Autonomy in Positive Psychology: Benefits and Applications

Autonomy in positive psychology empowers individuals to achieve optimal mental well-being through self-directed growth, intrinsic motivation, and personal goal achievement, with research showing it serves as a fundamental psychological need for developing resilience, authentic self-expression, and lasting emotional health.

Ever feel like life is happening to you rather than for you? Understanding autonomy in positive psychology could be your key to reclaiming control and unlocking your full potential. Discover how this powerful psychological need shapes your motivation, personal growth, and ability to create a life that truly feels like your own.

Autonomy And Positive Psychology: Uses And Benefits

Positive psychology

According to the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, positive psychology is the scientific study of strengths that enable the flourishing of individuals and communities. This school of thought is founded on the understanding that people have a desire to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives through which they cultivate the best within themselves while enhancing their life experiences of love, work, and play.

Martin E.P. Seligman, Ph.D. (considered the father of positive psychology) and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi stated in their article “Positive Psychology: An Introduction” that psychiatry and psychology’s exclusive focus on pathology and a disease-model of human functioning has dominated the field so much that it resulted in “a model of the human being without any features that make life worth living, such as hope, wisdom, creativity, future mindedness, courage, spirituality, responsibility, and perseverance.”

Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi suggest that psychology should help determine the types of family dynamics that help children flourish and the type of work environments that support and satisfy individuals. They propose that psychology should investigate policies that ensure strong civic engagement and document how people can live their most fulfilling lives.

Yet, the authors state that psychologists have limited knowledge of what makes life worth living. “They have come to understand quite a bit about how people survive and endure under conditions of adversity. However, they know little about how normal people flourish under more benign conditions.” According to Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, one aim of positive psychology is to be an agent of change in the focus of psychology.

Positive psychologists aim to treat mental health conditions and build resilience and personal fulfillment in people by helping them discover their unique talents and strengths. A person without autonomy may struggle to explore their identity and strengths, being influenced by internal and external restrictions.

Self-determination theory

Positive psychology is associated with the self-determination theory, formulated in the 1970s by researchers Edward L. Deci and Richard M. Ryan. This theory challenged the dominant psychological dogma at the time that the best way to get people to perform tasks was based on rewards to reinforce behaviors.

In contrast, self-determination theory suggests that human motivation, personality, and optimal functioning arise out of three human psychological needs called universal necessities. These needs are as follows:

• A need for Competence: This need explores the human desire to control one’s environment effectively while understanding the outcomes.
• A need for Relatedness or Belonging: Relatedness refers to the human desire to connect with, relate to, and care for others. Social interactions that reinforce an individual’s place within a group can satisfy the need to belong.
• A need for autonomy: Deci and Ryan view autonomy as more than the lack of dependence on others. To them, autonomy refers to the vital human need for a sense of free will when acting in one’s interest. Autonomy allows an individual to control the course of their own life, meet their own needs, and pursue personal goals.

Self-determination theory and motivation

Self-determination theory investigates the role of motivation in human experience and happiness, in which autonomy plays a prominent role. Motivation is the energy for action or that which moves people to act. Deci and Ryan distinguish between two types of personal motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic.

Intrinsic motivation

Deci and Ryan define intrinsic motivation as the “doing of an activity for its inherent satisfaction rather than for separable consequences.” One example of intrinsic motivation is a client engaging in telehealth therapy through ReachLink because they genuinely value the process of self-discovery and personal growth. They participate actively in sessions not just to resolve symptoms but because they find the therapeutic journey itself rewarding and enlightening. Research suggests that there is a close connection between intrinsic motivation and positive emotions like optimism, enthusiasm, and calmness.

Extrinsic motivation

Extrinsic motivation is “a construct that pertains whenever an activity is done to attain a separable outcome.” An illustration of extrinsic motivation could be an example of two individuals who engage in ReachLink’s mental health services regularly. One person attends therapy sessions to comply with a workplace requirement or family pressure, while the other participates because they genuinely value the process of self-improvement.

For the first person, the motivator is extrinsic – they’re participating to satisfy external demands or avoid negative consequences. For the second person, the motivator is more intrinsic, as they engage in therapy not just for symptom relief but for the inherent value they find in the process of personal growth and self-understanding.

Autonomous motivation

A person who acts out of volition because they endorse a behavior and have internalized the value of their behavior, is acting from autonomous motivation. They can perceive the intrinsic value of their activities and gain self-advocacy and self-support through their behavior and actions.

According to the Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences (Springer International Publishing, 2016), autonomy represents a “critical psychological need. It denotes the experience of volition and self-direction in thought, feeling, and action. It refers to the perception of being self-governed rather than controlled by external forces.”

Autonomy is considered a vital part of human life—one that typically develops from early childhood experiences in an individual’s home and social environment. Children given greater autonomy are thought to experience more self-reliance later in life. During adolescence, as young people start to better understand their personality traits and goals, autonomy can be strengthened or weakened by various social, environmental, and biological factors.

Controlled motivation

Controlled motivation is the opposite of autonomous motivation. For example, it may be explained with terms like pressure, obligation, and coercion. It can be said that controlled motivation means that external forces, factors, and motivators control a person’s actions.

History of positive psychology

Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi state through their research that psychology, in general, had three goals before World War II, including the following:

• To cure mental illness
• To make the lives of people more fulfilling and productive
• To identify and foster supreme talent

The principles of positive psychology in the literature of the day were still relatively scarce. They were traceable, however, in the work of Terman et al. on marital happiness and giftedness, Watson’s commentary on healthy parenting, and Jung’s work on the search for and discovery of the meaning of life for individuals.

A shift in focus

After World War II, two economic events changed the face of psychology in America, according to the authors. With the founding of the Veterans Administration in 1946, the opportunity for thousands of psychologists to earn a living through treating mental illness became viable. A year later, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) was born, and it became possible for academics to get grants for research in pathology. These events brought about major shifts in focus, including the following:

1. Enhanced psychological understanding: Enhanced understanding of psychology was a positive consequence of the funded studies conducted after NIMH’s development. It resulted in the scientific understanding of, and the ability to relieve symptoms of, around 14 mental illnesses.
2. Improvements for individual living: The two other pre-war goals of psychological study and treatment were forgotten. This change resulted in a shift in how psychologists came to view their place in society, with their empirical focus on assessing and treating individual symptoms.

A Return to Flourishing

Recognizing this narrow focus on pathology, positive psychology calls for a necessary return to the broader goals of the pre-war era—improving individual well-being and helping people lead fulfilling, meaningful lives. By incorporating the principles of autonomy and intrinsic motivation through self-determination theory, positive psychology broadens the scope of psychological research and practice beyond merely treating illness to promoting human flourishing.

Autonomy emerges as a foundational pillar, empowering individuals to take ownership of their lives, embrace their strengths, and pursue goals aligned with their authentic selves. This empowerment not only enhances personal fulfillment but also contributes to healthier relationships, more resilient communities, and greater societal well-being.

In summary, the integration of autonomy within positive psychology represents a transformative shift from viewing people as passive recipients of treatment to recognizing them as active agents of their own growth and happiness. This shift promises a more holistic understanding of human nature—one that values not just survival, but thriving in all dimensions of life. As psychological science continues to evolve, fostering autonomy will remain essential to unlocking the full potential of individuals and communities alike.