Autonomy of Motivation in Learning Activity at Different Self-regulation Development Levels

The question of human autonomy and self-determination is the key focus at the present stage of development of psychology of motivation. Autonomous regulation of behavior regardless of external influences is associated not only with greater efficiency, but also with following the personally significant, with manifestation of autonomy. The theory of self-determination provides an extensive theoretical and practical basis for working through the issues of manifestation of autonomy of motivation. However, SDT demonstrates a gap in the study of human movement from heteronomy to autonomy, lying in the field of proper internal parameters of the subject's regulatory activity. We have attempted to fill the gap observed in SDT in understanding the quality of self-regulation that can contribute to the process of organismic regulation in order to develop theoretical knowledge about the autonomy of motivation in the direction of subjective activity proper. Jane Löwinger's level theory of ego development is able to expand ideas about the process of organismic integration of motivational regulation because it most profoundly describes the development of self-regulation as the mastery of one's own regulatory processes. In the work it is theorized that this change in the modus operandi of interaction with the world means acquiring the abilities necessary for organismic integration. The focus of the research was narrowed down to studying the autonomy of learning activity motivation at different levels of self-regulation development among adolescents, because adolescence is the key age for development processes in principle and provides an opportunity for practical interventions in educational institutions. Comparison of expression of different indicators of autonomy of motivation at different levels of self-regulation development allowed us to formulate several significant conclusions and questions for further research on the indicated problem. Firstly, we obtained that the development of self-regulation at the conventional levels of ego development is associated with a decrease in the manifestation of some controlled types of motivation, but not with an increase in the expression of autonomous ones. Secondly, it was found that the conventional levels of self-regulation development have specificity in interaction with different types of motivational regulation and sense of authorship over one's activity, the increasing complexity of self-regulation demonstrates a heterogeneous effect on these parameters. Thirdly, consideration of the specific types of controlled motivation for which we were able to record a departure from heteronomy in favor of autonomy at the conventional stages of self-regulation development led us to suggest that movement toward autonomy is associated with the experienced pressure of a certain type of regulation on the individual as a personality. This suggestion requires further empirical work and may shed light on the relatively negative qualities of the environment that may contribute to the acquisition of autonomy. The current study has provided fundamentally new information on the interaction between the level of development of self-regulation and types of motivation and has opened up a number of questions for further elaboration of the problem. The current study is the first detailed and empirically supported attempt to correlate self-determination theory and Jane Loewinger's developmental level theory. The analysis of the problem and the results demonstrate the potential for further elaboration of the perspective on the process of organismic integration through the complication of broadly understood self-regulation, both to expand theoretical knowledge of autonomous motivation and to enable development of practical interventions to facilitate organismic integration "from within."