BREQ - The Theory
The self-determination continuum described in Deci & Ryan's (1985, 1991) organismic integration theory represents differences in the ways in which people's behaviour can be regulated and how these differences are experienced. The following fictitious mini-biographies illustrate these different forms of behavioural regulation in exercise contexts.
June
June
is a charity worker. She has not taken any regular exercise since leaving
school and has unhappy memories of cold, wet and windy days on the school
playing field being yelled at by her PE teacher. She feels that exercising
would have little effect on her fitness and health and so sees no point
in taking it up now. June says: "I think I am pretty fit for my age,
anyway. And I've never had any serious health problems. I don't smoke
or drink and I eat well. I think those things are far more important than
exercise as far as health is concerned. In any case, you hear all the
time about these fitness fanatics who are always in the gym or jogging
or something and then they drop down dead in their thirties from a heart
attack. I think exercising is likely to do you more harm than good".
Paul
Paul
is a trainee paramedic who has just reluctantly signed up at his local
gym. He passed his basic paramedic training but two weeks ago had to take
a fitness test before he could proceed to the next stage. Unfortunately,
he failed the test. He does not see himself as a sporty type and has never
taken much exercise except when he had to in his schooldays. After the
fitness test, the station commander called him in to his office and told
him in no uncertain terms that if he fails to pass the test within three
months he will be out. Paul is not too happy about it: "I really
don't see why you have to be all that fit to be a paramedic. Alright,
the job can be physically demanding at times, lugging patients up and
down stairs and things, but I think I am well capable of handling it as
I am. I mean, it's not as if I'm training for the Olympics, is it? Still,
I have no choice really but to do as I am told".
Bill
Bill
is a civil engineer in his fifties. He goes to the gym a couple of times
a week and is trying, fairly successfully, to go jogging on a regular
basis. He remarried a few years ago and has two young children. Bill has
a family history of heart disease and this has been preying on his mind
in recent years. Although he was quite physically active in his youth,
he took little exercise for many years until the children came along.
He gave up smoking at around the same time. Bill says: "My father,
uncle and grandfather all died of heart disease in their early sixties.
I'm approaching that age now myself and I can't afford to let it happen
to me, what with a wife and two young kids to worry about. So I exercise
as much as I reasonably can. I can't say I particularly enjoy it and I
usually have to push myself to go. But if I feel like skipping a session,
I just think about the kids and what would happen if I went and popped
my clogs. That makes me feel really bad if don't go, like I'm guilty of
letting them down".
Alan
Alan
had rather a hard time socially as a child and adolescent. He was shy,
small and skinny and was frequently bullied by other boys. Although he
was quite keen on sports in school, he never got the chance to participate
outside of compulsory PE lessons because nobody considered him to be good
enough. He always looked up to his older brother who was in the Army and
a keen competitive weight lifter and boxer. On leaving school a couple
of years ago Alan was taken to a gym a few times by his brother and he
soon became interested in body building. He now trains hard and regularly
and his social life has been transformed from his schooldays. He has lots
of friends, both male and female, and is, outwardly at least, a very confident
and self-assured young man. Alan says: "I hated it as a youngster,
being smaller than everyone and never taken seriously. Now I'm strong
and, well, I think I look good and I'm proud of that. It's important to
me to look fit and strong and have a good physique. People give me respect
and sort of look up to me now like they never did before. When I was a
kid it was like I wanted to be someone else all the time. You know, to
be like one of the bigger boys who was good at sports and popular and
all that. Now it's other people who look at me and say to themselves 'Hey,
look at him, I wish I could look like that'. I would never have got to
feel so good about myself it weren't for the body building".
Liz
Liz
is a senior executive in a leading City finance house. She has worked
her way to the top in this male-dominated world and is proud of her achievements.
Despite her busy work schedule, she finds time to exercise for half an
hour on most days, either in the company's corporate fitness centre or
in hotel gyms when she is away on business. Liz feels it is absolutely
vital for her to keep fit and sees this as an essential ingredient in
the success of her career: "For me, keeping fit is so important.
It's tough, you know, making time to get to the gym every day. But in
my job, with the long hours, travelling and high pressure atmosphere I
have to keep as sharp as I can and exercising regularly helps me to do
that. I really don't think I would have got to where I am today without
it".
Sandra
Sandra
used to be a teacher but retrained a few years ago as a fitness instructor.
She runs classes every evening and at weekends and also trains in the
gym most days. She is highly committed to exercise and sees it as the
centrepoint of her lifestyle: "For years, working as a teacher, I
used to exercise as much as I possibly could but never felt I was doing
enough. So that's why I gave up teaching and got into this new career.
I know what you're thinking, but it's definitely not that I am addicted
to exercise or obsessive about it or anything like that. It's just that,
well it's hard to explain but being an exerciser, being a fit person,
is a big part of what I am, if you see what I mean. If I had to stop tomorrow
it wouldn't exactly be the end of the world but it would mean that I'd
have to do some serious thinking about my life and I'd find it difficult
to readjust. It sounds silly but it'd be a bit like losing my name or
something. I wouldn't know who I was any more".
John
John
is a builder. He loves physical activity of all sorts. He usually plays
squash or badminton once a week, runs often (he takes part in his town's
annual 10k fun run every year) and plays for his local pub in the Sunday
football league. "I've always been into sport and exercise"
he says. "It's not as if I'm really all that good at it. I mean,
I never had any illusions about playing for England or anything like that.
It's just great to go out and kick a ball around or run in the park or
whatever, have a laugh with your mates and just forget about work and
everything for a bit. I love it." When asked if he thinks exercising
is good for your health, he says: "Well, yeh, I suppose it must be.
But that's not what it's all about for me, to be honest. I don't worry
too much about the future and all that, you know. I just like having a
good time. I mean, if I started thinking like 'Oh, this'll stop me getting
a heart attack' or whatever, I think it would end up being just like work.
I'd hate to get all obsessive about it like some people. It wouldn't be
any fun then, would it?".
Self-determination and the regulation of behaviour: A taxonomy of regulatory styles
Clearly, these people all have very different feelings and beliefs about exercise. Apart from June, they are all engaging in exercise but the motivational forces driving their behaviour differ markedly. In other words, their exercise behaviour (or lack of it) is regulated in quite diverse ways. These differences are what Deci & Ryan's (1985, 1991) organismic integration theory (OIT), a subcomponent of self-determination theory, sets out to explain.
OIT describes the extent to which behavioural regulation has become internalised. Internalisation is the process by which people take on board the regulation of their behaviour so that it emanates from the self rather than from external forces. The theory proposes that the various forms of regulation lie along a continuum ranging from completely non-self-determined to completely self-determined regulation. Thus self-determination is not seen as an all-or-nothing phenomenon; it is more a question of how self-determined a person is. These varying levels of self-determination correspond to qualitatively different forms of behavioural regulation, each with their own particular functional consequences and experiential concomitants. The different forms of regulation are labelled: amotivation, external regulation, introjection, identification, integration and finally intrinsic regulation.
Commentary on the biographies
June
can be said to be amotivated, a completely non-self determined
form of regulation. This is a state of lacking any intention to engage
in a behaviour. It results from not valuing the activity, not feeling
competent to engage in it and/or not feeling that it will produce any
desired outcomes. June's school history probably left her feeling incompetent
with regards to exercise. She does not believe that she would benefit
from exercising and in fact she thinks that it might actually be harmful
to her health. Consequently, it is not surprising that she does not value
physical activity and chooses not to exercise at all.
Paul
has started to exercise but it is very obvious that, like June, he does
not value it as a worthwhile activity. His exercise behaviour can be described
as externally regulated and is also not self determined. He is
exercising simply because he has been told by someone in authority that
he has to, even though he does not think that it is necessary. When regulated
in this way, people may well be motivated to comply with the external
pressure to act but they do so unwillingly, even resentfully, and are
unlikely to continue with the activity if those external pressures are
relaxed.
Bill
is not exercising because of externally imposed pressures but because
he is putting the pressure on himself. Thus his behavioural regulation
is somewhat internalised and can be said to be introjected. He
acts because of his anxieties about heart disease and an anticipated sense
of guilt that if he does become ill he will be letting his young family
down. Thus, although he is internally driven, Bill's behaviour is only
somewhat self determined.
Alan's
story demonstrates how introjection can also manifest itself as a need
to engage in an activity in order to demonstrate one's ability or worth
and maintain one's sense of self esteem. For Alan, body building has changed
his life and given him the popularity with his peers that he always wanted,
but only because it has made him look good. So although he now has a strong
sense of self worth, it is highly dependent on his body building activities.
If he were unable to continue with this activity for some reason, it seems
likely that his self esteem would soon begin to suffer.
Liz's
exercise behaviour is less controlled and shows much greater self determination.
Her behavioural regulation is identified. Identification involves
a conscious acceptance of the behaviour as being important in order to
achieve personally valued outcomes. The importance of the outcome provides
a strong incentive that overrides any difficulties or obstacles to the
behaviour. Thus Liz manages to find time to exercise regularly even though
she finds it difficult fitting it into her busy work life.
Sandra
is obviously a very committed exerciser. So much so that she changed careers
in order to be able to exercise more. Her regulation can be described
as integrated. Integration involves the internalisation of identified
regulation so that engaging in the behaviour is fully congruent with one's
sense of self and who one is. Integration is similar to intrinsic regulation
in that the behaviour is engaged in willingly, with no sense of coercion
and is therefore fully self determined. However, it differs from intrinsic
regulation because the behaviour is still engaged in for separable outcomes
rather than for the enjoyment inherent in the activity itself. Note the
subtle difference between Sandra's feelings about why she exercises and
Alan's. Although exercising is so important to her sense of who she is,
Sandra's self esteem is not on the line in the way that it is for Alan.
John's
motivation for exercise is purely intrinsic and fully self determined.
Although he recognises the health benefits of exercise, he is not concerned
about such extrinsic outcomes of exercising, he just loves doing it as
a social and aesthetic experience. Notice also that his competence in
physical activities is not a big issue for him. The immediate rewards
of taking part are all that are important and if exercising were to become
a chore or like work, as he puts it, there would no longer be any point
in doing it.
The boundary between intrinsic and extrinsic
According to this taxonomy of regulatory styles, external, introjected, identified and integrated regulation are all differing forms of extrinsic motivation and can collectively be contrasted with amotivation and intrinsic motivation. Thus 'extrinsic' is not the same as 'external' in the sense of being outside of the individual. Introjection, identification and integration are just as internal to the person as intrinsic motivation. They are extrinsic regulatory styles in the sense that they are concerned with the outcomes or consequences of engaging in the behaviour, rather than with the immediate rewards inherent in taking part. Thus the boundary between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is not the skin! This is important to recognise because often any motivation that emanates from within the individual is labelled as intrinsic, and is therefore considered to be motivationally a good thing. From the self-determination theory perspective, this is not the case. The consequences of feeling controlled (i.e. non-self-determining) are the same whether it is someone else who is doing the controlling or ourselves. As Deci and Ryan (1985) put it:
References
Deci, E.L. & Ryan, R.M. (1985). Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior. New York, Plenum.
Deci, E.L. & Ryan, R.M. (1991). A motivational approach to self: Integration in personality. In R. Dienstbier (Ed.) Nebraska Symposium on Motivation Vol 38: Perspectives on Motivation, pp. 237-288. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.