Personal Expressiveness, Hedonic Enjoyment, Intrinsic Motivation, and Life Satisfaction in University Students

Date
2011-04-02
Authors
Mise, Taysa-Rhea
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Publisher
University of Regina Graduate Students' Association
Abstract

The purpose of the current study is to relate intrinsic motivation, personal expressiveness, hedonic enjoyment, and life satisfaction as experienced by university students. Personally expressive activities enhance one’s personal growth or development. Waterman (2005, 2008) has equated personal expressiveness with intrinsic motivation, a central focus of Deci and Ryan’s (1985) Self-Determination Theory. Satisfaction with life, a component of subjective well-being, has been shown to be highly associated with personal expressiveness and much less related to hedonic enjoyment. These variables will be looked at in terms of how they relate to students’ academic and social activities. The hypotheses of the current study are: students who attend school to pursue a passion will have stronger levels of personal expressiveness; participants scoring higher on personal expressiveness will spend more time working on homework and attend a greater portion of their classes; most participants will score higher on personal expressiveness and hedonic enjoyment for a chosen activity versus an assigned one; individuals scoring higher in personal expressiveness and hedonic enjoyment will also score higher in intrinsic motivation; and participants who have high scores in both personal expressiveness and hedonic enjoyment will also have higher satisfaction with life. The study will contribute to knowledge on personal expressiveness and will also have an impact on the design of educational programs and courses at the post-secondary level. This study is currently in progress and hypotheses are expected to be confirmed once data collection and analysis is completed.

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Keywords
Personal expressiveness, Hedonic enjoyment, Intrinsic motivation, Life satisfaction
Citation