How determin are you?

Determination is a positive emotion that involves persevering towards a difficult goal in spite of obstacles. Determination occurs prior to goal attainment and serves to motivate behavior that will help achieve one’s goal. Empirical research suggests that people consider determination to be an emotion; in other words, determination is not just a cognitive state, but rather an affective state.  In the psychology literature, researchers have studied determination under other terms, including challenge and anticipatory enthusiasm; this may explain one reason for the relative lack of research on determination compared to other positive emotions.

In the field of psychology, emotion research is heavily focused on negative emotions and the action tendencies that they encourage. However, recent work in positive psychology incorporates the study of determination as a positive emotion that pushes individuals toward action and results in important outcomes such as perseverance and the development of coping mechanisms.

Self-determination theory

Self-determination theory (SDT) is a theory of motivation. SDT focuses on the interplay between individual personalities and experiences in social contexts those results in motivations of the autonomous and controlled kind. Ultimately, social environments seem to have a profound effect on both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and self-regulation. More specifically, self-determination theory proposes that social and cultural factors influence an individual’s sense of personal volition and initiative in regards to goals, performance and well-being. High levels of determination and personal volition are supported by conditions that foster autonomy (e.g., individual has multiple options/choices), competence (e.g., positive feedback) and relatedness (e.g., stable connection to the group an individual is working within)

Appraisal theory

Appraisal theory proposes that determination has three cognitive appraisal components. These appraisals are evaluations of how the environment and situational circumstances interact with aspects of the individual to create meaning and influence emotional experience. In particular, experiences of determination are evoked by appraisals of motivational relevance, which refers to whether a situation is relevant to an individual’s commitments and goals; motivational in-congruence, which refers to whether a situation is in-congruent with an individual’s commitments and goals; and high problem-focused coping potential, which refers to whether a situation is evaluated to be one that an individual can deal with by using active coping strategies such as planning and problem-solving. These appraisal components combine to bring on experiences of determination that then motivate the tendency to persevere and strive towards mastery. In accordance with this behavioral tendency, appraisal theory proposes that determination is associated with effortful optimism, referring to the belief that a situation can be improved upon with enough effort from the individual

Interpersonal relationships

In the interpersonal domain, challenge appraisals are key to successful dealings with interpersonal conflict. For example, young children exposed to bullying are more likely to seek social support and report said bullying. A bullied child utilizing a challenge appraisal is more likely to frame bullying in a way that posits the unfortunate situation as an opportunity to rely on others and work towards a positive solution. In this case, the child can still remain autonomous because he/she is acting independently to engage others. Ultimately, challenge and determination promote goal mastery and are related to increased confidence and decreased evaluation apprehension; thus, determined individuals using challenge appraisals are confident in their abilities to handle an adverse situation; however, they are not above asking for help when it is needed.

In conclusion

 Challenge and determination must be examined through Positive Psychology and an emotional lens. The association with goal in-congruence makes challenge and determination different from other positive emotions. Thus, current research must seek to establish a better understanding of their properties, antecedents and consequences.