The Associations Among Meaningfulness in Life, Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction, and Internal Motivation in the Scholarly Activities of Doctoral Students

Abstract

In the conditions of reforming higher education in Russia it is important to follow how those new conditions are influencing the motivation for scholarly activity of doctoral students. In the present study, 112 doctoral students from natural science departments at Kazan University (Russia) identified the level of meaningfulness of life, satisfaction of basic psychological needs and predominance of external versus internal motivation in their academic/scholarly activity. Results showed a direct link between meaningfulness of life and basic psychological need satisfaction for autonomy, competence and relatedness, and an inverse association with internal motivation for academic/scholarly activity. Doctoral students with a lower level of meaningfulness in life showed a higher level of internal motivation for their scholarly activities and significantly lower levels of psychological need satisfaction, whereas those for whom the level was higher, motivation was more external.