In plain language
Our values about relationships — how we want to treat friends, family, and romantic partners — act as guiding principles for daily life. But does it matter why we hold them? You might value being a good friend because it is inherently meaningful to you (intrinsic motivation), or because you want approval or fear what would happen if you didn’t (extrinsic motivation). This study asked how these motives, together with how committed people actually are to acting on their social values, relate to happiness — and whether the picture differs for men and women, or young and old.
The researchers surveyed 200 college students (aged 18–25) and 77 retired older adults (aged 59–85) about their most meaningful personal social values, their motives for holding them, their behavioural commitment to them, and their well-being. Consistent with self-determination theory, being committed to intrinsically motivating social values went with greater life satisfaction and more frequent positive emotions. Being committed to extrinsically motivated values went with more frequent negative emotions and brought no benefit to positive well-being. These relationships held equally across age and gender.
Interesting group differences emerged nonetheless. Students reported stronger motivation of both kinds, yet older adults were the happier group — more satisfied with life, more positive emotion, less negative emotion — fitting the idea that older adults extract more pleasure and meaning from a social world refined over a lifetime. Women were more intrinsically motivated and more committed to their social values, while men leaned more on extrinsic reasons. The take-home message: well-being flows from committing to relationship values you find genuinely meaningful, not ones pursued for external payoffs.
Key findings
- Behavioural commitment to intrinsically motivating social values was associated with greater life satisfaction and positive affect (but not with negative affect).
- Commitment to extrinsically motivated social values was linked to more frequent negative emotions and to lower commitment overall, with no benefit for positive well-being.
- These motivation–well-being relationships were not moderated by age or gender — they held for men and women, young and old alike.
- College students reported greater intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for social values than older adults, but older adults reported higher life satisfaction, more positive affect, and less negative affect.
- Women reported greater intrinsic motivation and greater commitment to social values, whereas men endorsed greater extrinsic motivation.
- Commitment to values did not differ by age group, and this was the first study to examine motivational orientation and commitment for personally endorsed (idiographic) social values.
How to cite
APA
Ferssizidis, P., Adams, L. M., Kashdan, T. B., Plummer, C., Mishra, A., & Ciarrochi, J. (2010). Motivation for and commitment to social values: The roles of age and gender. Motivation and Emotion, 34, 354–362. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-010-9187-4
BibTeX
@article{ferssizidis2010motivation,
author = {Ferssizidis, Patty and Adams, Leah M. and Kashdan, Todd B. and Plummer, Christine and Mishra, Anjali and Ciarrochi, Joseph},
title = {Motivation for and commitment to social values: The roles of age and gender},
journal = {Motivation and Emotion},
year = {2010},
volume = {34},
pages = {354--362},
doi = {10.1007/s11031-010-9187-4}
}
Related work
- All publications by Joseph Ciarrochi (searchable, with free PDFs)
- Process-Based Therapy & Idionomic Analysis
Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version via the DOI above.