Browsing by Author "Lyden, Hanna"

According to the self-determination theory, motivation consists of top of three innate psychological needs; need of autonomy, competence and relatedness. If these needs are fully satisfied we experience intrinsic motivation. If not, motivation is extrinsic and externally regulated. Intrinsic motivation should be strived for because it leads to a better performance, learning and well-being. This study compares the motivation of high school students between their study situations and free time situations in the context of self-determination theory. The participants were Finnish second year high-school students from the Helsinki metropolitan area. Within the context of self-determination theory, this study explored external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation and intrinsic regulation. The research data consisted of the answers from 150 students and 3431 completed questionnaires. The data was collected using an experience sampling method by the Bridging the Gaps study. The data survey lasted from 11 to 12 days and it was collected in different schools in sequential order. The data was collected from March till May in 2018. The first point of this research was to examine if there is difference in the motivation between studying and free-time and how much variation there is in the motivation. The method used for this was a linear regression. The study found that the smallest coefficient of determination was within the identified regulation. Studying and free time managed to explain 8.6% of the variation in the motivation when it comes to the identified regulation. The largest coefficient of determination was with the introjected regulation. Studying and free time explained 42.5% of the variation in the motivation when it comes to the extrinsic regulation. The second goal of this research was to examine if there is variation in the motivation between students when study time and free time are not taken into consideration. The method used for this was a multilevel modeling approach on level zero. The smallest variation between the students was within the intrinsic motivation. The variation in motivation was then 6.79% between the students. The largest variation in motivation was within the introjected regulation. The variation in motivation was 23.01%. The third focal point of the research was to examine how the motivation is correlated with study situations and free time situations with a multilevel modeling approach (mixed linear model). The study found that the studying situations were positively correlated with the extrinsic regulation and the introjected regulation. The study situations were negatively correlated with the intrinsic regulation. The free time situations were positively correlated with the intrinsic regulation and negatively correlated with the extrinsic regulation and the introjected regulation. The results indicated that the participants experienced more intrinsic motivation during their free time than during their studies. The benefits of the intrinsic motivation are evident when it comes to the school performance and well-being of the students. For this reason, it would be beneficial to see if the intrinsic motivation experienced at free time could be transferred and explored also in the studying situations.