Richard Ryan
Richard M. Ryan, born 1953, is an American clinical psychologist, professor at Australian Catholic University and emeritus at the University of Rochester. With Edward Deci he co-founded self-determination theory, the account of motivation built on autonomy, competence and relatedness, and their 2000 paper in American Psychologist is the standard citation for it. He is a co-author on both of the exercise papers this publication relies on, and neither is his: the exercise evidence belongs to Pedro Teixeira and to Nikos Ntoumanis, and crediting it to Ryan is the most common error in this subject.
Who they are
Ryan's half of the partnership leans clinical and structural. Where Deci's early contribution was experimental, Ryan is the one most often invited to extend the framework into a new domain, and self-determination theory has accordingly travelled into education, healthcare, parenting, organisational behaviour, sport and exercise. He is by some counts the most-cited active psychologist in the world.
The exercise-psychology extension came largely through his students and collaborators, Pedro Teixeira among them, which is exactly how his name ends up attached to findings that are not his.
He also supplies the need density hypothesis, that the more of these needs go unmet in life the more they get met in virtual realities, which Nir Eyal builds on in Indistractable. Ryan blurbed that book, which is worth knowing when weighing how favourably it presents his position, and does not make the reading wrong.
Key papers
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). "Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being", American Psychologist, 55(1), 68 to 78. The standard citation for the theory.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior, Plenum Press. The founding text.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2017). Self-Determination Theory: Basic Psychological Needs in Motivation, Development, and Wellness, Guilford. The consolidated reference.
Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9, 78. Co-author, not first author. The systematic review of self-determination theory in exercise. Credit Teixeira.
Ntoumanis, N., Ng, J. Y. Y., Prestwich, A., Quested, E., Hancox, J. E., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., Deci, E. L., Ryan, R. M., Lonsdale, C., & Williams, G. C. (2021). Health Psychology Review, 15(2), 214 to 244. Co-author, not first author. The meta-analysis of self-determination theory-informed health interventions. Credit Ntoumanis.
Key ideas
Motivation is not one substance in different amounts. Autonomy, competence and relatedness are needs rather than preferences, and motivation that satisfies them outlasts the incentive that started it.
Autonomy is the leg that matters for whether a training goal survives, because it asks whether the goal belongs to the person carrying it.
A reward experienced as control can reduce motivation. Rewards that are offered leave autonomy intact; rewards that are imposed spend it.
The need density hypothesis: unmet needs in ordinary life get met somewhere, often in virtual environments, which reframes a child's eleven hours of gaming as a question about what is missing elsewhere.
The exercise evidence is not his. He is a co-author on the two papers that carry it, and this publication credits the first authors.
Concepts on this site
Self-Determination Theory, the theory he co-founded
Exercise Adherence, the applied domain, where the evidence belongs to Teixeira and Ntoumanis
Identity-Based Habits, adjacent
Intrinsic Motivation has no page on this site yet
Sources
- Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). American Psychologist, 55(1), 68 to 78.
- Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior, Plenum Press.
- Teixeira, P. J., et al. (2012). International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9, 78. Ryan as co-author.
- Ntoumanis, N., et al. (2021). Health Psychology Review, 15(2), 214 to 244. Ryan as co-author.
- Eyal, N. (2019). Indistractable. For the need density hypothesis as Eyal presents it, with the blurb disclosed.