Deci (1981) referred to the individual differences mentioned above as causality orientations, implying that these general, motivational orientations can be usefully characterized in terms of people's (explicit or implicit) understanding of the nature of causation of behavior.
The autonomy orientation involves a high degree of experienced choice with respect to the initiation and regulation of one's own behavior. When autonomy oriented, people seek out opportunities for self-determination and choice, and accordingly they can be described as having a generalized tendency toward what deCharms (1968) described as an internal perceived locus of causality. Thus, for example, a strong autonomy orientation leads people to select jobs that allow greater initiative, to interpret their existing situations as more autonomy promoting (i.e., as informational) and to organize their actions on the basis of personal goals and interests rather than controls and constraints. With a high level of autonomy orientation, people are more often intrinsically motivated, and they are more likely to be self-determined with respect to extrinsic rewards (Deci & Ryan, 1985). As such, they will be less controlled by extrinsic rewards and will tend to experience them more as affirmations of their competence or effectance.
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The control orientation involves people's behavior being organized with respect to controls either in the environment or inside themselves. When control oriented, people seek out, select, or interpret events as controlling. A central ingredient in the determination of their behavior, cognitions, and affect is the pressure of initiating or regulatory events. Thus, when highly control oriented, people tend to rely on controlling events such as deadlines, or surveillance to motivate themselves. When people are control oriented, extrinsic rewards play a more determinative role in their behavior.
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The impersonal orientation involves people's experiencing their behavior as being beyond their intentional control. They tend to believe they are unable to regulate their behavior in a way that will lead reliably to desired outcomes.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). The general causality orientations scale: Self-determination in personality. Journal of research in personality, 19(2), 109-134.
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