Beyond Motivation: Human-centricity, Freedom of Choice, and Self-determination

This article explores the development of J. Kelly’s ideas on rethinking existing approaches to understanding the sources and main characteristics of human activity. It demonstrates that by employing a complex, multidimensional image of a “constructive human being”, which integrates numerous partial images, it is possible to fundamentally reject the concept of “motivation”. This seemingly paradoxical step has non–trivial methodological, theoretical, and practical consequences. For instance, it helps us overcome unconscious assumptions from classical mechanics. These assumptions suggest that a human remains at rest until external forces act upon them, providing “psychic energy” and compelling them to act according to the resultant forces. Motivation is “re–described” through the broad process of construction – constructing oneself, one’s behavior, and, through it, the surrounding world. In this context, self–determination, freedom, and autonomy emerge as essential characteristics of a human being as a living organism. Any motivating impact is viewed as facilitation, the creation of conditions for potential change, or the support of the ongoing direction of human activity construction. Therefore, practices of such facilitation should not be motivation–centered but truly human–centered, based on the image of a free, autonomous, dignified, and capable of the act human being.