One of the definitions of motivation is to have the energy, the desire to do a job, task or anything. Deci and Ryan (2008) found this definition while conducting research on situations that make people willing or unwilling to face a situation. Their research on motivation led them to come up with the Self-Determination Theory. According to this theory, motivation mechanisms are necessary for the behavioral changes and personal development of individuals. At this point, they focused on the characteristics of motivation rather than its presence or absence. That is, they focus on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. They emphasized that the most important point in situations such as learning and performance improvement is the type of motivation rather than the amount. If we look at the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations in detail, in extrinsic motivation, it is at the forefront that a person wins a reward as a result of his activity. In intrinsic motivation, the person does the activity because he or she enjoys doing it.

We have mentioned that motivation mechanisms are necessary for the development and learning of the person. In this case, it is necessary to meet the basic psychological needs of the person. Deci and Ryan identified these psychological needs as autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Autonomy can be defined as the feeling of having control over one’s behavior. In other words, a person does a behavior because he/she wants to do the activity, not because he/she has to do it. Competence is the need to feel that one has the capacity to do what one has to do. Individuals with a sense of competence strive to improve themselves. Finally, relatedness represents people’s need to communicate with their environment. Man is a social being and feels safe when he communicates well with those around him. In this way, he internalizes the community or institution he is in.

Imona Game Team