Cortisol reactivity to a teacher's motivating style: the biology of being controlled versus supporting autonomy
- Authors
- Reeve, Johnmarshall; Tseng, Ching-Mei
- Issue Date
- 3월-2011
- Publisher
- SPRINGER/PLENUM PUBLISHERS
- Keywords
- Cortisol; Motivating style; Autonomy support; Controlling
- Citation
- MOTIVATION AND EMOTION, v.35, no.1, pp.63 - 74
- Indexed
- SSCI
SCOPUS
- Journal Title
- MOTIVATION AND EMOTION
- Volume
- 35
- Number
- 1
- Start Page
- 63
- End Page
- 74
- URI
- https://scholar.korea.ac.kr/handle/2021.sw.korea/112950
- DOI
- 10.1007/s11031-011-9204-2
- ISSN
- 0146-7239
- Abstract
- We hypothesized that participants engaged in a learning activity would show a biological stress response when exposed to a controlling teacher but biological calm when exposed to an autonomy-supportive teacher. Seventy-eight undergraduates (53 females, 25 males) engaged in a 20-minute puzzle-solving activity while exposed to a teacher who enacted either a controlling, neutral, or autonomy-supportive motivating style. Salivary cortisol was assessed before, during, and after the learning activity, and a post-experimental questionnaire assessed participants' perceptions of the teacher's motivating style and indices of positive functioning. Manipulated motivating style affected participants' cortisol, as exposure to a controlling style increased cortisol while exposure to an autonomy-supportive style decreased it, relative to exposure to a neutral style. Correlational analyses with the self-report measures showed that cortisol reactivity occurred in response to interpersonal events rather than to psychological appraisals. We conclude that cortisol reactivity is sensitive to a teacher's motivating style and that elevated cortisol signals interpersonal obtrusion and pressure while dampened cortisol signals perspective-taking and support.
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Collections - College of Education > Department of Education > 1. Journal Articles
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