The Emerging Neuroscience of Intrinsic Motivation: A New Frontier in Self-Determination Research

The Relationship Between Multidimensional Motivation and Endocrine-Related Responses: A Systematic Review

Multidimensional motivational theories postulate that the type of motivation is as important as the quantity of motivation, with implications for human functioning and well-being. An extensive amount of research has explored how constructs contained within these theories relate to the activation of the endocrine system. However, research is fragmented across several theories, and determining the current state of the science is complicated. In line with contemporary trends for theoretical integration, this systematic review aims to evaluate the association between multidimensional motivational constructs and endocrine-related responses to determine which theories are commonly used and what inferences can be made. Forty-one studies were identified incorporating five distinct motivation theories and multiple endocrine-related responses. There was evidence across several theories that high-quality motivation attenuated the cortisol response in evaluative environments. There was also evidence that motivational needs for power and affiliation were associated with lower and higher levels of salivary immunoglobulin A, respectively. The need for power may play a role in increasing testosterone when winning a contest; however, this evidence was not conclusive. Overall, this review can shape the future integration of motivational theories by characterizing the nature of physiological responses to motivational processes and examining the implications for well-being.

Difference in neural reactivity to taste stimuli and visual food stimuli in neural circuits of ingestive behavior

Brain responses to sight and taste of foods have been examined to provide insights into neural substrates of ingestive behavior. Since the brain response to food images and taste stimuli are overlapped in neural circuits of eating behavior, each food cue would influence eating behavior in a partly similar manner. However, because few studies have examined the differences in brain responses to each food cue, the variation in neural sensitivity to these food cues or specific brain response to each food cue remain unclear. We thus performed a repeated measures functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study to examine brain responses to the image and taste of various foods for direct comparisons of the brain response to each food cue. Thirty-five healthy adolescents (age: 14-19 years [mean: 17 years], males = 16, females = 19) underwent two fMRI scans, a food image fMRI scan for measurement of brain response to food images, and a taste stimulus fMRI scan for measurement of brain response to taste stimuli. Food images evoked brain responses in the visual information processing regions, anterior insula, striatum, and pre-/postcentral gyrus compared to taste stimuli, whereas taste stimuli induced brain responses in the mid-insula and limbic regions compared to food images. These results imply that food images tend to evoke brain responses in regions associated with food reward anticipation and food choice, whereas taste stimuli tend to induce brain responses in regions involved in assigning existent incentive values to foods based on existent energy homeostatic status.

Adaptive Homeostatic Strategies of Resilient Intrinsic Self-Regulation in Extremes (RISE): A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Novel Behavioral Treatment for Chronic Pain

Current treatments for chronic pain have limited benefit. We describe a resilience intervention for individuals with chronic pain which is based on a model of viewing chronic pain as dysregulated homeostasis and which seeks to restore homeostatic self-regulation using strategies exemplified by survivors of extreme environments. The intervention is expected to have broad effects on well-being and positive emotional health, to improve cognitive functions, and to reduce pain symptoms thus helping to transform the suffering of pain into self-growth. A total of 88 Veterans completed the pre-assessment and were randomly assigned to either the treatment intervention (n = 38) or control (n = 37). Fifty-eight Veterans completed pre- and post-testing (intervention n = 31, control = 27). The intervention covered resilience strengths organized into four modules: (1) engagement, (2) social relatedness, (3) transformation of pain and (4) building a good life. A broad set of standardized, well validated measures were used to assess three domains of functioning: health and well-being, symptoms, and cognitive functions. Two-way Analysis of Variance was used to detect group and time differences. Broadly, results indicated significant intervention and time effects across multiple domains: (1) Pain decreased in present severity [F ( 1, 56) = 5.02, p < 0.05, η2 p = 0.08], total pain over six domains [F ( 1, 56) = 14.52, p < 0.01, η2 p = 0.21], and pain interference [F ( 1, 56) = 6.82, p < 0.05, η2 p = 0.11]; (2) Affect improved in pain-related negative affect [F ( 1, 56) = 7.44, p < 0.01, η2 p = 0.12], fear [F ( 1, 56) = 7.70, p < 0.01, η2 p = 0.12], and distress [F ( 1, 56) = 10.87, p < 0.01, η2 p = 0.16]; (3) Well-being increased in pain mobility [F ( 1, 56) = 5.45, p < 0.05, η2 p = 0.09], vitality [F ( 1, 56) = 4.54, p < 0.05, η2 p = 0.07], and emotional well-being [F ( 1, 56) = 5.53, p < 0.05, η2 p = 0.09] Mental health symptoms and the cognitive functioning domain did not reveal significant effects. This resilience intervention based on homeostatic self-regulation and survival strategies of survivors of extreme external environments may provide additional sociopsychobiological tools for treating individuals with chronic pain that may extend beyond treating pain symptoms to improving emotional well-being and self-growth. Clinical Trial Registration: Registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04693728).

Psychometric evaluation of Persian version of the balanced measure of psychological needs scale among university students

Aim

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the reliability, validity and factor structure of the Persian version of the BMPN in Iranian university students.

Design

Cross‐sectional.

Methods

Study was conducted among Iranian medical sciences students from April to May 2020. A total of 660 students participated in the online self‐administrated questionnaire. Construct validity, convergent and divergent validity, and reliability of P‐BMPN were evaluated.

Results

The Exploratory factor analysis showed that the Persian version of the BMPN has 17 items with four factors: dissatisfaction, autonomy Satisfaction, relatedness satisfaction and competence satisfaction that explained 40.17% of the total variance. Based on confirmatory factor analysis, all goodness‐of‐fit indices confirmed the model fit.

Conclusion

These results suggest that the Persian version of the BMPN is a reliable and valid measure to assess satisfaction and dissatisfaction of the psychological needs in Iranian university students.

Proctorship in Minimally Invasive Colorectal Surgery

Teaching an established surgeon in a novel technique by a colleague who has acquired a level of expertise is often referred to as "proctoring" or "precepting." Surgical preceptorships can be defined as supervised teaching programs, whereby individual or groups of surgeons (proctors) experienced in a certain technique support a colleague who wants to adopt this technique (sometimes referred to as "delegates" or "preceptees"). Preceptorship programs really focus on a specific technique, technology, or skill which is required to broaden, complement, or transform an established surgeon's practice. Within colorectal surgery, in the past 30 years, there is been an evolution of interventional options including open, laparoscopic, robotic, and endoscopic procedures. With each new emerging technology and technique, safe and effective uptake by established surgeons is best been attained by a period of proctorship by an experienced colleague. Formalizing this has been facilitated largely through industry support. There, however, remains a considerable chasm when it comes to standardization, quality control, and jurisprudence. This article aims to describe the requirements for a contemporary proctorship program, to examine instruments of quality control, and how to improve effectiveness.

Differences in basic psychological needs-related resting-state functional connectivity between individuals with high and low life satisfaction

Basic psychological needs including autonomy, competence, and relatedness can be affected by the level of life satisfaction. The current research aimed to elucidate differences in the association of these needs and functional connectivity of reward processing and emotion regulation between individuals with high and low life satisfaction. A total of 83 young adults were divided into the high life satisfaction (HLS) and low life satisfaction (LLS) groups and were scanned for 5-min resting-state fMRI. A seed-to-voxel analysis was performed using the seeds of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), medial orbitofrontal cortex, subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC), insula, and amygdala. Analysis of covariance was conducted to test differences in the association of basic psychological needs and functional connectivity between the two groups. Connectivity strengths between the NAcc and right ventromedial prefrontal cortex and between the sgACC and left ventromedial prefrontal cortex were higher in the HLS group as the autonomy and relatedness scores increased, respectively, whereas in the LLS group as they decreased. Connectivity strengths between the NAcc and right midcingulate cortex and between the sgACC and left fusiform gyrus were higher in the HLS group as the competence and relatedness scores decreased, respectively, but in the LLS group as they increased. These findings suggest that individuals' perceived life satisfaction affects the relationship between the neural mechanism for reward processing and emotion regulation and basic psychological needs support. Psychological need satisfactions seem to have an emotional impact by acting as a contradictory brain mechanism between individuals with high and low life satisfaction.

The thermodynamics of cognition: A mathematical treatment

There is a general expectation that the laws of classical physics must apply to biology, particularly the neural system. The evoked cycle represents the brain's energy/information exchange with the physical environment through stimulus. Therefore, the thermodynamics of emotions might elucidate the neurological origin of intellectual evolution, and explain the psychological and health consequences of positive and negative emotional states based on their energy profiles. We utilized the Carnot cycle and Landauer's principle to analyze the energetic consequences of the brain's resting and evoked states during and after various cognitive states. Namely, positive emotional states can be represented by the reversed Carnot cycle, whereas negative emotional reactions trigger the Carnot cycle. The two conditions have contrasting energetic and entropic aftereffects with consequences for mental energy. The mathematics of the Carnot and reversed Carnot cycles, which can explain recent findings in human psychology, might be constructive in the scientific endeavor in turning psychology into hard science.

To Reveal or Not to Reveal? Observation of Social Outcomes Facilitates Reward Processing

Motivation is a key topic that comprises considerable theoretical and practical implications, and its study is gaining increasing traction in recent years. Employing both behavioral and neural techniques, previous studies examined the extent to which intrinsic and extrinsic motivations collectively shape individual decision making. Investigations found that both processes play indispensable and interactive roles in choice behavior. However, despite its importance, little is known respecting the role of extrinsic social factors in contributing to individual variations in intrinsic motivation. Toward elucidating the role of extrinsic social factors in motivated decision making, the current study implements the stop watch task, combined with hyper-recording electrophysiological measurements. With the electrophysiological toolkit, our goal is to bring to light how extrinsic social signals impact intrinsic motivation and shape the reward processing over success and failure at the succeeding stage. Empirically, we show that, following social outcome presentation, there is an increased divergent feedback-related negativity (FRN), which reflects the failure/success discrepancy at the outcome stage of choice behavior. In summary, this study demonstrates the saliency of social information in intrinsic motivational processes that underpin success-failure outcomes.

Intrinsic motivation in patients with Parkinson's disease: a neuropsychological investigation of curiosity using dopamine transporter imaging

Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are believed to involve brain regions that are innervated by the dopaminergic pathway. Although dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain deteriorate in Parkinson's disease (PD), it remains unclear whether intrinsic motivation is impaired in PD patients. To address this issue, we investigated intrinsic motivation in PD patients using a task designed to assess the "Pandora effect," which constitutes a curiosity for resolving uncertainty, even if this curiosity is likely to result in negative consequences. Twenty-seven PD patients and 27 age-matched healthy controls (HCs) completed a curiosity task in which they were required to decide either to view or skip negative pictures (e.g., snakes, spiders) and an examination battery that included the Mini-Mental State Examination, a verbal fluency test, the Trail Making Test, 10-word recall tests, and questionnaires for behavioral inhibition/activation and depression. DaTSCAN images to assess the distribution of dopamine transporters in the striatum were acquired only from PD patients. The results revealed that PD patients, relative to the HCs, viewed the pictures less frequently under both the certain and uncertain conditions. However, both the PD patients and HCs viewed the pictures at a higher frequency under the uncertain condition than under the certain condition. In the PD patients, the proportion of pictures viewed under the certain condition was positively correlated with the distribution of dopamine transporters in the striatum. These results suggest that despite the overall decreasing level of interest in viewing negative pictures, the motivation to resolve uncertainty is relatively intact in PD patients.

The effects of intrinsic motivation on mental fatigue

There have been many studies attempting to disentangle the relation between motivation and mental fatigue. Mental fatigue occurs after performing a demanding task for a prolonged time, and many studies have suggested that motivation can counteract the negative effects of mental fatigue on task performance. To complicate matters, most mental fatigue studies looked exclusively at the effects of extrinsic motivation but not intrinsic motivation. Individuals are said to be extrinsically motivated when they perform a task to attain rewards and avoid punishments, while they are said to be intrinsically motivated when they do for the pleasure of doing the activity. To assess whether intrinsic motivation has similar effects as extrinsic motivation, we conducted an experiment using subjective, performance, and physiological measures (heart rate variability and pupillometry). In this experiment, 28 participants solved Sudoku puzzles on a computer for three hours, with a cat video playing in the corner of the screen. The experiment consisted of 14 blocks with two alternating conditions: low intrinsic motivation and high intrinsic motivation. The main results showed that irrespective of condition, participants reported becoming fatigued over time. They performed better, invested more mental effort physiologically, and were less distracted in high-level than in low-level motivation blocks. The results suggest that similarly to extrinsic motivation, time-on-task effects are modulated by the level of intrinsic motivation: With high intrinsic motivation, people can maintain their performance over time as they seem willing to invest more effort as time progresses than in low intrinsic motivation.

Peripheral-physiological and neural correlates of the flow experience while playing video games: a comprehensive review

The flow state is defined by intense involvement in an activity with high degrees of concentration and focused attention accompanied by a sense of pleasure. Video games are effective tools for inducing flow, and keeping players in this state is considered to be one of the central goals of game design. Many studies have focused on the underlying physiological and neural mechanisms of flow. Results are inconsistent when describing a unified mechanism underlying this mental state. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the physiological and neural correlates of flow and explains the relationship between the reported physiological and neural markers of the flow experience. Despite the heterogeneous results, it seems possible to establish associations between reported markers and the cognitive and experiential aspects of flow, particularly regarding arousal, attention control, reward processing, automaticity, and self-referential processing.

Associations Between Delay Discounting and Connectivity of the Valuation-control System in Healthy Young Adults

The process of valuation assists in determining if an object or course of action is rewarding. Delay discounting is the observed decay of a rewards' subjective value over time. Encoding the subjective value of rewards across a spectrum has been attributed to brain regions belonging to the valuation and executive control systems. The valuation system (VS) encodes reward value over short and long delays, influencing reinforcement learning and reward representation. The executive control system (ECS) becomes more active as choice difficulty increases, integrating contextual and mnemonic information with salience signals in the modulation of decision-making. Here, we aimed to identify resting-state functional connectivity-based patterns of the VS and ECS correlated with value-setting and delay discounting (outside-scanner paradigm) in a large (n = 992) cohort of healthy young adults from the Human Connectome Project (HCP). Results suggest the VS may be involved in value-setting of small, immediate rewards while the ECS may be involved in value-setting and delay discounting for large and small rewards over a range of delays. We observed magnitude sensitive connections involving the posterior cingulate cortex, time-sensitive connections with the ventromedial and lateral prefrontal cortex while connections involving the posterior parietal cortex appeared both magnitude- and time-sensitive. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal cortex could act as "comparator" regions, weighing the value of small rewards against large rewards across various delay duration to aid in decision-making.

Behavioural Effects and Market Dynamics in Field and Laboratory Experimental Asset Markets

A vast literature investigating behavioural underpinnings of financial bubbles and crashes relies on laboratory experiments. However, it is not yet clear how findings generated in a highly artificial environment relate to the human behaviour in the wild. It is of concern that the laboratory setting may create a confound variable that impacts the experimental results. To explore the similarities and differences between human behaviour in the laboratory environment and in a realistic natural setting, with the same type of participants, we translate a field study conducted by reference (Sornette, D.; et al. Econ. E-J.2020, 14, 1-53) with trading rounds each lasting six full days to a laboratory experiment lasting two hours. The laboratory experiment replicates the key findings from the field study but we observe substantial differences in the market dynamics between the two settings. The replication of the results in the two distinct settings indicates that relaxing some of the laboratory control does not corrupt the main findings, while at the same time it offers several advantages such as the possibility to increase the number of participants interacting with each other at the same time and the number of traded securities. These findings pose important insights for future experiments investigating human behaviour in complex systems.

Promoting evidence-based practice through peer teaching: Practical tips to run a departmental teaching program in a healthcare setting

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. In the face of knowledge explosion with new scientific evidence being published at an accelerated pace, doctors are faced with the challenge of keeping abreast with the relevant evidence to bring it to their patient. Evidence-based practice is core to providing the best care for patients and unawareness of new evidence against a certain practice in medicine can see the perpetuation of practices that are not evidence-based. Peer teaching through departmental teaching programs is a useful tool to conceptualise evidence by bringing the patient into the classroom to consider the relevant evidence surrounding their care. Running a successful departmental teaching program which matches the intrinsic self-concept of clinicians who have multiple demands on their time is faced with multiple barriers. This article provides tips drawn from experience and supported by evidence from the literature that can be used in various healthcare settings to coordinate a departmental teaching program.

The thermodynamic brain and the evolution of intellect: the role of mental energy

The living state is low entropy, highly complex organization, yet it is part of the energy cycle of the environment. Due to the recurring presence of the resting state, stimulus and its response form a thermodynamic cycle of perception that can be modeled by the Carnot engine. The endothermic reversed Carnot engine relies on energy from the environment to increase entropy (i.e., the synaptic complexity of the resting state). High entropy relies on mental energy, which represents intrinsic motivation and focuses on the future. It increases freedom of action. The Carnot engine can model exothermic, negative emotional states, which direct the focus on the past. The organism dumps entropy and energy to its environment, in the form of aggravation, anxiety, criticism, and physical violence. The loss of mental energy curtails freedom of action, forming apathy, depression, mental diseases, and immune problems. Our improving intuition about the brain's intelligent computations will allow the development of new treatments for mental disease and novel find applications in robotics and artificial intelligence.

Self-Regulation Without Force: Can Awareness Leverage Reward to Drive Behavior Change?

To reach longer-term goals and live aligned with their values, people typically must regulate their behavior. Effortful self-control is one way to achieve this and is usually framed as a forceful struggle between lower-level impulses and higher-level cognitive control processes. For example, people may restrain themselves from eating cake in order to lose weight. An alternative avenue of self-regulation draws on autonomous motivation: Individuals eat healthfully because it is values-congruent or intrinsically satisfying. Recent advances in the understanding of reward valuation on a neural level (e.g., ventromedial prefrontal cortex/orbitofrontal cortex) and emerging treatments on a clinical level (e.g., mindfulness training) suggest a possible mechanistic convergence between brain and behavior that is consistent with a shift from forced to unforced behavior change. Here we propose how an overlooked aspect of reinforcement learning can be leveraged using a simple yet critical feature of experience that is not reliant on willpower: Bringing awareness to one's subjective experience and behavior can produce a change in valuation of learned but unhealthy behaviors, leading to self-regulatory shifts that result in sustainable behavior change without force.

Reflections on Inner and Outer Silence and Consciousness Without Contents According to the Sphere Model of Consciousness

In the current hypothesis paper, we propose that focusing attention on silence can be used as a paradigm conceptually similar to sensory deprivation, to study consciousness without content. We briefly overview recent influential models of consciousness and consider how they assess the relationship between consciousness and contents. After discussing the strengths and weaknesses of current models, we suggest an extension based on the Sphere Model of Consciousness (SMC) and introduce new definitions for identification and self-awareness as states of consciousness. We further compare Paoletti's theoretical model for the development of self with other influential models, highlighting similarities and differences. We conclude with a discussion of how attentional focus on silence can be empirically tested.

Multiscale Computation and Dynamic Attention in Biological and Artificial Intelligence

Biological and artificial intelligence (AI) are often defined by their capacity to achieve a hierarchy of short-term and long-term goals that require incorporating information over time and space at both local and global scales. More advanced forms of this capacity involve the adaptive modulation of integration across scales, which resolve computational inefficiency and explore-exploit dilemmas at the same time. Research in neuroscience and AI have both made progress towards understanding architectures that achieve this. Insight into biological computations come from phenomena such as decision inertia, habit formation, information search, risky choices and foraging. Across these domains, the brain is equipped with mechanisms (such as the dorsal anterior cingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) that can represent and modulate across scales, both with top-down control processes and by local to global consolidation as information progresses from sensory to prefrontal areas. Paralleling these biological architectures, progress in AI is marked by innovations in dynamic multiscale modulation, moving from recurrent and convolutional neural networks-with fixed scalings-to attention, transformers, dynamic convolutions, and consciousness priors-which modulate scale to input and increase scale breadth. The use and development of these multiscale innovations in robotic agents, game AI, and natural language processing (NLP) are pushing the boundaries of AI achievements. By juxtaposing biological and artificial intelligence, the present work underscores the critical importance of multiscale processing to general intelligence, as well as highlighting innovations and differences between the future of biological and artificial intelligence.

Elizabeth Usher Memorial Lecture: Lost in Translation? Challenges and future prospects for a neurobiological approach to aphasia rehabilitation

While there has been considerable progress in conducting trials of aphasia therapy, there is no consistent evidence for long-term benefits of aphasia treatment, suggesting the need to reconsider current approaches. There are also no accurate methods for determining the amount, type and timing of aphasia therapy that should be provided for an individual. At the same time, there has been increasing interest in applying various principles of neuroplasticity to aphasia treatment and using measures of brain structure and function to predict recovery. This article will consider the potential of neuroplasticity principles and neurobiological predictors to improve our current approach to aphasia rehabilitation and optimise outcomes. Reviewing these principles highlights some of the challenges of translating animal model-based principles and emphases the need to also consider relevant theories of human learning. While considerable progress has been made in considering neurobiological principles and using measures of brain structure and function to predict recovery, there is significant work required to achieve the full potential of this neurobiological approach to aphasia management.

Differences in the modulation of functional connectivity by self-talk tasks between people with low and high life satisfaction

Self-respect is a practical way to promote life satisfaction through gratifying basic psychological needs, whereas self-criticism is associated with life dissatisfaction. The goal of the present study was to investigate the effect of two positive and negative self-talks on the functional connectome with respect to life satisfaction and its relationships with basic psychological needs. Forty-eight individuals with low life satisfaction (LLS, n ​= ​24) and with high life satisfaction (HLS, n ​= ​24) were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging at a baseline state and during and after self-respect or self-criticism tasks. Functional connectivity analysis was conducted to identify the modulatory effects of the tasks on the self-referential, default mode, and reward-motivation networks. We found that self-respect changed only the connection between the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and frontoparietal network, whereas self-criticism changed almost all of the connections examined. The group x condition interaction effect of self-respect was identified only in connection between the PCC and left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, while that of self-criticism was observed in various connections based on the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens. In respect to basic psychological needs, functional connectivity after self-criticism was significant in predicting the needs of autonomy and relatedness only in the LLS group, whereas functional connectivity after self-respect could predict the needs of autonomy and competence only in the HLS group. Overall, self-criticism produces more noticeable negative changes in the brain than the positive changes of self-respect. Individuals with low life satisfaction may be more vulnerable to be negatively affected not only by self-criticism but also self-respect than individuals with high life satisfaction. The satisfaction of basic psychological needs can play a mediating role in the effects of self-talk tasks differently concerning life satisfaction.

Shared striatal activity in decisions to satisfy curiosity and hunger at the risk of electric shocks

Curiosity is often portrayed as a desirable feature of human faculty. However, curiosity may come at a cost that sometimes puts people in harmful situations. Here, using a set of behavioural and neuroimaging experiments with stimuli that strongly trigger curiosity (for example, magic tricks), we examine the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying the motivational effect of curiosity. We consistently demonstrate that across different samples, people are indeed willing to gamble, subjecting themselves to electric shocks to satisfy their curiosity for trivial knowledge that carries no apparent instrumental value. Also, this influence of curiosity shares common neural mechanisms with that of hunger for food. In particular, we show that acceptance (compared to rejection) of curiosity-driven or incentive-driven gambles is accompanied by enhanced activity in the ventral striatum when curiosity or hunger was elicited, which extends into the dorsal striatum when participants made a decision.

Man's Pursuit of Meaning: Unexpected Termination Bolsters One's Autonomous Motivation in an Irrelevant Ensuing Activity

Meaningfulness has been suggested as one of the fundamental psychological needs, as one would actively pursue meaning in both his/her work life and personal life. Previous studies consistently showed that a lack of meaning in work would reduce one's autonomous motivation in the current job, which is the motivation to engage in self-determined activities driven by one's own interests or personal beliefs. However, researchers overlooked the fact that in work settings, it is not uncommon that people work on multiple tasks in a row. As a result, the cross-task effect of work meaningfulness remains understudied. Based on the meaning maintenance model (MMM) and the suggested fluid compensation strategy, we predicted that the disappearance of the meaning of work may induce a compensatory response and thus enhance one's autonomous motivation in an irrelevant ensuing activity. To test this hypothesis, we invited participants to work on an encyclopedic knowledge quiz in Session 1 and a StopWatch (SW) task in Session 2. A between-subject design was adopted. While participants in the control group successfully completed their tasks in Session 1, those in the experimental group encountered unexpected program quits by the end of the quiz, and their previous efforts suddenly became futile and meaningless. Electroencephalography was recorded during the experiment to measure reward positivity (RewP). In Session 2, a more pronounced RewP in the win-lose difference wave was observed in the experimental group in contrast to the control group, suggesting that the disappearance of the meaning of work enhanced one's autonomous motivation in an irrelevant activity that follows. Therefore, results of this study provided preliminary electrophysiological evidence for one's pursuit of meaning and the compensation effect induced by the disappearance of the meaning of work.

Evidence of behaviour change during an Ebola virus disease outbreak, Sierra Leone

Objective

To evaluate changes in Ebola-related knowledge, attitudes and prevention practices during the Sierra Leone outbreak between 2014 and 2015.

Methods

Four cluster surveys were conducted: two before the outbreak peak (3499 participants) and two after (7104 participants). We assessed the effect of temporal and geographical factors on 16 knowledge, attitude and practice outcomes.

Findings

Fourteen of 16 knowledge, attitude and prevention practice outcomes improved across all regions from before to after the outbreak peak. The proportion of respondents willing to: (i) welcome Ebola survivors back into the community increased from 60.0% to 89.4% (adjusted odds ratio, aOR: 6.0; 95% confidence interval, CI: 3.9–9.1); and (ii) wait for a burial team following a relative’s death increased from 86.0% to 95.9% (aOR: 4.4; 95% CI: 3.2–6.0). The proportion avoiding unsafe traditional burials increased from 27.3% to 48.2% (aOR: 3.1; 95% CI: 2.4–4.2) and the proportion believing spiritual healers can treat Ebola decreased from 15.9% to 5.0% (aOR: 0.2; 95% CI: 0.1–0.3). The likelihood respondents would wait for burial teams increased more in high-transmission (aOR: 6.2; 95% CI: 4.2–9.1) than low-transmission (aOR: 2.3; 95% CI: 1.4–3.8) regions. Self-reported avoidance of physical contact with corpses increased in high but not low-transmission regions, aOR: 1.9 (95% CI: 1.4–2.5) and aOR: 0.8 (95% CI: 0.6–1.2), respectively.

Conclusion

Ebola knowledge, attitudes and prevention practices improved during the Sierra Leone outbreak, especially in high-transmission regions. Behaviourally-targeted community engagement should be prioritized early during outbreaks.

Validation of the Chinese version General Causality Orientation Scale-Clinical Population and causality orientations assessing in major depressions

INTRODUCTION

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Chinese version General Causality Orientation Scale-Clinical Population (GCOS-CP) and assessed the causality orientations in patients with major depression disorders (MDDs).

METHOD

The psychometric properties of the Chinese GCOS-CP were tested in an adults group (study 1). And then, the Chinese GCOS-CP was given to individuals with and without MDD (study 2).

RESULTS

The Chinese GCOS-CP provided good reliability and validity. MDD showed lower autonomy but higher impersonal orientations relative to healthy controls.

DISCUSSION

The GCOS-CP is suitable for the assessment of motivation in patients with mental disorders in Chinese setting.

Toward a Social Psychology of Authenticity: Exploring Within-Person Variation in Autonomy, Congruence, and Genuineness Using Self-Determination Theory

Authenticity entails autonomy, congruence, and genuineness. In this article, we use a self-determination theory framework to discuss a critical aspect of social environments that facilitates these aspects of authenticity, namely the experience of autonomy support. Although authenticity is often studied as a trait or individual difference, we review research demonstrating that authenticity varies within individuals and predicts variations in well-being. Next, we show that perceiving autonomy support within a relational context is associated with people feeling more authentic and more like their ideal selves and displaying constellations of Big 5 personality traits indicative of greater wellness in that context. To explore another important part of authenticity, being genuine in interactions with others, we review evidence linking autonomy support to situational variation in identity disclosure among lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals. This research suggests that perceiving autonomy support within a context or relationship helps lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals be more open about their sexual orientation and identity, which in turn affords greater opportunities for the satisfaction of not only autonomy, but competence and relatedness needs as well, facilitating well-being. We conclude by highlighting future directions in the study of authenticity’s dynamic nature, and the importance of the situation in its expression and its relation to well-being.

Reflections on self-determination theory as an organizing framework for personality psychology: Interfaces, integrations, issues, and unfinished business

OBJECTIVE

This special issue focuses on self-determination theory (SDT) as an integrative framework for the wider field of personality research. In this commentary our aims include: reflecting on the utility and strengths of SDT as such a general framework and responding to the various contributions in this issue regarding their use of SDT as a guiding, complementary, or contrasting framework.

METHODS AND RESULTS

We describe how SDT has developed organically and conservatively from "within" based on the emerging patterns of evidence, as well through the ongoing challenges from other models and frameworks. We then discuss each of the various contributions to this special issue, addressing themes that include SDT's breadth of methods, and its relevance to topics such as narcissism, wisdom, individual differences, Big-Five traits, and the neuropsychology of motivation, among others. Across these discussions, we highlight fruitful avenues for research and cross-fertilization across the fields of personality, development, motivation, and neuroscience. At the same time, we counter some claims made about SDT, and forward certain cautions regarding the integration of SDT and other personality frameworks and models.

CONCLUSIONS

We conclude by revisiting the value of broad theory, and SDT in particular, for coordinating complex research findings concerning motivation, personality development and wellness across multiple levels of analysis and, perhaps more importantly, for pointing researchers to the right questions within today's prolific empiricism.

Goal Orientations and Activation of Approach Versus Avoidance Motivation While Awaiting an Achievement Situation in the Laboratory

While some students try to give their best in an achievement situation, others show disengagement and just want to get the situation over and done with. The present study investigates the role of students' tendencies for approach or avoidance motivation while anticipating tasks and the corresponding activation of the approach/avoidance motivational system as indicated by transient changes of EEG alpha asymmetry. Overall, 62 students (50 female; age: M = 23.8, SD = 3.5) completed a goal orientation questionnaire (learning goals, performance-approach, performance-avoidance, and work avoidance). They joined a laboratory experiment where EEG was recorded during resting condition as well as when students were anticipating tasks. Standard multiple regression analysis showed that higher values on performance-avoidance were related to a higher activation of the approach system whereas higher values on work avoidance were related to a higher activation of the avoidance system. Results question present assumptions about avoidance related goal orientations.

A Surprising Source of Self-Motivation: Prior Competence Frustration Strengthens One's Motivation to Win in Another Competence-Supportive Activity

According to self-determination theory (SDT), competence is among the three basic psychological needs essential for one’s well-being and optimal functioning, and the frustration of these needs is theoretically predicted to induce a restorative response. While previous studies have explored the restoration process of autonomy and relatedness, empirical evidence for such a process is still lacking for competence. In order to explore this process and to examine the effect of prior competence frustration on one’s motivation to win in a subsequent competence-supportive task, we adopted a between-group experimental design and manipulated one’s competence frustration through task difficulty in an electrophysiological study. Participants in both groups were instructed to work on the time-estimation task and the stop-watch task in two successive sessions respectively. Participants in the experimental group were asked to complete a highly difficult task in the first session and a task of medium difficulty in the second session, while those in the control group were instructed to work on tasks of medium difficulty in both sessions. In the second session, an enlarged feedback-related negativity (FRN) loss-win difference wave (d-FRN) was observed in the experimental group compared to the control group, indicating that the competence-frustrated participants have an enhanced motivation to win in a subsequent competence-supportive task. Thus, results of the present study provided original neural evidence for the restoration process of frustrated competence, which provided important guidelines for the managerial practice.

COMT Val158Met Polymorphism and Social Impairment Interactively Affect Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Symptoms in Healthy Adolescents

The dopaminergic system has been shown to have substantial effects on the etiology of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, while some studies found a significant direct effect, others did not. In this context, social behavior might play an important role as a factor that is related both to the dopaminergic system and ADHD. In a large epidemiological sample of adolescents (N = 462; 16-17 years), we assessed the level of ADHD symptoms using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, social behavior using the Social Responsiveness Scale, and the allelic distribution of the dopaminergic catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met polymorphism. We found a significant association between COMT and social impairment, insofar as Met-allele carriers showed increased levels of social impairment. Moreover, social impairment significantly determined an association between COMT and ADHD (explained variance: 19.09%). This effect did not significantly differ between males and females. COMT and social impairment might interactively affect ADHD symptomatology, and could thus represent significant gene-phenotypic risk factors for ADHD symptomatology. This might have interesting implications for prevention and intervention strategies with a focus on social behavior in genetically at-risk individuals.