Feelings of Autonomy Within Developmental Stages as Moderated by Gender

A Paper in Advanced Research

As one grows older, his need and well being are generally met. Being a given, because of a wide age gap, parents reported more feelings of autonomy than their children. This is backed up by researches that there is indeed change in the psychological wellbeing of adolescents as they advance into adulthood (Fleming, 2005). But what about the feelings of autonomy in adolescents and young adults particularly highschool students, college students, and single young adults? Perhaps there is a change in the psychological wellbeing between this stages in life. The Self- Determination Theory discusses the essentials for well being and is used as the core theory for this research.

Self Determination Theory defines intrinsic and varied extrinsic sources of motivation and describes the roles that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in cognitive and social development and in individual differences (www.selfdeterminationtheory.org).Needs specify innate psychological nutriments that are essential for ongoing psychological growth, integrity, and well-being. (Deci & Ryan, 2000). According to SDT, well-being and healthy personality development depend on the fulfillment of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, relatedness, and competence. (Meyer, 2007). ). During adolescence autonomy development typically accelerates because of rapid physical and cognitive changes, expanding social relationships, and additional rights and responsibilities.

Like competence and relatedness, feelings of autonomy is essential for the optimal functioning in a big range of varied cultures. For this paper, the researcher will focus on autonomy. Autonomous motivation according to Deci and Ryan (2008) comprises both

intrinsic motivation and the types of extrinsic motivation in which people have identified with an activitys value and ideally will have integrated into their own sense of self. Thus when a person is autonomously motivated, he experiences volition or selfendorsement of his actions, compared to controlled motivation. When people are autonomously motivated, they tend to perform better and are more effective. (Deci & Ryan, 2008). Further research in autonomy has divided it into 3 constructs: cognitive autonomy, emotional autonomy, and behavioral autonomy. Behavioral autonomy is the capacity to act for ones self . Emotional autonomy is the ability to feel for ones self. Cognitive autonomy involves ones ability to think for ones self (Beckert, 2005).

Psychological autonomy is a crucial individual difference and developmental achievement, according to self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985, 1991, 2000). According to Sheldon, Autonomy seems a worthy construct to employ in order to assess the maturity and quality of personality functioning. (Sheldon,2006) . Autonomy is concerned with the experience of integration and freedom, and is essential in the function of a healthy human being. Compared to the controlled motivation, the autonomy orientation has been positively related to psychological health and effective behavioral outcomes. (Deci & Ryan, 2000).

Theories in developmental psychology has addressed autonomy as an important issue in the development of a person. Erikson (1968) believed the primary psychosocial task of adolescence is the identity formation and thus this developmental conflict Identity versus role confusion. The factors that contribute to ones identity are cognitive skills

and physical abilities as well as increased independence and autonomy that lead to greater interactions. (Kroger, 2004)

Another theory in developmental psychology is Loevingers stage of ego-development. At the seventh stage, the individualistic stage, the individual shows a broad-minded tolerance of and respect for the autonomy of both the self and others. The high sense of individuality and self-understanding can lead to vivid and unique ways of expressing the self as well as to the awareness of inner conflicts and personal paradoxes. At stage eight, the autonomous stage, there is increasing respect for ones own and others autonomy. The autonomous ego values individuality and uniqueness and selfactualization. (Loevinger, 1979. Manners, 2001)

In Carl Rogers humanistic theory, he maintains that humans have an underlying actualizing tendency that aims to develop all capacities in way that these capacities maintain or enhance oneself and move toward autonomy. The concept of actualizing tendency is the only motivation force in his theory that encompasses all motivations like tension, need, drive reductions, creative, and pleasure seeking tendency. The mandate is for each person, thus, to fulfill his potential.

Im a study done by Sheldon (2004), he found that college students move towards healthier values over the college years and that graduating seniors shifted away from extrinsic values and shifted toward intrinsic values. Since a change in values in college is evident, this study would like to see if this is also evident as early as highschool and

the college setting in the Philippines as well as the single young adults since previous studies dealt with college students in the United States who are in a different age group as the students in the Philippines. Also, in previous studies by Sheldon and Kasser (2001), Ryff (1995) and others , it was found out that older participants (parents) reported more goal autonomy compared to younger participants (teenagers).So this study will focus on the feelings of autonomy in adolescents and young adults. According to Beckert (2005) During adolescence autonomy development typically accelerates because of rapid physical and cognitive changes, expanding social relationships, and additional rights and responsibilities. Now that difference in feelings of autonomy in a wider age gap is evident, this study would like to find out if there is a difference in the feelings of autonomy between a more narrow age gap which are highschool students, college students, and single young adults and if gender is

Chapter II Method

Participants The participants in this study were 204 male and female high school students, college students, and single young adults from Cagayan de Oro City. The participants age will range from approximately 13-25 years old. Measures Developmental Stages. The Independent Variable is the Developmental Stages of the Filipinos. The The Grouping Variables under the Independent Variable are Highschool students, College Students, and Single Young Adults. Autonomy According to the Self Determination theory, autonomy is one of the three determinants for well being. Autonomy is concerned with the experience of integration and freedom and has three constructs, behavioral, emotional, and cognitive autonomy. Procedure The research will ask random students and young adults if they are willing to participate in a survey paper composed of an informed consent form, and an autonomy questionnaire. The survey paper will ask for the participants year in highschool or college, year of graduation, and current job, as well as the participants age and gender. After thorough checking, the data will be analyzed and interpreted. Data Analysis To determine if the feelings of autonomy of an individual increases over the growth development from high school to single young adulthood, Factorail ANOVA will be used.

CHAPTER III RESULTS Feelings of autonomy is assumed to increase with age. Since the evidence is proven between younger and older participnts, the study seeked to know if there is a difference in the feelings of autonomy within the younger participants namely highschool students, college students, and single young adults, and if this feelings of autonomy is moderated by ones gender. Prior to the main analysis of the data, the participants ages, group development, and gender were categorized in order to create categorical grouping variables. Those who were in highschool were placed in one group, as well as those who were in college, and those who were single young adults. The division of the variables are similar to the Philippines grouping of the human stages of development. The data was normally distributed. The descriptive statistics in the study was calculated as indicated in Table 1.

As shown in table 1 To determine the if there is a significant difference between the stages of development, a Post-Hoc Analysis (Scheffe) was used and shown in Table 2. As shown in Table 2, the highschool had a significant difference between the college students in their feelings of autonomy. And the higschool also had a significant difference between highschool students and college students and their feelings of autonomy. There is a difference between college students and single young adults in their feelings of autonomy but this difference is not significant. The only significant

difference is between the highschool students and college students, and highschool students and single young adults. The researchers used Factorial Analysis of Variance in order to determine if gender had moderating effects to the feelings of autonomy within the stages of group development. Results are shown in Table 3 It is shown in Table 3 that gender has no direct effect on the feelings of autonomy and between stages of development. As Shown in figure 1,