Synergistic effect of autonomy and relatedness satisfaction on cognitive deconstruction

Abstract

We connected self-determination theory (SDT) and escape theory to deepen the understanding of the antecedents of cognitive deconstruction by introducing autonomy and relatedness satisfaction. Based on three laboratory experiments, results showed a limited determining role of autonomy satisfaction (Experiment 1); however, the causal relationship strengthened when autonomy satisfaction was in conjunction with relatedness satisfaction (Experiments 2 and 3). Relatedness satisfaction constantly predicts all symptoms of cognitive deconstruction. Importantly, all independent explanatory powers of the two require satisfactions when explaining that the symptoms of cognitive deconstruction were qualified by their interaction terms. Regardless of relatedness satisfaction, autonomy satisfaction always positively relates to time orientation. The relationship between autonomy satisfaction and meaninglessness is only negative when relatedness satisfaction is low. The relationship between autonomy satisfaction and delayed gratification is only positive when relatedness satisfaction is high.

Keywords:

• Autonomy satisfaction
• cognitive deconstruction
• escape theory
• relatedness satisfaction
• self-determination theory

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Notes

1 The last item in Wielenga-Meijer et al. (2011) was excluded for it represents the meaning of “independence,” which is not aligned with the definition of autonomy satisfaction as defined in our study. The last item is “I was dependent of others, in discovering how this game works” (reversed).

2 The methodology is called “the method of comparison” which proposed in Allan (1979) and Thomas and Wanda (1975), and verified in Twenge et al. (2003). In the method of comparison, the experimenter presents two temporal intervals in succession and the subject makes a judgment of relative duration.

3 The scenario in Kuhlen and Monge (1968) and Twenge et al. (2003) used the vague description “high/low salary,” rather than the specific value.

4 The correlation between autonomy satisfaction and relatedness satisfaction in Experiment 2 is 0.538, so as 0.271 in Experiment 3.

Additional information

Funding

The research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (72041002), the 7th Batch Research Projects of National Academy of Innovation Strategy (2019ys1-1-2-10), and the China Scholarship Council (No. 201806640085).