Satisfaction of needs in competence and autonomy as a condition of intrinsic motivation of postgraduate students' scientific activity

On the 2nd of October in the Laboratory the postgraduate seminar was held, where the 1st year postgraduate student of the Postgraduate School of Psychology Marchuk Larisa made a presentation "Satisfaction of needs for competence and autonomy as a condition of intrinsic motivation of scientific activity of postgraduate students"

The number of postgraduate students has been declining over the last decade, and the effectiveness of postgraduate education remains low. The psychological health and well-being of postgraduate students is significantly below the population average, so much of the research has focused on the psychological aspects of the postgraduate experience. Russian studies use a predominantly sociological approach to data collection and study mainly external factors. Motivation is among the most important internal or psychological factors and acts as a means of predicting the effectiveness and efficiency of various activities. In some of its forms it is a predictor of achievement, persistence, while other forms of it may predict dropout or "academic suicide". Existing research conducted within the framework of self-determination theory shows that the satisfaction of postgraduate students' basic psychological needs for autonomy and competence and their support by the academic community and, above all, by the academic supervisor, are sources of autonomous motivation, which, in turn, is an important factor in the well-being and success of postgraduate students. This study attempts to examine, on the basis of self-determination theory, the contribution of motivational psychological factors such as support and satisfaction of basic psychological needs, types of motivation to postgraduate students' satisfaction with learning and their intention to drop out of postgraduate studies. The different contribution of each basic need to the studied dependent variables is discussed.
Research supervisor - Tamara Olegovna Gordeeva, Professor, Leading research fellow of the International Laboratory of Positive Psychology of Personality and Motivation, HSE University.