DYNAMICS OF MOTIVATIONAL SPHERE OF A PERSONALITY WITH CHANGE OF OCCUPATIONAL ORIENTATION WITHIN SELF-DETERMINATION THEORY

The paper describes the results of the research aimed at studying changes in the motivational sphere of a personality when changing a career. The significance of the issue is caused by the fact that the number of professionals willing to change their occupational orientation is growing, though the number of empirical works covering this perspective is not sufficient. The sample is represented by the employees of “Domodedovo” International Airport, who decided to retrain and change their main occupational orientation. Self-determination theory of E. Deci and R. Ryan – one of the most conceptually developed current theories of motivation in psychology was used as a theoretical and methodological foundation of the study. The paper presents modern approaches to the study of self-determination as one of the key concepts within the framework of personality potential of an individual. It is shown that the process of professional development is directly associated with changes in indicators of personal autonomy as a broad integrative construct. The author presents the results of research of motivational sphere of the personality of 140 employees who took occupational retraining programs provided by Moscow universities. Diagnostics was carried out at the beginning and at the end of the retraining period (which last for 13 months) based on specialized test methods. The following diagnostic tools were used: the General Causality Orientation Scale (E. Deci and R. Ryan, adapted by O.E. Dergacheva, L.Ya. Dorfman, D.A. Leontiev) and Purpose-in-Life Test (PIL) (adapted by D.A. Leontiev). It is shown that occupational retraining is connected with positive dynamics of autonomous type indicators of causal orientation and life-purpose orientations. It is the first time when the change of occupational orientation is considered within the self-determination theory framework.