Constructive Psychology Studies In Education: A Literature Review In College Students

In recent years, within the area of psychology in so many different fields, there has been a rise in theoretical approaches, all of them with a common objective: the analysis of motivation and personal development, with the purpose of explaining some behaviour’s and optimizing the quality of personal processes. One theory that shows to have a significant impact in the educational context is self-determination theory (SDT), developed by Ryan and Deci, 2000a, Ryan and Deci, 2017, Deci and Ryan, 2008. This theory starts with the premise that all people have a natural propensity towards growth and healthy development, and that the fundamental motivational energy comes from a set of BPNs that are essential for students to experiment, sustain, and promote wellbeing, personal growth and learning. This micro-theory that emerges from the SDT framework is named basic psychological needs theory (BPNT; Deci & Ryan, 2008; Ryan & Deci, 2000a) and acts against age, culture, and gender differences, including in both childhood and adulthood (Deci and Vansteenkiste, 2004, Chen et al., 2015; Vansteenkiste et al., 2020).