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Introducing Uninteresting Tasks to Children: A Comparison of the Effects of Rewards and Autonomy Support
Author(s) -
Joussemet Mireille,
Koestner Richard,
Lekes Natasha,
Houlfort Nathalie
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/j.0022-3506.2004.00259.x
Subject(s) - deci , psychology , autonomy , affect (linguistics) , social psychology , vigilance (psychology) , perception , developmental psychology , value (mathematics) , self determination theory , cognitive psychology , communication , neuroscience , machine learning , political science , computer science , law
Two experiments compared rewards and autonomy support as methods to promote children's self‐regulation for an uninteresting vigilance task. Dependent measures were ratings of positive affect, perception of the task's value, and free‐choice engagement. ANOVA results revealed some positive effects associated with autonomy support, whereas no effect for rewards was found in either study. The outcomes of most interest were correlations between free‐choice behavior and self‐reported measures of affect and value, reflecting the level of integration in self‐regulation. As predicted by self‐determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 1991, 2000), rewards were associated with behaviors incongruent from affect and value, whereas autonomy support led to integrated self‐regulation. This finding was first detected in Study 1 and later replicated in Study 2. Together, these results point to autonomy support as a beneficial alternative to the common use of rewards.