What I've seen again and again in my thirty-plus years as a psychotherapist, and seminar leader, is that being too externally focused often lies at the heart of our stress and emotional struggles. Many of us have achieved the things that society deems successful, yet feel unfulfilled and anxious because we define ourselves, and our worth, according to what we do, rather than who we are. We equate our self-worth with accomplishments, conforming to societal norms, peer acceptance and family expectations. When we are estranged from our Intrinsic Self, we overlook our own needs, and instead attend to the needs of others, often accommodating them to "fit in" and maintain harmony. Our need for external validation and the feeling that we are never "enough" creates stress and keeps us stuck in repeated self-destructive patterns. The Intrinsic Self can help you break free from the external trap by teaching you to challenge outdated survival strategies that create a need to see yourself, and be seen by others, as competent or helpful in order to feel adequate and emotionally secure. Much more than simply increasing self-esteem, you will learn how addressing the specific ways you define your value and identity is key to creating a richer, more fulfilling life.

As I begin to write this Preface, I feel a rush of excitement. I have now finished the book; my gestalt is coming into completion. Throughout the months that I have been writing this, I have, indeed, been intrinsically motivated. Now that it is finished I feel quite competent and self-determining (see Chapter 2). Whether or not those who read the book will perceive me that way is also a concern of mine (an extrinsic one), but it is a wholly separate issue from the intrinsic rewards I have been experiencing. This book presents a theoretical perspective. It reviews an enormous amount of research which establishes unequivocally that intrinsic motivation exists. Also considered herein are various approaches to the conceptualizing of intrinsic motivation. The book concentrates on the approach which has developed out of the work of Robert White (1959), namely, that intrinsically motivated behaviors are ones which a person engages in so that he may feel competent and self-determining in relation to his environment. The book then considers the development of intrinsic motiva tion, how behaviors are motivated intrinsically, how they relate to and how intrinsic motivation is extrinsically motivated behaviors, affected by extrinsic rewards and controls. It also considers how changes in intrinsic motivation relate to changes in attitudes, how people attribute motivation to each other, how the attribution process is motivated, and how the process of perceiving motivation (and other internal states) in oneself relates to perceiving them in others.

A leading group of experts in motivation provide a resource for advancing research and application. It contains the essentials of self-determination theory and an overview of research in motivation in a physical activity context.

In understanding human behavior, psychologists have long been interested in what motivates specific actions. Debates have pitted extrinsic motivators (e.g. rewards/punishment) against intrinsic motivation in attempting to determine what best motivates individuals. This book provides a summary view of what research has determined about both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, and clarifies what questions remain unanswered. Divided into three sections, section I revisits the debate about the effects of extrinsic incentives or constraints on intrinsic motivation and creativity, and identifies theoretical advances in motivational research. Section II focuses on the hidden costs and benefits of different types of achievement goals on motivation and performance. Section III discusses theory and research findings on how extrinsic and intrinsic motivators may work in everyday life and over time. This book is of interest to researchers in psychology, education, and business, as well as to a wider audience interested in promoting optimal motivation and performance.Coverage in this book includes:* Debates and controversies in motivational research* Developmental nature of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation over time* Influences of parents, educators, and employers in facilitating motivation* Effect of achievement goals on learning and performance* The role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in self-regulationKey Features* Brings together major figures in the fields of motivation, education, and social psychology* Provides a mix of theory, basic and applied research* Presents research conducted both in laboratories and educational settings* Comprehensive chapters provide excellent reviews of previous literature as well as outlines important new directions* Provides different perspectives on controversial debates in a balanced, constructive manner

What motivates us as students, employees, and individuals? If you reward your children for doing their homework, they will usually respond by getting it done. But is this the most effective method of motivation? No, says psychologist Edward L. Deci, who challenges traditional thinking and shows that this method actually works against performance. The best way to motivate people—at school, at work, or at home—is to support their sense of autonomy. Explaining the reasons why a task is important and then allowing as much personal freedom as possible in carrying out the task will stimulate interest and commitment, and is a much more effective approach than the standard system of reward and punishment. We are all inherently interested in the world, argues Deci, so why not nurture that interest in each other? Instead of asking, "How can I motivate people?" we should be asking, "How can I create the conditions within which people will motivate themselves?" "An insightful and provocative meditation on how people can become more genuinely engaged and succesful in pursuing their goals." —Publisher's Weekly

Recent Work on Intrinsic Value brings together for the first time many of the most important and influential writings on the topic of intrinsic value to have appeared in the last half-century. During this period, inquiry into the nature of intrinsic value has intensified to such an extent that at the moment it is one of the hottest topics in the field of theoretical ethics. The contributions to this volume have been selected in such a way that all of the fundamental questions concerning the nature of intrinsic value are treated in depth and from a variety of viewpoints. These questions include how to understand the concept of intrinsic value, what sorts of things can have intrinsic value, and how to compute intrinsic value. The editors have added an introduction that ties these questions together and places the contributions in context, and they have also provided an extensive bibliography. The result is a comprehensive, balanced, and detailed picture of current thinking about intrinsic value, one that provides an indispensable backdrop against which future writings on the topic may be assessed.

This set of lectures, which had its origin in a mini course delivered at the Summer Program of IMPA (Rio de Janeiro), is an introduction to intrinsic scaling, a powerful method in the analysis of degenerate and singular PDEs.In the first part, the theory is presented from scratch for the model case of the degenerate p-Laplace equation. The second part deals with three applications of the theory to relevant models arising from flows in porous media and phase transitions.

Concrete is the second most used building material in the world after water. The problem is that over time the material becomes weaker. As a response, researchers and designers are developing self-sensing concrete which not only increases longevity but also the strength of the material. Self-Sensing Concrete in Smart Structures provides researchers and designers with a guide to the composition, sensing mechanism, measurement, and sensing properties of self-healing concrete along with their structural applications - Provides a systematic discussion of the structure of intrinsic self-sensing concrete - Compositions of intrinsic self-sensing concrete and processing of intrinsic self-sensing concrete - Explains the sensing mechanism, measurement, and sensing properties of intrinsic self-sensing concrete

This book represents the most comprehensive account to date of an important but widely contested approach to ethics--intuitionism, the view that there is a plurality of moral principles, each of which we can know directly. Robert Audi casts intuitionism in a form that provides a major alternative to the more familiar ethical perspectives (utilitarian, Kantian, and Aristotelian). He introduces intuitionism in its historical context and clarifies--and improves and defends--W. D. Ross's influential formulation. Bringing Ross out from under the shadow of G. E. Moore, he puts a reconstructed version of Rossian intuitionism on the map as a full-scale, plausible contemporary theory. A major contribution of the book is its integration of Rossian intuitionism with Kantian ethics; this yields a view with advantages over other intuitionist theories (including Ross's) and over Kantian ethics taken alone. Audi proceeds to anchor Kantian intuitionism in a pluralistic theory of value, leading to an account of the perennially debated relation between the right and the good. Finally, he sets out the standards of conduct the theory affirms and shows how the theory can help guide concrete moral judgment. The Good in the Right is a self-contained original contribution, but readers interested in ethics or its history will find numerous connections with classical and contemporary literature. Written with clarity and concreteness, and with examples for every major point, it provides an ethical theory that is both intellectually cogent and plausible in application to moral problems.

The New York Times bestseller that gives readers a paradigm-shattering new way to think about motivation from the author of When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That's a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others). In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction-at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world. Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does—and how that affects every aspect of life. He examines the three elements of true motivation—autonomy, mastery, and purpose-and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into action in a unique book that will change how we think and transform how we live.