Internal Motivation among Doctoral Students: Contributions from the Student and from the Student’s Environment

Aim/Purpose: The present quantitative, cross-sectional study aimed to investigate objective and subjective factors in the self-determination of doctoral students in their educational activities. Objective determinants included major discipline and forms of academic and scholarly activity (that is, attending classes and writing papers), and subjective determinants included personal characteristics of the doctoral students, including dispositional autonomy and perceptions of environmental supports for students’ basic psychological needs. Background: The quality of students’ motivation for learning has been linked with many different outcomes. Specifically, students who are more internally motivated (that is, who engage in learning activities for reasons that are personally important and freely chosen) demonstrate better performance outcomes and are more likely to choose and to persist in challenging tasks, to enjoy learning, to exhibit greater creativity, and in general to experience greater psychological well-being. Important questions remain, however, regarding the sources that affect student motivation, in particular at the level of graduate school. The present study expands on existing research by exploring contributions to students’ motivation both from the students, themselves, and from supports stemming from two interpersonal contexts: close relationships and the university environment. Methodology: Participating in the study were 112 doctoral students from various natural sciences departments of a major university in the Volga region of Russia. Self-report measures included dispositional autonomy, motivation for various types of academic and scholarly activity, and satisfaction of basic needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness in various interpersonal contexts. Analyses included descriptive statistics, comparison of mean differences, correlation, and structural equation modeling. Contribution: The present study goes beyond existing research by considering both dispositional and situational factors that influence the motivation of doctoral students for their scholarly and academic activities, and by comparing the impact on motivation of close personal relationships with that of various interpersonal contexts in the university setting. Findings: Doctoral students reported greater supports for their basic needs (for competence, autonomy, and relatedness) from their close personal relationships than in their university contexts. Students felt less