Bio
Johnmarshall Reeve is a Professor in the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education at the Australian Catholic University (since February 2019). Before ACU, Reeve was a professor in both South Korea (Korea University) and the United States (University of Iowa, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee). He received his PhD from Texas Christian University (1986) and completed postdoctoral work at the University of Rochester (1990-1992).
Professor Reeve's research interests center on the empirical study of all aspects of human motivation and emotion with emphases on teachers' motivating styles, students' engagement, self-determination theory based anti-bullying programs, and the neuroscience of intrinsic motivation. In his work on autonomy-supportive teaching, he has visited 14 countries to deliver a teacher-focused workshop to help teachers develop a more autonomy-supportive motivating style. For this work, he received (a) the Thomas N. Urban Research Award for the enhancement of educational practice from the FINE Foundation (2005), (b) the Research Excellence Award from Korea University (2016, 2017), and (c) the Excellence in Research Award from the NASPSPA (2017, 2024).
He has published 94 articles in peer-reviewed journals, such as the Journal of Educational Psychology, authored 33 book chapters and 4 books, including Supporting students' motivation and Understanding Motivation and Emotion (8e). Prof. Reeve served as past Editor-in-Chief of the journal Motivation and Emotion, and he currently serves on the editorial boards of five journals.
Abstract
Self-Generated Autonomy Support
When looking at the self, positive psychology asks, "What could be?" What is a fully functioning self? How does one become self-determined? Following a program of research based on self-determination theory, I suggest two enabling conditions are necessary. First, the developing self needs supportive conditions. Some environments and relationships are more supportive than others, but what the developing self needs most is autonomy support. I overview different types of support to explain what is so special about autonomy support, which is its capacity to extend the developing self beyond self-as-object to become self-as-agent. Such a developmental growth spurt requires an emerging capacity to (a) look inside oneself, (b) openly and trustingly receive gut-felt information about one's needs and feelings, and (c) use this information for self-determined functioning. Because they are poorly understood, I provide a neuroscientific perspective on where feelings of personal agency come from. Second, the self needs to create more autonomy-supportive conditions for itself. I overview three ways the self can do this: agentic engagement; behavioral engagement; and need crafting. I show that both agentic engagement and behavioral engagement are positively reciprocally related to autonomy-supportive environments. In these ways, the developing self creates the very autonomy-supportive conditions it needs to become more self-determining and fully functioning. Through these same processes, the self can contribute to a more supportive society, so I overview studies showing how one person's autonomy-supportive leadership can creates an autonomy-supportive social climate. The take-home message is this: The agentic self needs a garden to grow (autonomy support), but the self also needs capacity to create that garden in the first place.