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THEORY-1319: In Niemiec, Ryan and Deci's post-college sample, attaining intrinsic aspirations went with more well-being and less ill-being, and attaining extrinsic aspirations, entered alongside it, added nothing to well-being and went with more ill-being; the extrinsic null is a unique-variance result, since alone extrinsic attainment correlated positively with well-being and need satisfaction

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Properties3
StatusProposed
Tagsmotivation, well-being
SourceLIT-1960 — The path taken: Consequences of attaining intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations in post-college life

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Source

Niemiec, Ryan and Deci (2009), LIT-1960, read in NOTE-1520 from the PubMed Central author manuscript PMC2736104.

What was actually shown

The sample and design. 147 graduates of two US colleges answered at one and two years after graduation. Aspiration importance (Time 1), attainment (both times), basic need satisfaction, and well-being (life satisfaction, self-esteem, positive affect) and ill-being (anxiety, physical symptoms, negative affect) were all self-reported.

At Time 2, with intrinsic and extrinsic attainment as joint predictors, intrinsic attainment predicted well-being β = .77 and ill-being β = −.66, and extrinsic attainment predicted well-being β = .00 and ill-being β = .38 (p < .01). Extrinsic attainment could have predicted well-being uniquely; it did not.

Over the year, residualized change in intrinsic attainment predicted change in well-being (β = .63) and ill-being (β = −.59), and change in need satisfaction carried most of it: the well-being path fell to .16 (ns), the ill-being path to −.42. Extrinsic attainment change predicted neither need satisfaction (β = .03) nor well-being change (β = −.02), and ill-being change only marginally (β = .27, p < .07).

The zero-order picture differs. Extrinsic attainment correlated with well-being at mean r = .19, with need satisfaction at mean r = .18 and with ill-being at mean r = .03. The authors name competition for variance with the more strongly related intrinsic attainment as one explanation.

What this does not say

  • That getting rich or famous does not make people happier. Alone, extrinsic attainment went with slightly more well-being. The result is that it adds nothing once intrinsic attainment is known.
  • That need satisfaction causes the well-being. Mediator and outcome are self-reports over the same interval, and need satisfaction had no rank-order stability across the year (β = −.09).
  • That intrinsic aspirations are identified independently of the needs. They are labelled intrinsic because they are taken to satisfy the needs, so the mediation tests a link the classification presumes (QUESTION-369).
  • Anything about need frustration or psychopathology.

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