Cognitive Evaluation Theory & Motivation

Cognitive evaluation Theory is about the nature of all external events as both controlling and informational influences on an individual's intrinsic motivation by affecting the psychological needs of autonomy and competence. In the movie, Will Hunting was sentenced to serve time due to a serious fight and a long record of minor offenses in the past. Professor Gerald Lambeau negotiated with the court and offered to take responsibility for Will, proposing that Will could avoid jail if he worked with Lambeau on advanced mathematics and attended therapy. Therefore, Will began meeting Lambeau weekly and participated in a series of therapy sessions. However, he perceived seeing the therapist as a controlling event, with strings attached, which undermined his autonomy. He may also have viewed meeting Lambeau and solving math questions as controlling, which decreased his autonomy and promoted extrinsic motivation of meeting the conditions of avoiding jail time, despite his interest in math. 

Will was not intrinsically motivated to join the therapy sessions. He was passive, defensive, and not cooperative. On the other hand, this perceived controlling event intrigued his autonomy in sabotaging the sessions by ridiculing the therapists. However, when Will met Sean Maguire, a community college psychology professor and therapist, they talked about history and painting in their first meeting. Later, Maguire challenged Will about his actions and thoughts, shared his romantic experiences with his late wife, and they exchanged opinions on various topics and experiences. Even though seeing a therapist was the same condition for Will to avoid jail, he changed his perception and viewed their sessions as informational, which promoted his competence and intrinsic motivation to continue meeting Maguire. Besides, the information he received in the sessions promoted his competence as a human being on how he can live his life, despite the traumatic childhood experiences he had gone through, as well as the negative influence on his cognitive, behavioral, and interpersonal functioning, and his self-worth. In the end, Will was motivated to leave Boston to "go see about a girl", Skylar, to achieve greater psychological needs.  

Will and Sean Maguire