Attribution Theory, Self-Efficacy Theory and Expectancy-Value Theory were examined in the previous articles in this Understanding Motivation in Games series. The current article will focus on Self-Determination Theory and its empirical applications.
Self-Determination Theory
Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) investigates social-contextual factors and conditions that sustain and foster self-motivation to facilitate human’s inherent growth tendencies and psychological well-being. Self-Determination Theory hypothesizes three innate psychological needs, the needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness are essential in determining the effectiveness of human functioning and development, and psychological health. Competence refers to the experience of mastery through completing challenges and achieving desired goals. Autonomy refers to the experience of volition through performing actions based on personal interests and values. Relatedness refers to the feeling of close, connected and significant to others. According to Self-Determination Theory, the satisfaction of the three innate needs can enhance and sustain motivation, and improve psychological well-being. In contrast, motivation and psychological health can diminish when these needs are not being supported or satisfied.
While contemporary motivational theories often treat motivation as a unitary construct, Self-Determination Theory differentiates a number of distinct types of motivation along a continuum with respective to the regulatory styles of the behaviors, including amotivation, extrinsic motivation, and intrinsic motivation (Figure 1). Regulatory styles concern the degrees and processes of individuals employ for accepting values of the behaviors (internalization) and transforming the values into their own (integration).
On the far left of the continuum is amotivation, which represents the lack of intent and motivation to act. Amotivation can result from not accepting the values of an activity or task, or not feeling competent to achieve desired results. To the right is the four types of motivation, namely external motivation, introjected motivation, integrated motivation and intrinsic motivation (Table 1). Among the different types of motivation, intrinsic motivation represents the highly autonomous and prototypical form of self-determination. Intrinsic motivation reflects human inherent tendency to seek out challenges to learn and mastery out of interest and enjoyment, which is essential for cognitive and social development (Ryan & Deci, 2000).
Figure 1. Types of Motivation in Self-Determination Theory.
Table 1. Description of Different Motivation Types.
Self-Determination Theory and Game Motivation Research
Self-Determination Theory has been applied in game research studies to examine a wide ranges of topics, from game experience (King & Delfabbro, 2009; Rogers, 2017), game design elements (Peng, Lin, Pfeiffer, & Winn, 2012; Sailer, Hense, Mayr, & Mandl, 2017), to development and validation of gaming motivation measures (Johnson, Gardner, & Perry, 2018; Lafrenière, Verner-Filion, & Vallerand, 2012).
In a game research study by Ryan, Rigby and Przybylski (2006), four individual studies were conducted to examine motivation to play and the effects of game play on well-being in undergraduate students and adults. Study 1 to 3 examined the relationship between the experience of autonomy and competence and enjoyment and subsequent motivation to play using 7 different games across game genres. Study 4 examined the impact of the experience of autonomy, competence and relatedness on game experience and motivation to play in massively multiplayer online games. Results indicated experience of autonomy and competence were associated with game enjoyment, motivation to play and changes in self-esteem and mood. Specifically, satisfaction of autonomy, competence and relatedness enhanced game enjoyment and motivation to play. Moreover, intuitive controls were found to enhance the experience of in-game competence and autonomy. Finally, players were reported to experience higher vitality, self-esteem, positive mood, and more value for the games when the basic psychological needs were supported.
In conclusion, Self-Determination Theory allows game researchers and designers to examine and understand factors that motivate and engage players inside and outside of the gaming environments through the concept of basic psychological needs. Moreover, Self-Determination Theory provides an empirical motivational framework for informing design decisions on game design elements to provide psychological needs supportive environments to facilitate motivation and engagement (Table 2).
Table 2. Game Design Elements and Psychological Needs.
References
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The” what” and” why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological inquiry, 11(4), 227-268.
Johnson, D., Gardner, M. J., & Perry, R. (2018). Validation of two game experience scales: the player experience of need satisfaction (PENS) and game experience questionnaire (GEQ). International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 118, 38-46.
King, D. L., & Delfabbro, P. (2009). Motivational differences in problem video game play. Journal of Cybertherapy and Rehabilitation, 2(2), 139-149.
Lafrenière, M. A. K., Verner-Filion, J., & Vallerand, R. J. (2012). Development and validation of the Gaming Motivation Scale (GAMS). Personality and individual differences, 53(7), 827-831.
Peng, W., Lin, J. H., Pfeiffer, K. A., & Winn, B. (2012). Need satisfaction supportive game features as motivational determinants: An experimental study of a self-determination theory guided exergame. Media Psychology, 15(2), 175-196.
Rogers, R. (2017). The motivational pull of video game feedback, rules, and social interaction: Another self-determination theory approach. Computers in Human Behavior, 73, 446-450.
Ryan, R. M., Rigby, C. S., & Przybylski, A. (2006). The motivational pull of video games: A self-determination theory approach. Motivation and emotion, 30(4), 344-360.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American psychologist, 55(1), 68.
Sailer, M., Hense, J. U., Mayr, S. K., & Mandl, H. (2017). How gamification motivates: An experimental study of the effects of specific game design elements on psychological need satisfaction. Computers in Human Behavior, 69, 371-380
