Self-Determination Theory: How the Cognitive Evaluation Theory Plays into Tris’ Motivation

Tris walks down to the stage at the bottom of the amphitheater. Before she stands the five bowls. She must choose one. Should she stay with her parent’s faction or leave? If she leaves, she will never see her family again. Tris looks back at her mother, father, and brother sitting in the audience. Her mother is smiling through her tears. Determined, Tris takes the knife laying in front of her and slits her finger, ready to drip her blood into one of the bowls. The audience gasps as she hovers over the fifth bowl. Small flames spurt out from the bowl as her blood drips into it. Dauntless! She chose Dauntless.

Tris, the 16-year-old heroine in the Divergent series, changes her goals after taking the highly competitive aptitude test. Tris’ goals are to succeed in the most challenging and competitive of the factions, forge new friendships, and explore who she is. Since her test results are inconclusive, she is not able to fit into one of the 5 factions. Instead of playing it safe and returning to work with her parents’ faction, she chooses the most difficult of the factions. What factors are at play, supporting Tris to commit to her decision? Where does she find the intrinsic motivation to challenge herself and explore an entirely new and formidable future?

Cognitive Evaluation Theory 

Cognitive Evaluation Theory (CET) supports the theory that intrinsic, mature, healthy motivation occurs when a person’s psychological needs are being met and fulfilled (Reeves, 2009). CET bases its theory on three basic, intrinsic psychological needs: feeling competent, having autonomy, and having positive relatedness. Without the fulfillment of these three needs, people will experience a lack of intrinsic motivation.

In the series, Tris experiences overall intrinsic, healthy motivation to achieve her goals, but it does not come easy for her. Competence, autonomy, and relatedness are three basic factors of CET that play into Tris’ motivation for her goal to choose the most challenging and competitive faction (Reeves, 2009).

Competence: Optimal Levels of Challenge, Structure, & Tolerance

The first challenge Tris faces is jumping onto a moving train to transport them to her new home. She is the last one in her cohort to make it on the train, barely catching her superior’s hand as the last car leaves the station.

“Competence is the need to interact effectively with an environment” (p. 168, Reeves, 2009). People desire to explore and exercise their abilities. The key to competence is balancing optimal levels of challenge, structure, and tolerance. Tris faces physical endurance challenges and is not able to run as fast as her peers or protect herself during her training exercises. Additionally, her faction maintains high standards of excellence and low tolerance. Unfortunately for Tris, she will be excommunicated from society if she fails her training.

If a challenge, structure, or tolerance level is too high or too low, a person will experience feelings of inadequacy, which in turn discourage motivation in a task (Reeves, 2009). For the first few days of her training, Tris is in shock from the high standards and low tolerance of her superiors. She does not enjoy her new life and gets very nervous when a fellow cohort dies during training. Successful competence attains a psychological state of flow, where a person experiences full concentration, complete absorption, and enjoyment in their task.

Autonomy: Volition & Self-Regulation

After witnessing her cohort’s accident, Tris’ motivation to pass her training increases in fervor! Instead of feeling sorry for herself and giving up, Tris determines to train, run, and practice whenever she can. She even sneaks out of her room at night to practice.

Autonomy is the need to initiate and regulate a person’s behavior without the presence of or pressure from exterior influences (Reed, 2009). Volition—or free will—is a perceived sense of control over a person’s actions, especially when determining whether a relationship or environment is supportive or neglectful. Successful autonomy supports inner motivational actions, where a person experiences positive engagement, development, and psychological well-being. Although Tris does not have true autonomy, she does have another component—relatedness—which aids in her motivation to achieve her goal.

Relatedness: Positive Relationships

Relatedness is the need for positive relationships (Reed, 2009). People desire social connections and pursue close bonds with their loved ones and friends. Tris experiences positive relatedness when one of her superiors takes pity on her and gives her secret, 1-on-1 training at night. This gives Tris the psychological boost she needs to believe in herself again. Successful relatedness is internalization, or the development of a person’s beliefs, behaviors, goals, and values after social engagement. A secure family structure, an authoritative parenting style, and a supportive environment also support positive relatedness.

Family Structure

Parents are an important influence in children’s decisions, even as the children grow up and leave the home (Strage & Brandt, 1999).  The family structure and parenting style continues to play a significant role in decision-making, even when the child is not communicating with their parents daily. Before leaving for training, Tris has a final conversation with her mother. Her mother supports her decision and gives Tris helpful information about motivation, success, and happiness. Children with a secure parent-child relationship experience a smoother transition into other areas of development than children with a difficult parent-child relationship. Having her parents’ blessing makes Tris’ transition into a new environment easier.

Parenting Styles

Tris’ parents exhibit an authoritative parenting style. Instead of controlling Tris’ decisions, her parents give her the support she needs to succeed. According to a study by Strage & Brandt (1999), authoritative parenting styles have the strongest influence, where high schoolers maintained good academics for one year. Alternatively, high schoolers who experienced neglectful parenting styles deteriorated in their academics during that same period.

In this study, the more autonomy, demands, and support a parent gives their child, the stronger the child shows confidence, persistence, and positivity to their teachers (Strage & Brandt, 1999). This is indicative of an authoritative parenting style, where children learn self-regulation, persistence, and autonomy as they develop over time. Even though Tris has never left her parent’s house before, she remembers and relies on their high level of support and expectations. This enables Tris to be confident in herself and persists in her training. She even begins to have a crush on one of her superiors. (What can I say, it’s a coming-of-age novel!)

Supportive Environment

According to Reed (2009), environmental conditions must involve and satisfy a person’s psychological needs. Environmental conditions can involve psychological needs such as opportunities for self-direction, optimal challenge, and social interaction. Environmental conditions must also satisfy a person’s needs, like autonomy support, positive feedback, and communal relationships. A good environmental condition will nurture and support positive needs, but environments that do not satisfy psychological needs will frustrate and inhibit a person’s psychological well-being.

Tris experiences intense frustration in her environment. She does not have autonomy or competence, the stakes are high, and she is the underdog of the cohort. Except for making a few new friends, she is unable to be accepted by her peers and superiors.

Final Thoughts

There are some basic assumptions to consider with CET. First, the theory assumes that people can make their own decisions which affect and change their environment. In the Divergent series, Tris is unable to personalize her daily schedule, meal plan, or travel outside her faction. Everything is regulated by her superiors, similar to military training. Tris is also discouraged, to tell the truth, or provide information about others. Even speaking her mind is highly discouraged and punished!

Another assumption with CET is that people receive enough basic physical, financial, and emotional needs elsewhere. Without food, health, and finances, intrinsic motivation would be more difficult to quantify or observe. Survival is an incredibly strong motivator, as exhibited in Tris’ character. Only when Tris can pass the high-stakes test does she exhibit pleasure in her new environment (Stay tuned: this may be covered in a future blog!). Perhaps Tris would have enjoyed her training more if the tolerance level was not life-threatening.

Next Blog: Next week we will read how Tri’s motivations align with her values, what kinds of incentives influence her goal-striving, and how her values changed over time.

References

Strage, A., & Brandt, T. S. (1999). Authoritative parenting and college students' academic

adjustment and success. Journal of Education Psychology, 91(1), 146-156.

 

https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.91.1.146

Reeve, J. (2008). Understanding Motivation and Emotion. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

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