Antecedents and consequences of autonomous information seeking motivation

Abstract

Autonomously motivated individuals tend to enjoy activities more than those who are extrinsically motivated, and they also tend to invest more effort. Grounded in basic psychological needs theory, the current study examines the motivation of students' autonomous information seeking and its relationship with the amount of effort invested in and enjoyment derived from information seeking. Autonomy support and perceived competence were found to explain 34.7% of the variance in autonomous motivation while autonomous motivation, in turn, explained 13.1% of variance in effort and 25.8% variance in enjoyment. The model indicates a positive relationship between basic psychological needs and autonomous motivation. Higher students' autonomy support and perceived competence levels lead to increases in autonomous motivation to seek information. Higher autonomous motivation levels, similarly, lead to higher levels of effort and enjoyment. Findings confirm that intrinsically motivated students enjoy information seeking more and invest more effort in the activity. This highlights the importance of encouraging students to engage in information seeking independently, while providing the necessary guidance that would increase their competence.