Description of SDT

Focusing on adolescents’ self-efficacy helps explain student successes and failures (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Self-Determination Theory (SDT) emphasizes people’s inherent motivational propensities for learning and growth, as well as how these tendencies can be supported (Ryan & Deci, 2020). SDT assumes that individuals possess a natural drive to learn and improve in pursuit of success. The range of student motivation is thought to be directly influenced by self-efficacy: when students believe they can succeed, they are more likely to experience stronger internal motivation, whereas when students believe they will fail, they tend to show lower intrinsic motivation to pursue goals or complete tasks. When developing motivation and self efficacy, there is a stepped system that displays how students may be motivated, and what behavioral patterns they may exhibit, which will be in the figure below.

This continuum of motivation illustrates how students can move from amotivation to fully internalized, intrinsic motivation, with each stage reflecting a different perceived locus of causality. At the amotivation end, individuals lack a sense of competence, value, or relevance in the task, leading to disengagement and an impersonal locus of causality where actions feel pointless. External regulation represents the most controlled form of extrinsic motivation, in which behavior is driven by rewards, punishments, or compliance, reflecting an external locus of causality. Introjected regulation reflects partial internalization, where actions are motivated by ego involvement and the desire for approval or avoidance of guilt and shame, producing a somewhat external locus of causality. Identification marks a shift toward more autonomous motivation, as individuals begin to see value and relevance in the activity and endorse it as personally important, even if it is not inherently enjoyable, indicating a somewhat internal locus of causality. Finally, integration represents fully internalized motivation aligned with one’s values and identity, characterized by congruence, interest, enjoyment, and satisfaction, and an internal locus of causality in which behavior is experienced as self-endorsed.