Human beings can be proactive and engaged or, alternatively, passive and alienated, largely as a function of the social conditions in which they develop and function. Accordingly, research guided by self-determination theo~ has focused on the social-contextual conditions that facilitate versus forestall the natural processes of self-motivation and healthy psychological development. Specifically, factors have been examined that enhance versus undermine intrinsic motivation, self-regulation, and well-being. The findings have led to the postulate of three innate psychological needs--competence, autonomy, and relatednesswhich when satisfied yield enhanced self-motivation and mental health and when thwarted lead to diminished motivation and well-being. Also considered is the significance of these psychological needs and processes within domains such as health care, education, work, sport, religion, and psychotherapy. T he fullest representations of humanity show people to be curious, vital, and self-motivated. At their best, they are agentic and inspired, striving to learn; extend themselves; master new skills; and apply their talents responsibly. That most people show considerable effort, agency, and commitment in their lives appears, in fact, to be more normative than exceptional, suggesting some very positive and persistent features of human nature. Yet, it is also clear that the human spirit can be diminished or crushed and that individuals sometimes reject growth and responsibility. Regardless of social strata or cultural origin, examples of both children and adults who are apathetic, alienated, and irresponsible are abundant. Such non-optimal human functioning can be observed not only in our psychological clinics but also among the millions who, for hours a day, sit passively before their televisions, stare blankly from the back of their classrooms, or wait listlessly for the weekend as they go about their jobs. The persistent, proactive, and positive tendencies of human nature are clearly not invariantly apparent. The fact that human nature, phenotypically expressed, can be either active or passive, constructive or indolent, suggests more than mere dispositional differences and is a function of more than just biological endowments. It also bespeaks a wide range of reactions to social environments that is worthy of our most intense scientific investigation. Specifically, social contexts catalyze both within- and between-person differences in motivation and personal growth, resulting in people being more self-motivated, energized, and integrated in some situations, domains, and cultures than in others. Research on the conditions that foster versus undermine positive human potentials has both theoretical import and practical significance because it can contribute not only to formal knowledge of the causes of human behavior but also to the design of social environments that optimize people's development, performance, and well-being. Research guided by self-determination theory (SDT) has had an ongoing concern with precisely these

/pdf/self-determination-theory-and-the-facilitation-of-intrinsic-1fyrp9az8e.pdf

Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being.

Mind, Self and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist

A motivational science perspective on student motivation in learning and teaching contexts is developed that highlights 3 general themes for motivational research. The 3 themes include the importance of a general scientific approach for research on student motivation, the utility of multidisciplinary perspectives, and the importance of use-inspired basic research on motivation. Seven substantive questions are then suggested as important directions for current and future motivational science research efforts. They include (1) What do students want? (2) What motivates students in classrooms? (3) How do students get what they want? (4) Do students know what they want or what motivates them? (5) How does motivation lead to cognition and cognition to motivation? (6) How does motivation change and develop? and (7) What is the role of context and culture? Each of the questions is addressed in terms of current knowledge claims and future directions for research in motivational science.

https://blog.sciencegeekgirl.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/pintrich-motivation-review.pdf

A Motivational Science Perspective on the Role of Student Motivation in Learning and Teaching Contexts.

This chapter explores the ecology of human development, those forces in the person's environment that affect and influence development. Urie Bronfenbrenner's model of the human ecosystem guides the discussion, making connections between children in families and in communities and the larger society that surrounds them. The human ecosystem model is much like the study of the natural ecology, focusing on the interactions between subjects at various levels of the environment as they affect each other. The interaction between individual and environment forms the basis of an ecological approach to human development. This view sees the process of development as the expansion of the child's conception of the world and the child's ability to act on that world. Risks to development can come from both direct threats and the absence of opportunities for development. Sociocultural risk refers to the impoverishment in the child's world of essential experiences and relationships.

The Ecology of Human Development

During the past two decades, the public health community’s attention has been drawn increasingly to the social determinants of health (SDH)—the factors apart from medical care that can be influenced by social policies and shape health in powerful ways. We use “medical care” rather than “health care” to refer to clinical services, to avoid potential confusion between “health” and “health care.” The World Health Organization’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health has defined SDH as “the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age” and “the fundamental drivers of these conditions.” The term “social determinants” often evokes factors such as health-related features of neighborhoods (e.g., walkability, recreational areas, and accessibility of healthful foods), which can influence health-related behaviors. Evidence has accumulated, however, pointing to socioeconomic factors such as income, wealth, and education as the fundamental causes of a wide range of health outcomes. This article broadly reviews some of the knowledge accumulated to date that highlights the importance of social—and particularly socioeconomic— factors in shaping health, and plausible pathways and biological mechanisms that may explain their effects. We also discuss challenges to advancing this knowledge and how they might be overcome.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/00333549141291S206

The Social Determinants of Health: It's Time to Consider the Causes of the Causes:

The dramatic rise in immigra tion to the United States in the past 30 years has resulted in a burgeon ing population of children with foreign-born parents. In 1997, there were approximately 3 million chil dren who were foreign-born them selves and an additional 10.8 mil lion who were born in the United States after their parents had en tered the country (Rumbaut, 1998). Together, these children from im migrant families represent almost one fifth of the total population of American children. Today's im migrant families exhibit greater ethnic, linguistic, and socioeco nomic diversity than ever before in American history (Portes & Rum baut, 1996). Unlike the predomi nantly European immigrants in the early 1900s, the majority of recent immigrant families hail from Asian and Latin American countries such

The Adjustment of Children From Immigrant Families

The long-term consequences of early adolescents' orientation toward peers for their adjustment during high school were assessed. Approximately 1,200 adolescents completed questionnaires in the 7th grade and in the 10th or 12th grades; course grades were also obtained from the students' school records. Early adolescents who were willing to sacrifice their talents, school performance, and parents' rules engaged in greater problem behavior and evidenced lower academic achievement than did other adolescents during high school. The poorer adjustment of adolescents with this extreme orientation toward peers was mediated by their reported involvement in deviant peer groups. In contrast, a tendency to seek advice from peers more than from parents during early adolescence had little implication for later adjustment. Discussion focuses on the need to consider the role of peer dependence along with the effects of supportive friendships during adolescence.

Early adolescent peer orientation and adjustment during high school.

A sense of obligation to the family is associated with a greater belief in the importance and usefulness of education and accounts for the tendency of Asian and Latin American adolescents to have greater academic motivation than their equally achieving peers with European backgrounds.

Family obligation and the academic motivation of adolescents from Asian, Latin American, and European backgrounds.

The daily diary method was used to examine the implications of adolescents' daily assistance behaviors for both positive and negative aspects of psychological well-being among an ethnically diverse sample of 752 adolescents of ages 14 to 15 years. Results indicated that, contrary to the expectations of some observers, providing daily assistance to the family generally was not stressful for adolescents. Rather, assisting the family was associated with higher levels of happiness due, in large part, to the sense of role fulfillment it provided the adolescents. Few individual or group differences were observed in the association between family assistance and psychological well-being. These results suggest that family assistance serves as a meaningful activity in adolescents' lives by creating a sense of connection to the family.

Daily family assistance and the psychological well-being of adolescents from Latin American, Asian, and European backgrounds.

The influence of immigrant-background adolescents' heritage language (HL) proficiency and use of the language on parent–adolescent relationships and ethnic identity was investigated in a sample of 414 adolescents from Latin American and Asian backgrounds. HL proficiency, but not language use, was positively associated with the quality of parent–adolescent relationships. Although HL proficiency and language use were both associated with ethnic identity, when taken together, only HL proficiency was a reliable predictor. These findings indicate that it is the development of proficiency in the HL that influences adolescents' successful adjustment, rather than their choice of languages. It is therefore important to support HL development in order to help immigrant-background students to better cope with the stresses of adolescence.

Andrew J. Fuligni

Papers

The Adjustment of Children From Immigrant Families

Early adolescent peer orientation and adjustment during high school.

Family obligation and the academic motivation of adolescents from Asian, Latin American, and European backgrounds.

Daily family assistance and the psychological well-being of adolescents from Latin American, Asian, and European backgrounds.

The Role of Heritage Language Development in the Ethnic Identity and Family Relationships of Adolescents from Immigrant Backgrounds.