Gc. Williams et al., MOTIVATIONAL PREDICTORS OF WEIGHT-LOSS AND WEIGHT-LOSS MAINTENANCE, Journal of personality and social psychology, 70(1), 1996, pp. 115-126
Self-determination theory proposes that behavior change will occur and
persist if it is autonomously motivated. Autonomous motivation for a
behavior is theorized to be a function both of individual differences
in the autonomy orientation from the General Causality Orientations Sc
ale and of the degree of autonomy supportiveness of relevant social co
ntexts. We tested the theory with 128 patients in a B-month, very-low-
calorie weight-loss program with a 23-month follow-up. Analyses confir
med the predictions that(a) participants whose motivation for weight l
oss was more autonomous would attend the program more regularly, lose
more weight during the program, and evidence greater maintained weight
loss at follow-up, and (b) participants' autonomous motivation for we
ight loss would be predicted both by their autonomy orientation and by
the perceived autonomy supportiveness of the interpersonal climate cr
eated by the health-care staff.