Resolving the paradox of work: generalization of the roles of self-determination, the balance of challenges and skills, and self-realization values in intrinsic motivation across activity domains

ABSTRACT

The present study was conducted to replicate and resolve the paradox of work. This paradox makes it appear that intrinsic motivation functions differently based on the type of activity being performed, with productive activities having different patterns of relationships among predictor and subjective experience indices of intrinsic motivation than found in other life domains. Variables were drawn from three theoretical perspectives – self-determination theory (self-determination and interest), flow theory (balance of challenges and skills and flow experiences), and eudaimonic identity theory (self-realization values and feelings of personal expressiveness). A sample of 637 college students completed the Personally Expressive Activities Questionnaire. The paradox of work was replicated and, as hypothesized, relationships among the predictor and subjective experience variables were demonstrated to be similar across all activity domains including productive activities. The paradox of work appears to be an artifact of particularly low levels of self-determination associated with productive activities.

KEYWORDS:

• Paradox of work
• intrinsic motivation
• self-determination
• interest
• flow
• personal expressiveness
• enjoyment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2023.2179936

Notes

1. The research protocols for this study were approved by the Institutional Review Boards of the three schools participating in the study.

2. Copies of the full scales for feelings of personal expressiveness and hedonic enjoyment can be found in Waterman et al. (2008).

3. The 3 categories not considered here are ‘other’ leisure activities, maintenance activities, and ‘other’ activities. These domains either had too few activities in various categories to allow for inclusion in statistical analyses or covered too broad a range of activities to be conceptually coherent.