A Study On Developing The Autonomous Motivation Scale And Its Impact Mechanism

Autonomous motivation is a kind of motivation emphasized individual choose to do something due to personal interests or beliefs(Vansteenkiste & Sheldon, 2006). In recent years, the psychology studies about autonomous motivation had been involved in many fields, such as student learning and education, psychological counseling and psychotherapy, management etc. Autonomous motivation's positive effect had been found in many fields. Therefore, researches of autonomous motivation could not only develop SDT, but also provide reference for education, management and so on. But previous scales about autonomous motivation could only be used to measure autonomous motivations in specific areas or specific task contexts, they couldn't measure autonomous motivation in general behavior. Therefore, based on previous references and scales, our study developed a scale that can reflect adults' autonomous motivation in general behavior. For our purpose, we analyzed the autonomous motivation's concept and put up its operational definition. Then we collected all scales about autonomous motivation, chose the items that accord with theoretical conception to formed initial scale, we selected items to form formal Autonomous Motivation Scale with pretest's result. Then we analyzed the scale's structure, reliability and validity with retest result. Based on the relationship among autonomous motivation, influence factors and other variables in theory, with the help of Autonomous Motivation Scale, we analyzed the effect of parental autonomy support on autonomous motivation and the mediating role of basic psychological needs. The results further prove the scale's rationality and stability. Our study comprised two parts:Part 1:(1)We referred previous scales and reference, and discussed with professor, developed the Autonomous Motivation Scale( Edition 1). 296 undergraduates were measured. We analyzed and discussed the EFA result. With the result, we preliminarily defined the scale's dimensions, and adjusted or removed some items. We developed Autonomous Motivation Scale.(2)Other 272 undergraduates were measured. We collected the scale's reliability, construct validity, criterion-related validity and so on, and complete formal Autonomous Motivation Scale.Part 2: We measured undergraduates with Autonomous Motivation Scale, Parental Autonomy Support Questionnaire, Basic Needs Satisfaction in General Scale. We studied the influence factor of autonomous motivation, included parental autonomy support, basic psychological needs, family SES, demographic variables, and the mediating role of basic psychological needs between parental autonomy support and autonomous motivation.Our findings and conclusions in the above two studies are as follows:1. Autonomous Motivation Scale's reliability, construct validity and criterion-related validity were acceptable. The scale could be used to measure adult's autonomous motivation in general behavior.2. Autonomous motivation comprised four parts: will, interest, identified and challenge. The construct was logical.3. Parental autonomy support was a significant positive predicator of autonomous motivation; basic psychological needs completely mediated the relationship between them. The relationship between autonomous motivation and family SES didn't be found.