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DESIRE FOR CONTROL: ITS EFFECT ON NEEDS SATISFACTION AND
AUTONOMOUS MOTIVATION
Camille Amoura et al.
Presses univ. de Grenoble | Revue internationale de psychologie sociale
2013/2 - Tome 26
pages 55 à 71
ISSN 0992-986X
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Revue internationale de psychologie sociale, 2013/2 Tome 26, p. 55-71.
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REVUE INTERNATIONALE DE PSYCHOLOGIE SOCIALE 2013 N° 2
55
Desire for control: Its effect on needs satisfaction
and autonomous motivation
Le désir de contrôle : ses effets sur la satisfaction des besoins
et la motivation autodéterminée
Camille Amoura*
Sophie Berjot*
Nicolas Gillet**
RIPS / IRSP, 26 (2), 55-71 © 2013, Presses universitaires de Grenoble
Abstract
The present study intends to exam-
ine how Desire for Control (DC)
could be an antecedent of autono-
mous motivation. At the beginning
of their first year at the university,
196 students were to fill in ques-
tionnaires to assess DC, satisfaction
of the psychological needs of
autonomy, competence, and relat-
edness. One month and a half later,
their autonomous motivation
toward studies was assessed.
Multiple mediation analysis proce-
dure showed that the link between
DC and autonomous motivation
was mediated by competence need
satisfaction. Theoretical implica-
tions of these results and future
directions of research are discussed.
Résumé
Cette présente étude se propose
d’examiner dans quelle mesure le
Désir de Contrôle (DC) est un anté-
cédent de la motivation autodéter-
minée. Au début de leur première
année à l’Université, 196 étudiants
ont renseigné un questionnaire
mesurant le DC et la satisfaction des
besoins fondamentaux d’autono-
mie, de compétence et d’affiliation.
Un mois et demi plus tard, la moti-
vation autodéterminée dans les
études a été mesurée. Une analyse
de médiation multiple révèle que la
satisfaction du besoin de compé-
tence médiatise le lien entre le DC
et la motivation autodéterminée.
Les implications théoriques de ces
résultats sont discutées et des pers-
pectives de recherche sont propo-
sées.
Key-words
Desire for control,
psychological need
satisfaction,
autonomous
motivation
Mots-clés
Désir de contrôle,
satisfaction des besoins
psychologiques
fondamentaux,
motivation
autodéterminée
Cette recherche a été en partie financée dans le cadre du dispositif CIFRE, convention ANRT
/ Puzzle Concept (François-Régis Lenoir), 51140 Muizon, France.
*Laboratoire Cognition Santé Socialisation EA 4298, Université de Reims Champagne-
Ardenne, URCA, UFR Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Bâtiment 13, RDC haut, R238, 57 rue
Pierre Taittinger, 51096 Reims Cedex. E-mail: casa.personal.trainer@hotmail.fr; sophie.
berjot@univ-reims.fr
**Laboratoire Psychologie des Ages de la Vie EA 2114, Université de Tours, UFR d’Arts et
Sciences Humaines, 3 rue des Tanneurs, Bâtiment F, étage 4, Bureau 412, 37 041 Tours
Cedex 1. E-mail : nicolas.gillet@univ-tours.fr
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DESIRE FOR CONTROL, NEEDS AND AUTONOMOUS MOTIVATION
56
What kind of students achieves more in their studies? Who is
likely to perform better? Countless scientific studies in
social psychology have answered in various ways to these ques-
tions. A part of the answer highlights students’ motivation and its
determinants, and in particular autonomous motivation (Deci &
Ryan, 2000). Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985,
2012) identified three forms of motivation: autonomous motiva-
tion (i.e., engaging in an activity for pleasure and/or volition and
choice), controlled motivation (i.e., engaging in an activity for
internal or external pressure), and amotivation (i.e., relative
absence of motivation). Conditions and processes that foster
autonomous motivation (e.g., general causality orientations,
satisfaction of the psychological needs of autonomy, compe-
tence, and relatedness) have been largely described in the SDT
literature (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2008; Vallerand, Carbonneau, &
Lafrenière, 2009). However, too few studies have focused on
personality variables as predictors of autonomous motivation
(Deci & Ryan, 2008; Kasser & Ryan, 1996; Vansteenkiste, Simons,
Lens, Sheldon, & Deci, 2004). This is the case of the Desire for
Control (Burger, 1992; Burger & Cooper, 1979) that is nonethe-
less, according to Burger (1992), a significant determinant of
intrinsic motivation (i.e., a form of autonomous motivation).
Although the theoretical link has been mentioned, it has never
been confirmed with published data and no mediators of this
relation have been highlighted. The aim of the present research
is to examine the role of DC as a potential antecedent of autono-
mous motivation and the potential mediating role of needs
satisfaction in this relationship.
Self-Determination Theory
According to SDT, autonomous motivation depends on the satis-
faction of the psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and
relatedness (Deci & Ryan, 2012; Ryan & Deci, 2000). The need for
competence refers to the need to feel competent and efficient in
what one undertakes (Skinner, 1995; White, 1959) and describes
a general affective experience of effectiveness (Van den Broeck,
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REVUE INTERNATIONALE DE PSYCHOLOGIE SOCIALE 2013 N° 2
57
Vansteenkiste, De Witte, Soenens, & Lens, 2010)1. The need for
autonomy refers to the need people have to make choices and
to act in a volitional way (DeCharms, 1968; Deci, 1975). Finally,
the need for relatedness refers to the need to get consideration
from others and to feel connected to them (Baumeister & Leary,
1995). Prior studies have shown that the satisfaction of these
needs leads to autonomous motivation, which in turn predicts
positive outcomes (Gillet, Vallerand, Amoura, & Baldes, 2010;
Hardré & Reeve, 2003; Lavigne, Vallerand, & Miquelon, 2007). For
instance, Standage, Duda, and Ntoumanis (2006) have shown
among a sample of physical education students that an autonomy-
supportive climate was positively related to the satisfaction of the
psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness,
which were all significant predictors of autonomous motivation.
In this study, competence need satisfaction was the main
predictor of autonomous motivation. Similar results were
reported by Ferrer-Caja and Weiss (2000) as well as Ntoumanis
(2001).
Moreover, need satisfaction has been found to play a mediating
role between social factors (e.g., the interpersonal style of a
teacher/supervisor/coach) and autonomous motivation (see
Vallerand et al., 2009, for a review). It is nevertheless interesting
to verify if a personality variable (here the DC) can also be an
antecedent of autonomous motivation through the mediating
effect of psychological need satisfaction.
Desire for Control
According to Burger (1992), individuals can vary in their motive
to control events that happen in their environment and the
desire to control events over their life is tantamount to acting in
a volitional way. This is then an individual trait, quite stable in
time that may influence motivation as well as close variables such
as the perception of control (Skinner, Wellborn, & Connell,
1990). According to Burger, people high in DC are highly moti-
1. Self-efficacy is an acquired cognition to one’s capacities to achieve in a specific future task
(Bandura, 1997) while the satisfaction of the need for competence is a feeling that one has
mastered one’s environment based on past experience.
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DESIRE FOR CONTROL, NEEDS AND AUTONOMOUS MOTIVATION
58
vated to make their own decisions, take on leadership roles in
group settings, and react strongly if they perceive that their
control is threatened (Burger, 1990). People’s attempts to control
their environment are made in order to be at the origin of their
actions (DeCharms, 1968). However, DC differs from the Locus of
Control (Rotter, 1966), which is internal or external according to
the bipolar evaluation individuals make of what happens to them,
and from the Perceived Locus of Causality (Ryan & Connell,
1989), which refers to the degree to which people believe to be
responsible for their own behavior.
The DC has been shown to be related to a) psychological need
satisfaction and b) autonomous motivation. First, Brouillard,
Lapierre, and Alain (1999) have shown that the DC was signifi-
cantly related to autonomy (r = .58, p < .001), competence (r =
.44, p < .001), and relatedness (r = .35, p < .001) need satisfac-
tion. Second, the DC has been shown to be significantly related
to autonomous motivation. In an unpublished study (cited in
Burger, 1992, p. 95), Burger showed a significant positive correla-
tion between DC and autonomy orientation (r = .18, p < .05)
and a negative correlation between DC and impersonal orienta-
tion (r = -. 28, p < .001). Similar correlations were reported by
Thompson (1990). In another unpublished study (Burger, 1992,
p. 94), Burger has shown a significant correlation between the
DC and the Mastery2 subscale (r = .51, p < .05) of the Work and
Family Orientation Questionnaires (Spence & Helmreich, 1983).
In addition, Legrain, Paquet, D’Arripe-Longueville, and Philippe
(2011) have shown that novice athletes with a high DC, when
paired with a low DC tutor (i.e., coach), are intrinsically moti-
vated. In the same context, the concept of adaptive perfectionism
(Frost, Heimberg, Holt, Mattia, & Neubauer, 1993), which is
closed to the DC in the way that it entails a self-oriented tendency
to set high personal standards and achievement strivings, has
been shown to be related to autonomous motivation (Longbottom,
Grove, & Dimmock, 2012; Miquelon, Vallerand, Grouzet, &
Cardinal, 2005; Stoeber & Eismann, 2007). Finally, Müller, Palekcic,
Beck and Wanninger (2006) have shown that conscientiousness,
which is strongly linked to DC (Burger, 1992), explains a large
2. For Burger, and this is debatable, the Mastery subscale is equivalent to intrinsic motivation.
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REVUE INTERNATIONALE DE PSYCHOLOGIE SOCIALE 2013 N° 2
59
part of variance of autonomous motivation for learning (β = .41,
p < .05).
The Present Research
As Bains (1983) states, a motive can be strong enough as to influ-
ence and distort the way individuals perceive events in their
world. This predisposition to prefer control may then lead them
to autonomous forms of motivation, the locus
of causality being perceived as internal (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000).
So, based on the SDT predictions, the present research proposes
to consider, among a sample of first year psychology students, 1)
one possible personality variable as a direct antecedent of auton-
omous motivation (i.e., DC) rarely studied in the SDT framework
although originally and theoretically linked to it (Burger, 1992)
and 2) to explore the process explaining this relation. Our first
hypothesis is that DC is positively linked to autonomous motiva-
tion toward studies (a direct effect) and our second hypothesis is
that the satisfaction of the needs of autonomy, competence, and
autonomy will mediate this relation between DC and autono-
mous motivation. Based on the literature in the educational
context, competence need satisfaction might have a stronger
influence on autonomous motivation than the two other needs
(Ferrer-Caja & Weiss, 2000, 2002; Ntoumanis, 2001; Standage et
al., 2006).
Method
Participants and Procedure
After a month of social psychology lessons (Time 1, during fixed
group tutorials), participants were asked by an unknown experi-
menter to fill out an anonymous questionnaire-package containing
measures of their DC and needs satisfaction. At Time 1, 199
French students (40 males and 156 females, 3 did not report their
gender) voluntarily participated in a study about ‘students’ feel-
ings during their studies’. Mean age was 19.34 years (SD = 2.66).
One month and a half later, 97 participants (15 males and 81
females, 1 did not report his/her gender) remained voluntary for
filling out a questionnaires on their motivation toward studies,
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DESIRE FOR CONTROL, NEEDS AND AUTONOMOUS MOTIVATION
60
which was presented as being the second part of the study about
students’ feelings during their studies. Mean age was 19.41 years
(SD = 3.05).
Measures
Desire for Control
DC was assessed with the French version of the Desire for
Control Scale (Alain, 1989; Burger & Cooper, 1979). It contains 20
statements that refer to the individuals’ motive for control in
various domains (e.g., “I enjoy making my own decisions”, “I
care to check each piece of my car (or my luggage) before
leaving for a long journey”; a = .72). Participants were asked to
indicate the extent to which each statement described them on a
7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (this sentence does not
describe me) to 7 (this sentence greatly describes me). Results
from past studies (Garant & Alain, 1995; Legrain et al., 2011)
provided good support for the psychometric properties of this
French version.
Needs satisfaction
Satisfaction of the needs for autonomy (a = .77), competence
(a = .86), and relatedness (a = .86), was assessed using the
‘Échelle de Satisfaction des Besoins Fondamentaux en Contexte
Sportif ” (Gillet, Rosnet, & Vallerand, 2008) adapted to the educa-
tional setting. Following the stem “In my studies at the
University…”, students rated items on a 7-point Likert scale
ranging from 1 (completely disagree) to 7 (completely agree). A
factor analysis run with an oblique rotation revealed three factors
explaining 63.38% of variance. Items of each subscales loaded on
their respective dimension with loading ranging from .59 to .78
for the need of autonomy, from .73 to .83 for the need of compe-
tence, and from .71 to .89 for the need of relatedness, without
any cross loadings.
Academic motivation
Students’ motivation was assessed with the French version of the
Academic Motivation Scale for College (Vallerand, Blais, Brière, &
Pelletier, 1989). This 28 item-scale assesses intrinsic motivation,
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REVUE INTERNATIONALE DE PSYCHOLOGIE SOCIALE 2013 N° 2
61
extrinsic motivation, and amotivation. Internal consistency of the
different subscales was satisfactory (between .69 and .88). All
items were assessed on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1
(does not correspond at all) to 7 (corresponds exactly). The
seven subscales were combined into a Relative Autonomy Index
(RAI; Grolnick & Ryan, 1987; Ryan & Connell, 1989). The higher
the score is, the more autonomous motivation is. This scale has
been found to be reliable and valid (Brault-Labbé & Dubé, 2010;
Vallerand, Pelletier, Blais, Brière, Sénécal, & Vallières, 1993).
Results
Descriptive statistics
Results concerning the means, standard deviations, and relations
between our variables are displayed in Table 1. Autonomy,
competence, and relatedness need satisfaction was significantly
correlated to the RAI (respectively, r = .22, p < .05; r = .41, p <
.001; r = .21, p < .05). DC was also correlated to autonomy (r =
.28, p < .01), competence (r = .30, p < .001), and relatedness (r
= .28, p < .001) need satisfaction, and to the RAI (r = .25, p <
.05).
table 1:
Means. standard
deviations and
correlations for study
variables (n = 97).
M SD 1 2 3 4
1. Desire for control 4.66 0.59 –
2. Need for autonomy 4.85 0.93 .28** –
3. Need for competence 3.81 0.94 .30** .49*** –
4. Need for relatedness 4.57 1.05 .28** .33*** .46*** –
5. Autonomous motivation 6.45 3.30 .25* .22* .41*** .21*
Note. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001
Main analysis
To test for the link between DC and autonomous motivation as
well as for the role of the need satisfaction as mediator of the
relation between DC and motivation, a multiple mediation anal-
ysis procedure was run (Preacher & Hayes, 2004, 2008). Advantage
of performing this type of analysis rather that three separates
simple mediation analyses (Baron & Kenny, 1986) allows to test
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DESIRE FOR CONTROL, NEEDS AND AUTONOMOUS MOTIVATION
62
for an overall mediation effect and to determine the unique
mediating effect that a specific variable has with a single model,
controlling for the presence of other mediators. Moreover, as
stated by Preacher and Hayes (2008), this type of analysis also
permits to enhance statistical power and decreases the proba-
bility of Type I errors.
table 2:
Multiple mediation
estimates for
autonomous
motivation.
Variables b t p
DC to mediators
Need for autonomy .42 2.86 < .01
Need for competence .41 2.98 < .01
Need for relatedness .46 2.80 < .01
Direct effects of mediator on autonomous motivation
Need for autonomy -.05 -.13 = .90
Need for competence 1.45 3.15 < .01
Need for relatedness .03 .09 = .93
Total effect of DC on autonomous motivation
DC 1.38 2.51 < .02
Remaining direct effect of DC on autonomous motivation
DC .79 .93 = .16
Partial effect of gender on autonomous
motivation .58 1.74 = .52
bCIlower CIupper p
Indirect effects of DC on autonomous motivation via mediators
(bootstrap results)
Total indirect effects .59 .01 1.68 n.s.
Need for autonomy -.02 -.49 .36 n.s.
Need for competence .60 .11 1.58 < .01
Need for relatedness .01 -.30 .56 n.s.
Note. Confidence interval are bias controlled and accelerated; Bootstrap resamples = 5000;
n = 97 for all tests.
DC had a significant impact on autonomous motivation (b =
1.38, p = .02; see Table 23). Moreover, DC was significantly linked
to autonomy (b = .42, p < .01), competence (b = .41, p < .01)
and relatedness (b = .46, p < .01) need satisfaction. However,
only competence need satisfaction was linked to autonomous
motivation (b = .60, p < .01) after controlling for DC. Indeed,
results showed that autonomous motivation was significantly
mediated only by the satisfaction of the need for competence.
3. Analyses were conducted with gender as covariate.
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REVUE INTERNATIONALE DE PSYCHOLOGIE SOCIALE 2013 N° 2
63
The link between DC and autonomous motivation was reduced
from 1.38 (see total effects of DC, the c path in Preacher & Hayes,
2008) to .79 (see remaining direct effect on DC, the c’ path) by
the set of three mediator variables (the needs for autonomy, relat-
edness, and competence). However, only the need for
competence significantly accounts for these mediational effects
(.60 of the total .59, see indirect effects of DC on autonomous
motivation, confidence intervals being respectively of CI.99: .11,
1.58 and .01, 1.684) and the effect of DC disappears when this
need is controlled for (b =.79, p = .16). So, only the competence
need satisfaction deserves to be elected as a total mediator
because it follows the 4 steps described by Baron and Kenny
(1986).
4. Note that whenever zero is not contained with the bootstrap confidence interval, can we
conclude that the effect is significantly different from zero.
b = .41,
p < .01
Need for
Autonomy
Need for
Relatedness
DC
Need for
Competence
RAI
b = .42, p < .01
b = -.02, n.s.
b = 1.38, p = .02
b = .79, p = .16
b = .60, p < .01
b =- .05, p = .90
b = 1.45,
p < .01
b = .01, n.s.
b = .46, p < .01 b = .03, p = .93
Total Effect of
DC
Mediation
Path
Associations
Indirect Effect
of DC via
Mediators
Remaining
Direct Effect
of DC
figure 1:
Multiple mediation
bootstrap analysis of
relationships between
Desire for Control (DC)
and autonomous
motivation (RAI) as
mediated by
competence need
satisfaction.
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DESIRE FOR CONTROL, NEEDS AND AUTONOMOUS MOTIVATION
64
Discussion
The main purpose of the present research was to highlight the
role of DC as an antecedent of autonomous motivation. First, we
hypothesized that DC was significantly linked to autonomous
motivation measured by the RAI. Second, according to SDT (Deci
& Ryan, 1985), we postulated that the psychological need satisfac-
tion would mediate these links.
Results confirmed our first hypothesis and for the first time, DC
formally appeared to be a relevant personality variable that is
positively related to autonomous motivation assessed six weeks
later. Although Burger and Cooper (1979) postulated that “the
desire to control events in one’s life therefore also seems to be
closely tied to the concept of intrinsic motivation” (p. 382), no
published studies had supported it yet. Remedying this lack, our
results showed that students who were motivated to control
events in their life were more likely to present autonomous moti-
vation toward their studies. Moreover, our study showed that this
link, coherently with SDT’s predictions and past results found in
educational settings (Ferrer-Caja & Weiss, 2000, 2002; Ntoumanis,
2001; Standage et al., 2006), was mediated by the satisfaction of
the need for competence.
If many studies performed in the educational context highlighted
the role of the need for competence in the motivational process,
SDT generally predicts that the satisfaction of all three needs has
a significant influence on autonomous motivation. Our results
partially confirmed our second hypothesis; only the competence
need satisfaction mediated the relation between DC and autono-
mous motivation, autonomy and relatedness need satisfaction
were not linked to autonomous motivation. However, if all of the
three needs nourish autonomous motivation, each of them can
be more or less easily satisfied according to the contexts, and
differently contribute to autonomous motivation (Deci & Ryan,
1985; Gillet, Berjot, & Rosnet, 2009; Vallerand, 1997). The satis-
faction of the need for competence of our high DC’s students
might have been particularly important to contribute to and
explain their autonomous motivation toward their studies as
their knowledge of the discipline is quite low in the beginning of
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REVUE INTERNATIONALE DE PSYCHOLOGIE SOCIALE 2013 N° 2
65
their studies. That is why feeling effective and competent is
important to them. This was not the case for autonomy and relat-
edness need satisfaction.
Even if the statistical procedure we used is quite complex and
demanding in its simulation of a causal relation, precautions must
be kept as to the conclusion we can draw from a correlational
design. Replications of this study are desirable, and experimental
designs could also be interesting. Future research could for
instance test for the conjoint effects of DC and perception of
control (Paulhus, 1983; Paulhus & Van Selst, 1990) on autono-
mous motivation. Indeed, DC and perception of control have
been found relevant to predict psychological well-being and
happiness (Brouillard et al., 1999; Garant & Alain, 1995), but no
studies have been conducted on autonomous motivation.
In sum, our results highlight the fact that DC is quite a strong
predictor of autonomous motivation in this educational setting.
Burger (1992, p. 94) assumed that DC as a personality variable
appears to be very similar to Deci’s notion of self-determination
(Deci, 1980; Deci & Ryan, 1985) and that high DC people should
have a stronger need to demonstrate to themselves that they are
masterful manipulators of their environment. According to
Burger’s hypotheses, our study provides an explanation for the
similarity between the DC and autonomous motivation. Indeed,
autonomous motivation occurs, at least among university
students, when the need for competence is satisfied (Deci, 1975;
White, 1959).
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