chap. 5

Question 1

Define the need for autonomy.

Answer 1

• A desire for freedom, personal control and free choice
• It’s a basic human need, that need for autonomy is really what makes us humans because animals don’t have this need

Question 2

True or false: You don’t need to actually have control in order to reap its benefits.

Answer 2

True: This is the panic button effect. People who think they are in control in the study with shocks exhibit less stress.

Question 3

Explain the study conducted by Glass et al. which depicted the panic button effect of perceived control.

Answer 3

–> the researchers delivered loud noises while participants were completing a puzzle
→ all participants had a button, but the investigator only told half that pressing the button would stop the noise immediately
→ they also discouraged them from doing so because it would influence the experiment
→ No one pressed the button!
→ BUT those who had the option of pressing the button performed better than those who didn’t have the option, it brought them reassurance and comfort
→ just knowing it was there made them feel as if they had some control

Question 4

True or false: Wealth is directly associated with well-being.

Answer 4

False: Autonomy is strongly associated with greater well-being but wealth is not.

Question 5

Explain how autonomy is a deficit-oriented need which elicits behaviour (using study from Sheldon and Gunz).

Answer 5

• Sheldon and Gunz (2009) had college students reflect on how autonomous they had felt during the previous week
• Next, they gave these students a list of activities and asked them to indicate which they would like to do
  –> Some options and activities fulfilled autonomy, some didn’t
• Students who felt they lacked autonomy were more interested in pursuing activities that would restore their autonomy, suggesting that autonomy is a deficit-oriented need

Question 6

People who pursue goals that fulfill their need for autonomy have ___ self-esteem and well-being and ___ depression and anxiety than people who pursue goals like wealth, fame, or status.

Answer 6

Higher; less

Question 7

According to SDT, goal performance is better when people experience autonomy. How is this shown in students?

Answer 7

• Among students, autonomous motivation has been linked to greater conceptual understanding of the course material, greater persistence in academic and sporting activities, better grades, and more creative performance

Question 8

According to SDT, goal performance is better when people experience autonomy. How is this shown in workers?

Answer 8

• Autonomous motivation among workers has been linked to greater job satisfaction, engagement in work, motivation to perform well at work, and higher performance ratings

Question 9

Feeling more autonomous, you feel less…

Answer 9

Stress, anxiety, depression
- Due to the fact that you’re focusing on the aspects that you can control

Question 10

Give examples of how removing autonomy is one of the major ways we punish others

Answer 10

• Jail and prison, notably solitary
• Time-outs for kids

Question 11

What is a self-concordant goal? Give an example

Answer 11

• Goals that are consistent with who you are
• The more a goal fits with one’s identity, the more it is considered self-concordant and the more it will result in a sense of autonomy
  → p.ex: extroverted women would be happy and successful as an event planner, but she wouldn’t be as successful if she was a librarian & vice versa for introverts

Question 12

What does attribution theory explain in regards to our autonomy?

Answer 12

• Determining the causes of behaviour – whether it is our own behaviour or someone else’s – helps us to be more autonomous, i.e., feel we have more control over future outcomes
• According to Heider (1958), we seek out information so that we can predict what is going to happen in the future and possibly control the situation
  → p.ex: when we see a crash on the side of the road, the first thing we wonder is what happened; was the driver not paying attention? Was it the weather? etc.
  –> if you then find out that the cause of the accident was because of a dangerous intersection, you will likely avoid going through that intersection

Question 13

What is an attribution?

Answer 13

• Belief regarding the cause of a behaviour or outcome
• whenever we try to identify the cause of our own behavior or someone else’s, we are generating attributions

Question 14

According to Weiner’s original conception, most attributions fall along 2 dimensions, what are they?

Answer 14

Locus and stability

Question 15

Elaborate on the locus of attributions (definition, its types + examples).

Answer 15

• It is the cause of the attribution, either internal or external
• Internal: Within you as a person, inherent to yourself
  –> p.ex: a student who fails their chemistry exam concludes that it was due to her lack of studying
• External: When they attribute an event to an environmental factor, luck, external aspects
  –> p.ex: a student who fails a test concludes it was because the professor made the exam too difficult

Question 16

Elaborate on the stability of attributions (definition, types and examples).

Answer 16

• The cause of an attribution, either stable or unstable
• Stable: Happens regularly, they performed well and they continue to perform well
  –> p.ex: A student concludes she will always fail at chemistry
• Unstable: Happens sporadically, the cause is temporary, or is likely to change in the future
  –> p.ex: Student concludes the failure was a fluke

Question 17

Internal + Stable = ___
Internal + Unstable = ___
External + Stable = ___
External + Unstable = ___
(Options: Difficulty, luck, effort, ability)

Answer 17

1) Ability
2) Effort
3) Difficulty
4) Luck

Question 18

True or false: The type of attributions people make about their own outcomes has a great impact on their future behaviour.

Answer 18

True: The more people make internal attributions for their own behaviour, the more they feel like their need for autonomy is being fulfilled
–> p.ex: the student who attributes her poor performance to her lack of effort may still be able to improve in the future, BUT the student who blames it externally feels little control over his future performance

Question 19

People high in internal locus of control believe…

Answer 19

• they are the masters of their own destiny
• Feel like the outcomes in their life are caused by their own actions and choices
• These people feel more in control of their successes and failures

Question 20

People high in external locus of control believe…

Answer 20

• their life is primarily driven by factors outside of their control; these factors may include any number of external causes, including luck, chance, God, or the influence of powerful others

Question 21

True or false: People can go through being high in internal locus of control and external locus of control.

Answer 21

True: People evolve throughout time so being a person high in external or internal, doesn’t mean that it’ll stay like that. It’s not a set position, it can change because of therapy, life events, etc.

Question 22

There are not only individual differences in perceived control, there are also situational differences. According to Deci et al., study, how did autonomy-supportive teachers influence their kids?

Answer 22

• The teachers who take an autonomous approach believe their job is to encourage students to solve problems on their own and learn from their mistakes
• Autonomy-supportive teachers had students who were more intrinsically motivated toward their studies, felt more competent about their schoolwork, were more curious, and had higher self-esteem than the students of controlling teachers

Question 23

There are not only individual differences in perceived control, there are also situational differences. According to Deci et al., study, how did controlling teachers influence their kids?

Answer 23

• The teachers who take a controlling approach believe their job is to make sure students do things correctly and as their told
• The students are more extrinsically motivation and they’re less likely to be curious and interested about what they’re learning

Question 24

What does the overjustification effect explain?

Answer 24

• Definition: the reduction in motivation that
  occurs when people are given an extrinsic reward for doing something
  that they already intrinsically enjoyed doing
• Agreeing explicitly to engage in an activity for a reward should undermine interest in the activity, even when the reward is insubstantial or merely symbolic
• Conversely, receipt of an unforeseen, unexpected reward after engaging in an activity should have little or no detrimental effect on motivation, even when the reward is a highly prized material one. You don’t feel as if you did it just for the reward
• When you receive a reward before completing a task, the reward weakens or even destroys the intrinsic interest and ultimately reduces motivation

Question 25

Give an example of the overjustification effect.

Answer 25

• College students were asked to complete a puzzle, one group knew they were receiving a reward, while the other didn’t get one
• When given a free period to do whatever they like (continue the puzzle or go through magazines), students who weren’t being payed continued to do the puzzle, while the other group did not
• Thus, interest and motivation in the task they typically enjoyed was diminished when a reward was included

Question 26

True or false: The perception of having control is more important than actually having control.

Answer 26

True: It is the illusion of control.

Question 27

Explain the illusion of control.

Answer 27

Most people tend to overestimate the amount of autonomy they have in their lives.

Question 28

How does the fact of having choices influence the sense of autonomy? (increase, decrease?) Give an example of this.

Answer 28

• Giving people a choice increases their sense of autonomy over a task, even when they don’t actually make a choice that is relevant to the task at hand
• In one study examining choice, participants were asked to bet money on what number they would get by rolling a die. Participants who were allowed to choose the number (“I think I will roll a 3”) before rolling ended up betting more money (suggesting they had more control over the outcome) than participants who were assigned a number by the experimenter

Question 29

True or false: People who experience a winning streak are more likely to assume they have control over a task than people who experience a losing streak

Answer 29

True: This is how an outcome sequence influences the illusion of control.
- The timing of this winning streak also matters
–> Those who experience a winning streak early on in a game think they have more control

Question 30

What are the 2 types of magical thinking (name them)?

Answer 30

1) Tempting fate
2) Mind control

Question 31

Explain the concept of tempting fate in magical thinking.

Answer 31

• Most people don’t believe in fate, but they have a gut feeling something bad will happen if they tempt it
  → p.ex: this is why most students don’t change their answer on a multiple choice test or why they think they’re more likely to be called on when they don’t do the reading
  → p.ex: not commenting on a winning streak to avoid “jinxing it”
  → Cam in modern family not saying the word “game”

Question 32

Explain the concept of mind control in magical thinking.

Answer 32

• Ability to cause others to act a certain way just by thinking it
• Most people are reluctant to admit that they believe in mind control but research studies indicate that people actually do believe in it whether they want to admit it or not.
• In one really unique study, Pronin and her colleagues used voodoo dolls to empirically test people’s belief in mind control

Question 33

___ ___ makes us feel as if we have more control over an event than we really do, thereby fulfilling our core motive of autonomy.

Answer 33

Magical thinking

Question 34

What are the 2 types of reactions to loss of autonomy?

Answer 34

1) Psychological reactance
→ states that when people feel as if their freedom is being taken away, they often reassert their autonomy by doing exactly the opposite of what was requested
→ we want what we can’t have!
→ the more things are forbidden, the more we want them
2) Learned helplessness
→ What happens when we try to take back control and fail?
→ The answer is learned helplessness people learn that they have little control over their own outcomes, and as one might expect, this realization leads to depression and a sense of helplessness

Question 35

Sometimes, people are willing to turn over their control to someone else, this happens when we recognize that other may be more… (3)

Answer 35

Knowledgeable, skilled, lucky

Question 36

True or false: Sometimes we need to “choose when to choose”.

Answer 36

True: We need to learn that sometimes it is okay to make quick decisions and then move on with our lives
- Because of the fact that we have too many choices, this is a way to resolve this tension

Question 37

If we want to achieve happiness, perhaps it is better if we try sometimes to be a ___ (someone who accepts a good-enough choice) than a ___ (someone who always wants to make the best possible decision).

Answer 37

Satisficer; Maximizer