Motivation and Well-being: A Test of Self-Determination Theory Using a Person-Centered Approach

Self-determination theory postulates that individuals can experience motivation in different ways and that these different types of motivation fall along a continuum from controlled to autonomous regulation. Recently, there have been challenges to the notion that an individual’s motivation can be categorized as falling at a particular point along the autonomy continuum. Researchers have begun to investigate the possibility that individuals can experience different types of motivation simultaneously. The current study used a person-centered approach to study motivation and also examined how the profiles detected related to well-being outcomes and adaptive student behaviours. Latent profile analyses of data from two samples of university students revealed three profiles in each of the samples. The most favourable profile found was comprised of both autonomous and controlled forms of motivation. This finding suggests that favourable outcomes can be attained when controlled forms of motivation are experienced if combined with autonomous forms of motivation