The relationship between incrínstic movation and self advocacy is amazing

Research Proposal on Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Advocacy

Introduction/ Hypotheses:

People desire different things in life, so it is very important for psychologists to understand what motivates people to succeed at work and accomplish their goals. Just because some people adapt to their environment and work in different ways, it does not mean they lack the motivation and the drive to accomplish their goals. Since 1940, people started to recognize the importance of motivation with the discovery of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This discovery brought to the forefront the importance of motivation.  As a result, psychologists are trying to find the best way to motivate employees to and engage in self-advocacy for themselves.

Motivation is defined as a psychological process that determines three aspects of every individual’s needs and personality: direction, intensity, and persistence of people’s actions: (Huitt, 2011). These aspects lead people to achieve success. Direction of action is defined as where, or rather, what specific tasks an individual should focus their efforts on (Huitt, 2011). Motivation is an internal state or condition that activates behavior and gives it direction; motivation is also a desire or want that energizes and directs goal-oriented behavior; another aspect is the influence of needs and desires on the intensity and direction of behavior. Another aspect, intensity, means how much effort you should put into each task. Intensity is the concentration and vigor that goes into pursuing a goal (For example, one student might complete tasks, do papers, be a good student without much effort; however, another student will study regularly, participate in discussions, and take advantage of research opportunities outside of class. The first student lacks intensity while the second student pursues his educational goals with greater commitment. Persistence is the continued effort toward a goal even though obstacles may exist. An example of persistence would be taking more psychology courses in order to earn a degree, although it requires a significant investment of time, energy, and resources. 

One type of motivation is intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is when one performs an action because of interest. It is inherent. It involves activates that are done because a pure interest or love for an activity.  Intrinsic motivation leads to greater levels of self-advocacy. Self-advocacy has many different elements including: being able to speak up for oneself, asking for what one needs and articulating your own ideas in a positive manner.  

So what are the things that actually motivate us to act? Psychologists have proposed various theories to explain what motivates people. However, self-determination theory relates best to the positive relationship between intrinsic motivation and self-advocacy.  Self-determination theory requires that the three basic psychological needs, developing competence (the ability to achieve goals and develop in order to successful in life), the need for relatedness (creating meaningful connections with others), and the need for autonomy (perceiving that one is able to initiate and regulate one’s own actions), be met in order to live a successful life (Pelletier & Ryan, 1991). These needs must be satisfied for one to meet their goals.  According to self-determination theory, all people must satisfy the three inherent psychological needs in order to have the drive to find their identity and to be a productive member of society, promoting intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic Motivation then promotes self-advocacy.

This study intends to expand upon the results of many past studies. This proposed study examines the relationship between two variables: Intrinsic motivation and self-advocacy in the workplace. Two hypotheses supported by research are proposed in this study. The first hypothesis is that intrinsic motivation in the workplace has a positive relationship on self-advocacy. The second hypothesis is that self-advocacy has a positive relationship on team cohesion in the workplace. Negative perceptions of a person’s self-image relate to the two hypotheses. A study by Deci in 2000 showed that there is a positive relationship between self-advocacy and motivation. According to the research, the influence of intrinsic motivation on self-advocacy suggests that if you have a heightened sense of intrinsic motivation, then you are more likely to convey your ideas in a positive perspective. Based on the research findings, one of the positive effects of having a strong sense of self-advocacy is having high self-esteem and confidence to communicate and articulate your beliefs to other people. Because people work in different ways, it is pertinent for psychologists to study motivation in order to understand what makes different people want to achieve their goals. 

Deci and Ryan developed the self-determination theory (SDT) in 1985. An important aspect of SDT is the concept of internalization, which is defined as the extent to which people understand the causes of why they behave the way they do, as well as the respective consequences to their behaviors. There are two types of internalization. High internalization, relating to intrinsic motivation, is when an individual performs behaviors they love. For example, if an individual reads a novel and enjoys it, they cannot put it down. By contrast, low internalization is when people perform behaviors not because they want to, but because they have to complete them (Bundara 1997).  Examples of the process of the process of    low internalization, activity where people have low intrinsic motivation    to perform activity such as include writing a paper or cleaning your room.  The process of internalization is very important to intrinsic motivation; however,   because It is Important for psychologists to understand the reasoning behind people’s   behavior it. Is important it is crucial for psychologists to study both intrinsic motivation and the process of internalization in order to understand how people satisfy the three basic needs according to the Self-Determination Theory: competency, autonomy, and relatedness. 

The need for competency gives us the ability to accomplish tasks, dreams, and goals in life. Competency is a person’s desire to be successful. In order to be successful, a person must be able to have the confidence to tackle specific tasks. The need for autonomy says that every individual has the ability to make their own choices in life based on their own personal beliefs and decisions. The concept of autonomy allows a person to learn how to think for himself or herself and not follow other people’s decisions. This is very important because autonomy increases someone’s ability to advocate for him or her and to become more confident. This, in turn, brings up an individual’s self-esteem. Lastly, the need for relatedness is included because of the fact that people are social beings. As human beings, we crave connection with other people. 

An aspect of SDT is the distinction between autonomous motivation and controlled motivation.  According to a study by Gagne and Deci (2005), in order for people to possess true autonomy, they must have two characteristics: the free will to decide and commit to completing specific tasks or actions, and an individual’s ability to experience making independent decisions based on their ability to reflect on their own actions. Autonomy involves acting with a sense of volition and having the experience of choice. In the words  according to Gagné and Deci, 2005)  autonomy means endorsing one’s actions at the highest level of reflection” (Gagné & Deci, 2005) which gives a person complete freedom to make their own decisions. Intrinsic motivation is an example of autonomous motivation. When people engage in an activity because they find it interesting, they are doing the activity because they have a desire to do so. 

By contrast, controlled motivation occurs when a person performs an action because they are pressured by external factors .Due to that pressure, a person may lack intrinsic motivation, which makes it harder for that individual to advocate for what they believe in. This study found that when people are rewarded for behaviors, controlled motivation is induced (Gagné and Deci, 2005). Autonomous and controlled motivations differ in two factors: the process that motivates the action and the type of experiences an individual would get from the action.  Autonomous motivation and controlled motivation are both intentional, and together they stand in contrast to a motivation,. A motivation, Is a having no motivation and Intention to complete any activities at all .Intrinsically motivated behavior, propelled by people’s interest in the activity itself, is prototypically autonomous. However, an important aspect of the SDT is the notion that extrinsic motivation can vary in the degree to which it is autonomous versus controlled. Activities that are not interesting (i.e., that are not intrinsically motivating) require extrinsic motivation, so their initial enactment depends upon the perception of a contingency between the behavior and a desired consequence such as implicit approval or tangible rewards. Autonomous and controlled motivation are created to prevent a motivation or a lack of motivation within the workplace (Gagné and  Deci, 2005).  Controlled motivation can decrease a person’s self-advocacy and internal motivation because they are completing tasks and performing actions based on pressure not desire or free will for the action itself. However, autonomous motivation promotes increases self-advocacy and intrinsic motivation, because an action self-advocacy is is promoted completed out of love for the actions. for example , , an unmotivated student would be uninterested in completing homework, so implementing a contingent reward system could help the student move from a-motivation to extrinsic regulation, as a result  the student would likely study just hard enough to gain the rewards or avoid negative consequences. A student whose behavior is regulated through introjections would  therefore is he  will complete his homework on time to avoid feeling like a terrible student or to avoid guilt, while a student whose behavior is regulated through identification would voluntarily study more because he/she realizes the importance of doing well in school. Intrinsically motivated students seek to learn more about a subject of interest both in school and outside of the regular school day because they find enjoyment and deep p purpose in learning; their behavior is fully regulated from within.  Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation are crucial aspects of the motivational spectrum that can increase individuals’ self-determined behaviors to increase people’ self-advocacy skills. 

You have talked about self-Advocacy comes from love, now talk about how self-advocacy can make the workplace better. Self-advocacy is an important life skill. The ability to advocate for one’s needs is a skill that can  improve team  cohesion  in organizations  because  self advocacy  can  create an environment  where employees  come together spreading ideas on how to make organizations better . Widemeyer, et al (1993) review found that 83%f studies reported a positive relation between cohesion and performance.  This relationship promotes self-advocacy. Highly  cohesive teams are more successful  Cohesion increases performance by producing higher levels of effort (Bray & Whaley, 2001) Bandura describes one of the major concepts of his social-cognitive theory, “that an individual’s actions and reactions, including social behaviors and cognitive processes, in almost every situation are influenced by the actions that individual has observed in others” (Bandura, Davidson & Davidson, 2013).  When people are Provide a positive model and environment for effective communication influences an employee’s ability to communicate and interact with others positively.

Work done in teams provides many advantages and benefits. The major advantages are the diversity of knowledge, ideas and tools contributed by team members, and the camaraderie among members. A characteristic commonly seen in high-performance teams is cohesiveness, a measure of the attraction of the group to its members (and the resistance to leaving it). Those in highly cohesive teams will be more cooperative and effective in achieving the goals they set for themselves. However, a Lack of cohesion within a team-working environment is sure to affect team performance due to unnecessary stress and tension among coworkers. Therefore, cohesion in the work place could, in the end, signify the rise or demise of the success of a company.

Team development takes time and frequently follows recognizable stages as the team journeys from being a group of strangers to becoming a united team with a common goal. According to researcher Bruce Tuckman, in both group dynamics and the four stages of team development he popularized (forming, storming, norming, performing), leaders must retain the motivation of team members in order to successfully overcome the challenges of the storming and norming stages  2005

Successful business strategies are influenced how by an effective team with a high level of team cohesiveness. Highly cohesive teams are more committed to the goals and activities, are happy when the team succeeds and feel part of something significant, all of which increases self-esteem, which in turn increases performance. High-performance teams are what make companies successful. Whether the task is to create an innovative product or service, or to design a new process or system, teams rather than individuals are assuming more of the load than ever before. The ideal team combines individual talents and skills into one super-performing-whole with capabilities that surpass those of even its most talented member. High-functioning teams are not the result of coincidence. They achieve greater levels of participation and collaboration because their members trust one another, share a strong sense of team identity, and have confidence in their abilities and effectiveness. Such teams possess high levels of team emotional intelligence (EI)

Teams drive organizational success, though developing and leading high-performance teams is one of the most complex tasks facing any leader in the current competitive work environment. Cohesiveness is the key factor in implementing effective, high-performance teams. Emotional intelligence also plays a key role in building high-performance teams in that emotional intelligence fosters cohesiveness. Managing emotions is how you build a team, an organization. It is the ability to get team members inspired. Leaders must understand how team cohesiveness works and how bonding in a team will build energy. Leaders must inspire team members through reinforcing the sense of belonging, empathy in bonding and mutual respect, in addition to giving people choice and power over what they can do. Once that sense of support, that foundation, is created, the result is limitless creativity.   Although   team cohesion is important to promoting  self advocacy  psychologists need to study both team cohesion and the role of self-determination  theory  to understand  where intrinsic  motivation  comes from and the different types of motivation  fon the continuum  from intrinsic motivation to extrinstc motivation  there people need to analyze each   aspect of sdt 

According to SDT, if people are intrinsically motivated to perform actions, then the behaviors are external, regulated. This means that these types of behaviors are produced by external elements in the environment and maintained by factors that an individual cannot control. This is a classic type of extrinsic motivation and is an example of controlled motivation. When performing externally regulated, behaviors people act with the intention of obtaining a desired consequence or avoiding an undesired one. Therefore, people are motivated to perform an action only when the action is instrumental to those ends (e.g., I work when the boss is watching). External regulation is the type of extrinsic motivation that is considered when extrinsic motivation was contrasted with intrinsic motivation (Gagne and Deci, 2005). According to Gagne and Deco, the use of salient extrinsic rewards to motivate, work behavior can be detrimental to intrinsic motivation and can thus have negative consequences for psychological adjustment, performance on interesting and personally important activities, and citizenship behavior.  In other words, extrinsic or controlled motivation characterizes any activities that have specific outcomes or actions that reward or avoid punishments. There are four types of regulations.  External regulation is behavior that controlled by external incentives such as praise, rewards and punishment avoidance.  The second type is Interjected regulation, Interjected regulation, is when a person has internalized the external consequences of their actions, therefore, the individual acts to facilitate self-esteem (e.g. exhibit ability) or reduce guilt and avoid demonstration of failure. The third type is  Identified regulation, identified  regulation is the most independent type of intrinsic motivation because these behaviors are performed when the individual knows the value and they are integrated into their personal beliefs or personality. This is the most autonomous kind of extrinsic motivation, these behaviors are fully integrated into personal values and beliefs such as praying or going to college.   As the individuals progress along this continuum, their motivation becomes less controlled and more self-determined (Ryan and Deci 2000). At the end of the self-determination, the continuum is a motivation representing a lack of any drive for behavior. More importantly, autonomous motivation is associated with sustained engagement in the behavior (Wilson, Rodgers, Blanchard, 2005). Motivation can fall anywhere on the continuum from amotivation (lack of the intent to act), to extrinsic motivation.  This progress involves avoiding punishments and gaining external rewards), to Interjected regulation (studying or behaving well because one feels pressure from within), to identified regulation (recognizing the importance or value in developing a behavior or skill), and finally, to intrinsic motivation (behavior motivated purely by the inherent benefits.  Ryan & Deci, 2000).Autonomous motivation is a broad term that encompasses both identified regulation and intrinsic motivation, which are the two highest forms of motivation, according to self-determination theory. 

Many studies on intrinsic motivation describe ways in which constantly giving people rewards can be detrimental to intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, SDT has detailed the processes of how intrinsic motivation can become extrinsic motivation. In addition, Gagne and Deco, 2005 study suggests that intrinsic motivation (based +in interest) and autonomous extrinsic motivation (based on importance) are both related to performance, satisfaction, trust, and well-being in the workplace. When the interaction of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation was first identified by the cognitive evaluation theory (CET) which provided an explanation for the phenomenon. However, many organizational psychologists and management theorists found the theory of cognitive evaluation has limited use with respect to promoting performance and satisfaction in work organizations. Self-determination theory provides a clear understanding and more useful approach to intrinsic motivation, which leads to effective organizational behavior (Gagne and Deci, 2005). With SDT on the research agenda, it shows psychologists how important all aspects of this theory are in respect to job performance and satisfaction. As a result,   people feel motivated by activities that allow them to satisfy the three needs. They are the need for competency, autonomy, and relatedness.  Any activities that person enjoys to perform are and driven by intrinsic motivation. Originally, the theory of self-determination differentiated between what intrinsic and extrinsic motivations were. Later, a continuum with varying degrees of individual autonomy was proposed (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Intrinsic motivation represents the most self-determined or autonomous behavior that is born out of the innate interest, enjoyment, and satisfaction of individuals  There are three types of intrinsic motivation. The first type of intrinsic motivation is increasing your own knowledge for the sake of gaining knowledge or expanding your horizons because of what people desire.  For example, if a person performs an activity for the pleasure or satisfaction of learning or understanding something he or she is intrinsically motivated towards knowledge.  The second type of intrinsic motivation focus on people achieving their goals in other words Intrinsic motivation toward accomplishment is defined as engaging in an activity for the pleasure of accomplishing or creating something. The final type of intrinsic motivation toward stimulation occurs when an individual performs an activity in order to obtain stimulating experiences. (Wilson, Rodgers, Blanchard, 2005). For example, if a person goes to a concert to have fun and become inspired by listening to music then he or she is experiencing intrinsic motivation towards stimulating a specific action.

Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Advocacy:

It is important for psychologists to examine the relationship between a powerful criterion of intrinsic motivation and individual self-advocacy .In order to understand how intrinsic motivation predicts the tendency of self-advocacy, we need to analyze the relationship between the two. Therefore, we need to define intrinsic motivation and self-advocacy.  Intrinsic motivation is any behavior that is caused by internal factors, which comes from the qualities of an individual’s personality and their experiences.  My research shows that self-advocacy consists of any actions that allow people to speak up for themselves and stand up for what they believe in. However, advocating for you does not mean that people have to depend completely on other people. It also does not mean individuals must do everything on their own.  For self-advocacy to occur there needs to be a balance between being independent and knowing when to ask for help. My data supports the hypothesis of self-advocacy being very significant for individuals to communicate their message. The reason why self-advocacy is very important is that in our society are can be heard unless they articulate their message in a positive way. At the same time, in order for self-advocacy to be effective, an individual has to be intrinsically motivated. Giving people positive feedback about their performance on an activity increased intrinsic motivation and self-advocacy. Deci claimed that positive feedback can satisfy people’s need for competence and this can in turn enhance our intrinsic motivation which people want to advocate more because Positive feedback enhance people ability to accomplish their goals .Positive feedback is seen as a social approval

Many studies define intrinsically motivated behaviors as any behaviors that individuals are engaged in for the activity’s own sake. People perform these actions for the pleasure and satisfaction derived from the results. When intrinsically motivated, people engage in activities that interest them, and they do so freely, with a full sense of volition and without the necessity of material rewards or constraints (Deco & Ryan, 1985).  For example, a basic researcher is intrinsically motivated because they are engaged in research for knowledge’s sake. Moreover, the child who reads a book for the inherent pleasure of doing so is intrinsically motivated for that activity. Intrinsically motivated behaviors represent the prototype of self-determination. (Deci & Ryan, 1985).  In order to understand the power of intrinsic motivation to start social movements, or fight injustice and social inequalities in organizations,   people must learn the skills of self-advocacy to be heard.  As a result, intrinsic motivation allows for self-advocacy to exist because people need internal forces such as religion, internalized social norms, interests, and hobbies to initiate the need for self-advocacy. The more motivated individuals are, the more they feel the desire to advocate for themselves in their work behaviors. This makes them more productive and more likely to achieve self-advocacy or their goals in life.  An important theory of motivation is self-determination that leads to self-advocacy 

Many people do not realize the power of self-advocacy until they find themselves in a situation where the skills are necessary. When people are able to articulate their ideas in a formal setting they are better equipped to advocate for justice. People need to advocate for a good work environment.  Individuals must not be afraid to stand up for what they believe in otherwise they will not be able to advocate so they can convey their message in a positive way that does not create problems in the workplace preventing will not accomplish their goal or get anything done.   People must learn the skills of self-advocacy to be heard and taken seriously. Learning self-advocacy skills also develops self-determination skills, which could foster increased personal satisfaction and happiness. All students must learn through opportunities and experience the importance of intrinsic motivation and self-advocacy as tools to use to their advantage in a work environment or life situation. Intrinsic motivation and self-advocacy can be used as a method of developing your voice so you can interact with others and be a successful individual in society.

Based on my research, self-advocacy is one form of communicating your message to other people in a way that represents what you stand for. This process occurs any time people speak or act on their own behalf to improve their quality of life, effect personal change, or correct inequalities (Concunan-Lahr and Brotherson,1999). Many studies define self-advocacy in different ways. For example, according to Strodden (2005), Self-advocacy is referred to as the ability to articulate one’s needs and make informed decisions about the supports necessary to meet those needs (Test et al, 2005).  Therefore, psychologists establish how powerful the relationship between intrinsic motivation and self-advocacy truly is.

Based on a study by Deci and Ryan (2000b) there is a positive relationship between intrinsic motivation and self-advocacy. This means that individuals with high intrinsic motivation are more likely to engage in work behaviors that lead to self-advocacy than people who do not have intrinsic motivation. Individuals need to be intrinsically motivated in order to focus on an issue since people advocate about something that has personal meaning and value attached to it, something they care about. People educate themselves about issues just to be more informed, and not to get any personal gain. Once a person educates himself or herself on an issue, they might then seek out others that are being affected, and try to develop a strategy for improving the service for others. Self-Advocates use many ideas to capture the attention of officials or other powers through standing up for what they believe in rather than leaving things as they are. There is no right or wrong way to organize others, but the most important thing is how the group comes to the decision together. The power is in the group working together to make a difference in people’s lives. Everyone has the ability to advocate, they just need the intrinsic motivation it takes to rid themselves of the fear of standing up for what they believe in. 

Method:

Participants:

 There are four hundred participants in this study; a sample of 200 high school students and 200 college students were recruited during the spring of 2017. All participants were from a diverse college population. The college participants were in different class standings. For example, there were freshman, sophomore, juniors, and seniors. The participants were international students from all over the world. The majority of participants were African American. The African American participants made up 50% of the population. In addition, 20% of the participants were white, 20 % were Latino and 10% of participants were of other descent. Freshmen and sophomores only accounted for 5% each of the sample. Juniors were represented by 60%.  Lastly, seniors were signified by 25% of the sample, and graduates students were 5% of the sample.

Measures:

The instruments used in this study were a combination of the instruments used in other survey research and items created by Ryan, & Reis, (1996). They developed the Self-Determination Scale (SDS).  Participants indicate the degree to which statement A feels true, relative to the degree that Statement B feels true, on the 5-point scale shown after each pair statements.   Each question has a 1 to 5 response, a one and two response to a question means that participants answer to the question relates to statement A.  IF participants have an answer of four or five then their answer corresponds with statement B. If statement A feels completely true and statement B feels completely untrue, the appropriate response would be one. If the two statements are equally true, the appropriate response would be a 3. For example, a sample question would be a. 1. A. I always feel like I choose the things I do.  I sometimes feel that it’s not really me choosing the things I do. The participants have a 1 to 5 response. SDS is an instrument that shows the motivation of an individual and their level of self-advocacy. It also is able to show where motivation originates; showing whether or not it is intrinsically or extrinsically driven.  This instrument helps to measure intrinsic motivation and level of self-advocacy.

The participants were also given a pen and paper survey on self-advocacy and self-determination’s influence on them. R, J. Miller, C. Lombard, and S, A. Corbey (2007), developed the self-advocacy questionnaire.  The questionnaire is from the Transition Assessment: Planning Transition and IEP Development for Youth with Mild Disabilities; the questionnaire has four sections. Each question has a six-point Likert scale response where one means not at and all, six means all the time. Two-sample question are:

1. I can list and discuss the academic accommodations I need to be successful in high school.

 1 2 3 4 5 6

2. I can list and discuss the support services I need on the job in order to be successful.

 1 2 3 4 5 6

The Self-Advocacy Skills Questionnaire shows how well a person knows himself or herself and shows how they feel they are perceived by society. The questionnaire is also able to show a person’s strengths and insecurities.  The instrument is used to measure self-advocacy. The participants were asked to fill out a Self-Determination Scale and Self-Advocacy Questionnaire. The participants were surveyed over the semester for three months

The Self-Determination Scale and Self-Advocacy Questionnaire both have a high reliability of eight and validity they are used in many studies.  

Analysis Strategy: 

When analyzing the SDS and the Self-Determination and Self-Advocacy Skills Questionnaire, the completed survey’s data was entered and statistically analyzed using the SPS program. The SPS program would be used because of its ability to do numerical analysis because the questions are results are also numerical. A second strategy to analyze results is to use Pearson correlation. This will help to show both positive and negative correlations surrounding intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.  Since this study is a survey design, the data is analyzed through correlations and regressions.

Results

There are three hypotheses that were proposed in this study. The first hypothesis is intrinsic motivation in the workplace has a positive relationship on self-advocacy. The second hypothesis is that intrinsic motivation leads to instinctual optimism. The third hypothesis is self-advocacy has a positive relationship on team cohesion. The hypothesis that intrinsic motivation in the workplace has a positive relationship on self-advocacy is expected to true the research shows that women who do not advocate for themselves have a negative perception of their image.  My research shows that most women do not advocate because they feel as if they do not deserve the same rights as other people. This is known as the entitlement theory. In addition, because women are not seen the same way as men, when women ask for a raise they are viewed negatively as opposed to men. Therefore, when women ask for more money, employers have the impression of “why is this woman even asking for a raise she does not work hard or deserve it” so employers will not even consider it.  Whereas, when men ask for it, they will automatically be considered with no backlash because they are men.  On the other hand, because she is a woman, there is a lot of backlash and a double standard.  As a result, women are afraid to speak up for themselves.  My research supports the fact that intrinsically motivated people participate in more self-advocacy. A Pearson correlation test was conducted to relate the intrinsic motivation to self-advocacy. The result was found to be statistically significant. This suggests that there is a positive correlation between them.

     

Discussion: 

This study intends to expand upon the results of many precedent studies. The proposed study looked at the issue of intrinsic motivation’s positive relationship to self-advocacy. Many people do not become conscious the power of self-advocacy until they come across bad circumstances where the skills are crucial. When people are able to communicate their ideas coherently in a formal setting they are better prepared to advocate for justice. People need to advocate so they convey their message in a positive way that does not create problems in the work environment.  Individuals must not be afraid to stand up for what they believe in; otherwise, they will not accomplish their goals or get anything done.  People must discover and unitize the skills of self-advocacy to Make a difference and be taken seriously. Learning self-advocacy skills also develops self-determination skills, which could foster increased personal satisfaction and happiness. All students must learn through opportunities and experiences the importance of intrinsic motivation and self-advocacy as tools to use to their advantage in a work environment or life situations. People need to rid themselves of the fear of standing up for what they believe in. Self-determination theory does not simply happen automatically. While people might be oriented toward such growth, it requires continual sustenance. According to a study by Deci and Ryan, (2000), a social support is a key because, through our relationships and interactions with others, we can either foster or thwart well-being and personal growth.  Deci and Ryan, (2000), also suggest that offering unexpected positive encouragement and feedback on a person's performance on a task can increase intrinsic motivation. Why? Because such feedback helps people to feel more competent, one of the key needs for personal growth.

My research showed that there is a positive correlation between self-advocacy and motivation. this study emphasizes the power of intrinsic motivation on self-advocacy by highlighting the fact that if people have a  high Internalization they are intrinsically motivated then individuals are more likely to engage in self-advocacy to positively convey their ideas and perspectives. Based on my research findings, one of the positive effects of having a strong sense of self-advocacy is having high self-esteem and confidence to communicate and articulate your beliefs to other people.  This study is very important because (as mentioned earlier) it is pertinent for psychologists to understand what motivates different people to achieve their goals and dreams. since people work in different ways, psychologists need to study motivation to understand what motivates different people.

A limitation of this study is the small sample. A study needs a large sample size to produce accurate and reliable results.  Another limitation of this study is the fact that all of the participants were only limited to women students from Hofstra University.  This means that the results cannot be generalized from the entire population; this study needed a larger sample of women from many different universities to generalize the results. The results of this would have been very different; they might have significant results if a sample of 2000 people from five different universities, and five high schools were asked to complete a survey on for the questions on self-determination scale and the self-advocacy skills. Participants need to be from a diverse population females. In future studies, the same experiment should be conducted with a larger sample. If a sample of people from five different universities a sample of 2000 people from five different universities and five high schools were asked to. Self-determination scale and the self-advocacy skills the results would be generalizing to the population. Participants need to be all females. The results of this would have been very different and they might have significant valid and reliable results in that experiment. 

     

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