Although the self-concordance of goals has been repeatedly shown to predict better goal progress, recent research suggests potential problems with aggregating autonomous and controlled motivations to form a summary index of self-concordance (Judge, Bono, Erez, & Locke, 2005). The purpose of the present investigation was to further examine the relations among autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and goal progress to determine the relative importance of autonomous motivation and controlled motivation in the pursuit of personal goals. The results of three studies and a meta-analysis indicated that autonomous motivation was substantially related to goal progress whereas controlled motivation was not. Additionally, the relation of autonomous motivation to goal progress was shown to involve implementation planning. Together, the three studies highlight the importance for goal setters of having autonomous motivation and developing implementation plans, especially ones formulated in terms of approach strategies rather than avoidance strategies. The present research suggests that individuals pursuing goals should focus relatively greater attention on enhancing their autonomous motivation rather than reducing their controlled motivation.

This research examined changes in intrinsic and extrinsic motivation during the transition from junior to senior high school as well as the impact of motivational changes on various educational consequences (i.e., dropout intentions, absenteeism, homework frequency, and educational aspirations). A total of 646 participants completed a questionnaire in 8th, 9th, and 10th grade. Using the true intraindividual change modeling technique (R. Steyer, I. Partchev, & M. J. Shanahan, 2000), the authors reached results revealing that students' intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation decreased gradually from 8th to 10th grade. Furthermore, less educational adjustment was observed for students experiencing a decline in external regulation during the transitional year and students experiencing a decline in intrinsic motivation and identified regulation during the year after the transition.

This study examined the measurement and latent construct invariance of the Academic Motivation Scale (Vallerand, Blais, Brière, & Pelletier, 1989;Vallerand et al., 1992Vallerand et al., , 1993 across both gender and time. An integrative analytical strategy was used to assess in one set of nested models both longitudinal and cross-gender invariance, and "interactional" and "simple" tests of invariance (e.g., cross-gender invariance across waves) were conducted. Results from a sample of 643 students (322 boys and 321 girls) across a 3-year time span showed good longitudinal cross-gender factorial invariance with different degrees of invariance depending on the sample, the educational level, or both. Implications for the validity of the Academic Motivation Scale, as well as for research on factorial invariance, are discussed.

This study tested a motivational model of daily hassles, physical symptoms, and future work intentions with a sample of 122 police officers. In agreement with self‐determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2002), path analyses showed that police officers who perceived their immediate supervisor as highly supportive of their autonomy were found to report higher levels of self‐determined motivation toward work. In turn, higher levels of self‐determined motivation were found to be associated with higher future work intentions and lower levels of reported daily hassles. Finally, daily hassles were found to be positively associated with reported physical symptoms. Contrary to our hypotheses, perception of competence support from supervisors was not found to be significantly associated with self‐determined motivation. Instead, competence support was found to be negatively associated with daily hassles.

No abstract