goals. Relatedness represents the need to have close relationships with others. As a psychological construct, it refers to the

For many years psychologist has observed and deliberated over humans and their life’s goals. The three much known psychologists came up with the concepts and they are: Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers and Viktor Frankl alone with many others. These three psychologist had studied and constructed the theory of self-Actualization and the meaning of life. They have agreed that self-actualization represents growth of an individual towards fulfillment of the highest need. Roger’s created the theory implicating, growth potential, by focusing on the, real self and the, ideal self, implying that this come with a full functioning person (Roger, Carl R., 2007) . Maslow, reflects his theory on, free will, and determinism, by giving techniques that separates different individuals (Maslow, Abraham..H.1959) . Frankl, theory is existentialism is one of the major features that present psychotherapy (Frankl, 1967). These psychologists is interested in understanding and helping humans by becoming more hopeful in themselves. By understanding and study of human’s weakness and changing their weakness into strengths and virtue. The reason for psychologist is to fix what broken and finding treatment within ourselves. The help of Rogers, Maslow, and Frankl gives clients advice, techniques to inspire humans, and examples of what is life’s fulfillments.

In order to reach a level of full functioning, according to the self-determination theory, there are three basic psychological needs that must be fulfilled in order to perform the behaviors that are related to full functioning. These needs are universal and are essential for psychological well-being. They include competence, relatedness, and autonomy (Deci, Ryan, & Guay, 2013, p. 111). Competence refers to the desire to interact effectively in one’s environment, and it is a person’s perceived competence that leads to satisfaction and

In the chapter three of Drive, Pink put forward the theory of “Type X and Type Y”. Edward Deci and Richard Ryan also defined it as the theory of Self-Determination. They argue that all humans have three needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness. They believed that individuals will be motivated and enjoy when the three factors be balanced provided. 1. Autonomy is one important factor of Motivation 3.0. Unlike Motivation 2.0, the leaders of a company or organization do not need to supervise employees or holding a stick to punish any bad staff. On the contrary, motivation-3.0 encourages the managers of business to rid of traditional measures and endow more autonomy to employees and give them more freedom.2. Mastery is the second factor

The concept of self-actualization, as discussed in the assigned article, is, at its core, a tool through which individuals achieve well-being by reaching their fully-functioning human potential. (Deci, Ryan, & Guay, 2013). Although self-determination theory does not use the specific term “actualization” of human potential, it does suggest that the highest psychological state for an individual is to be “full functioning,” or using all “capacities for experience, connection, and proactivity.” (Deci, et al., 2013, p. 110). As noted in the assigned article, the presence or absence of basic psychological needs impacts the ability of an individual to become “self-actualized.” When the basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness are met, an environment is created for an individual to become integrated and autonomously motivated. There are three types of autonomously motivated functioning: intrinsic motivation, fully internalized extrinsic motivation and emotion-motivated behaviors. Ultimately, in order to actualize our human potential, or become “full functioning” we must not only have our basic psychological needs met, but also autonomously regulate our emotions and experience intrinsic or fully internalized motivation within our life activities. (Deci, et al., 2013, p. 126).

Existential theory is only one of many different theories in psychology. This paper will work to help give the reader a better understanding of what Existential theory is, what the common factor accountability is and how the common factor accountability works within the existential theory to help a client and/or therapist gain a better understanding of the choices, thoughts, or behaviors that helped get a client into the position they are in and how holding themselves accountable to their actions, behaviors or thoughts can help them reach healthy attainable goals in their life. In this paper the reader will gain a better understanding about how existential theory looks at the whole person and how they reached the point where they needed to seek assistance in understanding themselves and how they can hold them self and how others can hold them accountable for their actions, thought, and behaviors.

The article reflects with research the idea presented by Self-determination theory which states that the best way to deal with

This study uses a combination of two frameworks which are Self-Determination Theory and Uses and Gratification Theory. Both theories have been applied in a variety of disciplines from psychology to media studies. Specifically, the SDT is concerned primarily with the satisfaction of three psychological needs are essential nutrients for well-being and self-initiated actions. These needs consist of: a) autonomy, refers to human agency or volition for one’s action and decision (b) competence, refers to a sense of mastery and self-proficiency in order to interact effectively with one’s world, and (c) relatedness, refers to the feelings of being cared for, likened, and valued by other individuals. Thus, each of these three needs is necessary for