internalization
The process by which a reason outside you becomes a reason inside you — a task you do because someone asked becomes a task you do because you believe in it.
In self-determination theory, internalization moves motivation from "I have to" (external regulation) through "I should" (introjected regulation) to "I want to because it matters" (identified/integrated regulation). The mechanism needs content: a meaningful rationale the task already carries. Warmth (acknowledgment, relatedness) helps you own a value that is there; it does not install one that is absent. Internalization is the bridge between the other person's regulation and your own — the lifespan claim the-unwalked-bridge names.
Links
co-regulation
Calming down with someone's help instead of all by yourself. When two people int…
WORD · brickreactance
The push-back a person feels when their freedom to choose seems squeezed — told…
WORD · brickopenness
The wide-ranging mind — the Big Five trait that reaches for the new, the unfamil…
ROOM · wallCould a study track an adult dyad's repair rate second-by-second and test whether one partner's regulation shifts toward the other's afterward — and has anyone run it?
Two halves of a bridge stand finished on opposite banks; the river between them has been mapped, praised, and never once crossed.