Self-Determination Theory Applied to Health Contexts

By J. Ng, Nikos Ntoumanis, C. Thøgersen‐Ntoumani, Edward L. Deci, Richard M. Ryan, J. Duda, Geoffrey Williams. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2012

1,469 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Behavior change is more effective and lasting when patients are autonomously motivated. To examine this idea, we identified 184 independent data sets from studies that utilized self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2000) in health care and health promotion contexts. A meta-analysis evaluated relations between the SDT-based constructs of practitioner support for patient autonomy and patients’ experience of psychological need satisfaction, as well as relations between these SDT constructs and indices of mental and physical health. Results showed the expected relations among the SDT variables, as well as positive relations of psychological need satisfaction and autonomous motivation to beneficial health outcomes. Several variables (e.g., participants’ age, study design) were tested as potential moderators when effect sizes were heterogeneous. Finally, we used path analyses of the meta-analyzed correlations to test the interrelations among the SDT variables. Results suggested that SDT is a viable conceptual framework to study antecedents and outcomes of motivation for health-related behaviors.

Subfields: Complementary and alternative medicine, General Health Professions, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/49b4d20747d9206c48b7d4ca08022fb91cac1c2a

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Complementary and alternative medicine

  1. Matt C. Howard
  2. Richard M. Ryan

In General Health Professions

  1. Richard M. Ryan
  2. Edward L. Deci
  3. C. Thøgersen‐Ntoumani
  4. Arielle Bonneville-Roussy
  5. Soyeon Ahn
  6. Marta M. Marques
  7. C. Lonsdale
  8. Jean-Michel Oppert

In Social Psychology

  1. Richard M. Ryan
  2. Maarten Vansteenkiste
  3. Edward L. Deci
  4. J. Reeve
  5. Nikos Ntoumanis
  6. Bart Soenens
  7. Christopher P. Niemiec
  8. P. Evans

Citations in the corpus