There is a ubiquitous striving for competence. Every phase and waking moment of human life finds us striving to behave competently. The pursuit of competence is a common concern in educational settings (at all levels), at work, or in leisure settings. Although competence and satisfaction are ubiquitous, our main goal in this post is to highlight areas in which they do not fully explain motivation or wellness, even within these settings. Accordingly, competence and competence feedback also matter differently depending on the source of a person’s motivation.
Competence, for instance, can be seen as only a means to an end in externally regulated behavior, whereas in intrinsically motivated behavior, it acts as a way to satisfy and energize one’s actions. A number of psychological needs (competence, autonomy, and relatedness) can be correlated with different types of motivation (e.g., external, introjected, integrated, identified, or intrinsic). Volitional motivations tend to satisfy all psychological needs more effectively.
The higher quality of autonomous motivations and their greater persistence are explained by this fact. In addition, we have discussed how contextual features such as tangible rewards, praise, competition, and interpersonal dynamics might support different motivational needs, leading to more autonomous and competence-driven behavior.
