Questão 1810128

GIVE PEOPLE AUTONOMY

Giving people control over what they are doing makes them work harder.

by Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D. in Brain Wise

In a previous blog post I wrote that one of the best

ways to motivate people is to stimulate a desire for

mastery – and that breaking things into small pieces

and showing progress through the pieces encourages

5 the desire for mastery. Another tip for stimulating the

desire for mastery is to give people autonomy. When

people feel that they have some control over what

they are doing and how they do it, then their desire

for mastery increases. They will then be motivated to

10 continue and keep learning. If people feel that they

don’t have any control or autonomy, then they lose the

desire to learn and do more – they may lose the desire

to master whatever task you are asking them to do.

Here’s an example: Let’s say that you have created

15 a language learning app. The desire for mastery will

be automatically in play if the person wants to learn

a language. However, if you want people to continue

using the app, and use it frequently and often, then you

have to do more than just present lessons in the app.

20 One way to further stimulate the desire for mastery,

is to give them some control over how they use the

app. You can provide different types of exercises and

interactions, such as listening, writing, or speaking the

language, and let them choose which exercises and

25 activities they need or want, and in what order to do

them. If they feel they have control over how quickly

they go through the lessons, which ones they repeat,

which activities to engage in, and in what order, then

they will be more motivated to keep learning. What do

30 you think? Have you tried giving autonomy to keep

people motivated?

Available at: <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ brain-wise/201310/give-people-autonomy>. Retrieved on: Oct. 15^th 2013. Adapted

The main idea defended by the author in the text is that