ABSTRACT
Organic theories in psychology begin with the assumptions that the nature of a living organism is to act on the environment in accordance with its capacities, and through this activity to develop an increasingly elaborated and unified internal structure that represents the organism and its environment (Blasi, 1976). A motivational theory of the active organism, and in particular of a human being, requires a concept that allows for a description of both the energetic and structural aspects that underlie the dialectical interplay of the organism acting on its surroundings and being impinged upon by them. In our work (Deci & Ryan, 1985), this concept is self-determination.
