Why We Do What We Do Ch. 10 Flashcards
how should you engage with people in a one-down position?
through autonomy support
being autonomy supportive involves:
- Taking others’ perspectives
- Providing choice
- Setting autonomy-supportive limits about one’s rights and constraints
- Setting goals and evaluating performance
- Be careful about how and why you are administering rewards and recognition
- Recognizing the obstacles
ways to provide choice
it can be done at the individual or group level
what is the easiest way to provide choice?
providing a choice about how to do a task rather than what task to do
Deci, Ryan, and Sheinman autonomy support in schools study
used observational data and systematic questionnaires and found that teachers who were oriented toward supporting their students’ autonomy had a more positive impact on their students than control-oriented teachers. The students of autonomy-supportive teachers were more curious, mastery-oriented, and had higher self-esteem
Deci, Ryan, and Connell autonomy support in the workplace study
used observational data and systematic questionnaires and found that autonomy-supportive managers had workers who were more trusting of the corporation, had less concern about pay and benefits, and displayed higher levels of satisfaction and morale
advantages of providing choice
- The decisions may be of higher quality
- It enhances people’s intrinsic motivation
considerations when determining whether to provide choice
- Whether the decision would be too stressful and conflict-promoting if others participated
- Whether the decision is an appropriate one for people to decide given their level of maturation
- The need for secrecy
- Whether the decision has relevance to a person
- The speed at which the decision needs to be made
Haddad autonomy support and desire for control study
had elementary school students work on anagrams. She was controlling toward half of the students and autonomy-supportive toward the other. Then, she told the students that they would be working on more anagrams and asked how many they would like to choose for themselves and how many they would like the experimenter to choose for them. She found that the students who had been controlled wanted less choice and those who were autonomy-supportive wanted more choice
Haddad autonomy support and desire for control study takeaway
people adapt to being controlled and act as if they don’t want to be autonomous
ways to ensure limit-setting doesn’t undermine autonomy
- Have people set their own limits
- Provide a rationale for the limits
- Make the limits as wide as possible to allow choice within the
- Setting consequences for transgressing
purpose of limit-setting with children and students
to communicate that life is full of choices and every choice has its consequences
the most effective goals are:
- Individualized
- Optimally challenging
- Reasonable
benefits of involving work group members in the goal-setting process
- It leads to optimal goals
- It helps people reflect on the way they are doing their jobs
- It encourages them to take on new challenges
- It enhances their motivation to attain their goals
- It provides a standard against which performance can later be appraised
what are optimal performance evaluations according to Deci and Ryan?
performance evaluations where people evaluate themselves
how do Deci & Ryan view situations where people don’t achieve a standard
it is a problem to be solved, not a basis for criticism
negative consequences of competition
Competitions mean that many superb performers become considered losers
Deci and Ryan autonomy support and employee attitudes study
trained managers to be more autonomy-supportive and during the intervention, the employees of these managers became more positive in their perceptions and attitudes about the workplace
Deci et al. standards and use of control in teachers study
had teachers come into the lab and provide a lesson to students. One group of teachers was reminded of the importance of getting their students to perform up to high standards and the other group received no mention of high standards. They found that the teachers to whom they had mentioned performing up to high standards spent twice as much time talking during the teaching session and made three times as many directives and controlling statements
Deci et al. standards and use of control in teachers study takeaway
Controlling others seems to be the “knee-jerk” reaction to feeling stress in any one-up position
