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After decades of behaviorism, self-determination theory offered a new model of what a human being is.

Human motivation is not a black box; we are active agents striving for autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Research shows that autonomy, competence, and relatedness are foundational human needs, all over the world.

Psychologist Edward L. Deci died on Feb. 14, 2026. He was 83. His loss is humanity’s loss. His life was humanity’s great gain.

If you ever felt your motivation drain away under a micromanaging boss, he gave you the language for what was happening to you. If you ever sensed that grades and gold stars were somehow diminishing the very learning they were supposed to enhance, he explained why.

And in doing so, he helped liberate psychology from one of its most limiting assumptions.

The Black Box of Behaviorism

For much of the 20th century, the dominant paradigm in psychological research, behaviorism, treated humans as input-output machines. Organisms did things because of rewards and punishments. The inner life of wanting, wondering, striving, and caring was called the “black box.” Scientifically irrelevant and not to be opened.

There were cracks in this box before Deci. In 1950, Harry Harlow reported that rhesus monkeys learned to solve mechanical puzzles on their own, and introducing food rewards actually decreased spontaneous exploration.

In the behaviorist framework, this was unexpected—adding rewards should add motivation.

The monkeys, inconveniently, disagreed.

But Harlow moved on to attachment experiments, and the idea of intrinsic motivation largely went dormant.

Studying Intrinsic Motivation

In 1971, Edward Deci published a study that challenged motivation science. College students spent three sessions working on the SOMA cube, a spatial puzzle that can be assembled into various shapes. During the second session, some students were paid for each puzzle they solved, while others were not. The real test came in the third, “free‑choice” session, when participants believed they were unobserved. How much time would they voluntarily spend on puzzles?

The answer was striking. Students who had been paid spent less time playing with the puzzles than those who had not been paid. The monetary reward (unlike positive feedback) seemed to dampen the interest.

That was a major crack in the black box of behavioristic assumptions.

From a Crack to a Cathedral

What Deci built from that crack, in collaboration with his longtime co-author Richard M. Ryan, became one of the most influential and empirically robust bodies of work in psychology.

Self-determination theory (SDT) offered a new model of what a human being is. Where the behaviorists said motivation comes from outside, SDT argued that the deepest, most durable motivation comes from within, and external environments either nourish or crush it.

The foundational (1985) book prompted an explosion of research. A 1999 meta-analysis synthesized 128 experiments on the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. The results were clear: for interesting activities, tangible rewards contingent on task engagement, completion, or performance reduced intrinsic motivation.

The landmark 2000 article articulated a vision of human nature that was the precise opposite of the black box. Where behaviorism saw passive organisms shaped by external contingencies, SDT described active agents with fundamental psychological needs.

The theory identifies three basic psychological needs, each of which must be satisfied for human beings to function well:

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Autonomy: the need to act based on choice, true agreement, and in congruence with one’s values.

Competence: the need to feel effective, to experience mastery and growth.

Relatedness: the need for genuine connection, for caring and belonging.

These are not luxuries or preferences tied to specific cultures but essentials of psychological health. Thwart them, and people don’t just become less productive; they become less whole.

What Intrinsic Motivation Means for All of Us

SDT did far more than demonstrate that rewards can backfire. It generated a comprehensive framework that reshaped multiple fields.

In education, research shows that autonomy-supportive practices, such as offering choice, acknowledging student perspectives, providing meaningful rationale rather than relying on control and coercion, produce higher intrinsic motivation, deeper engagement, greater persistence, and better academic outcomes.

In parenting, research demonstrated that children whose parents support their autonomy show better internalization of values, stronger self-regulation, greater psychological well-being, and healthier adjustment at school. This is not permissive parenting: SDT carefully distinguishes autonomy support from lack of structure. The most effective parenting combines structure and autonomy: clear expectations paired with genuine choice within appropriate boundaries, and rationale rather than coercion.

In healthcare, a meta-analysis of 184 studies found that autonomous motivation improves exercise, diet, diabetes management, smoking cessation, and medication adherence. Autonomy support facilitates motivation and behavioral change.

In the workplace, SDT provided a framework for understanding why control-based management so often backfires. There are now decades of evidence showing that genuine interest and internalized values predict superior job performance, greater creativity, higher job satisfaction, and reduced burnout, while external pressure or surveillance harm motivation.

Universal, Not Western

One of the most significant and initially controversial claims of SDT is that autonomy, competence, and relatedness are universal needs. Critics argued that autonomy, in particular, was an artifact of Western individualism, unlikely to matter in collectivist cultures.

The data said otherwise. Cross-cultural research in the United States, South Korea, Russia, and Turkey found that autonomy predicted well-being in all four cultures. A massive study using data from over 92,000 students in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) confirmed that autonomy support was equally important for achievement across the globe.

The need for autonomy is foundational to human nature. Importantly, self-determination theory’s concept of autonomy is not the same as the cultural concepts of individualism and independence. From an SDT lens, autonomy means self‑endorsed action, not acting alone. A person can autonomously choose to align with group norms, honor elders, or prioritize family, as long as they experience that choice as genuinely self-endorsed rather than coerced.

Beyond the Carrot and the Stick

I am an organizational psychologist. For those of us who study organizations, Deci’s legacy is everywhere, often in ways that are not explicitly attributed to him.

Every time we argue that micromanagement destroys performance, we are building on Deci’s foundation. Every time we explain that people don’t resist change, they resist having their autonomy stripped away, we are applying SDT. Every time we insist that dignity is not a perk but a precondition for human functioning, we are standing on ground that Edward Deci helped build.

SDT is also a devastating diagnostic for organizational wrongs. When workplaces thwart autonomy through excessive surveillance, rigid scripts, or punitive performance management, they frustrate and starve basic psychological needs. Employees feel pressured rather than willing, ineffective rather than competent, and disconnected rather than related. This brings about disengagement, exhaustion, and withdrawal.

Perhaps most fundamentally, Deci’s work helped restore something to psychology and to our understanding of ourselves that behaviorism had tried to take away.

Humans are not waiting to be shaped. We come into the world to explore, to seek challenge, to connect, to live with dignity. This tendency can be nourished or crushed by environments, but it is there, in every person.

The heritage of Edward L. Deci is intertwined with humanity itself. He helped create a mirror that allows us to see ourselves much more clearly. Not a redacted behaviorist version, a black box, or a collection of trained responses.

We are humans longing and striving for autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

© Psychology Today