Autonomy, Culture, and Well-Being: The Benefits of Inclusive Autonomy

Publication Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2007

Abstract

In an attempt to understand cultural variation in motivation, we distinguished between the type of motivation (ranging from controlled to autonomous, as conventionally measured) and the subject of motivation (I vs. my family and I), creating measures of individual and inclusive academic motivation. Support was found for three hypotheses. First, Chinese Canadian and Singaporean students felt less relative autonomy than European Canadian students, on both the inclusive and individual measures. Second, individual relative autonomy was associated with psychological well-being (WB) for European Canadians and Chinese Canadians (Study 1), and Singaporeans (Study 2). Third, inclusive relative autonomy was associated with psychological well-being for Chinese Canadians and Singaporeans, but not European Canadians. Exploratory analyses are also presented, and implications for the theory and measurement of autonomy are discussed.

Discipline

Human Resources Management | Organizational Behavior and Theory

Research Areas

Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources

Publication

Journal of Research in Personality

Volume

41

Issue

5

First Page

983

Last Page

1007

ISSN

0092-6566

Identifier

10.1016/j.jrp.2006.11.004

Publisher

Elsevier

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