| Course | PSYC 110N Psychology |
|---|---|
| Week | 8 |
| Paper type | Motivation and leadership essay |
| Length | About 630 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | BSN general education |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for PSYC 110N Week 8
Motivation and Leadership Essay Applying Self-Determination Theory to a Charge Nurse Introducing a Hand Hygiene Audit: Motivation at Full Strength, Three Components, Conditions a Leader Can Arrange, Conditions Nobody Arranges and a Forecast
Student Name
Chamberlain University
PSYC 110N: Psychology
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Motivation and Leadership Essay Applying Self-Determination Theory to a Charge Nurse Introducing a Hand Hygiene Audit: Motivation at Full Strength, Three Components, Conditions a Leader Can Arrange, Conditions Nobody Arranges and a Forecast
Motivation, Defined
Motivation is the set of processes that start, direct and sustain behavior: why effort goes where it goes and how long it lasts. Self-determination theory distinguishes motivation that feels self-chosen from motivation that feels controlled by pressure or reward, and holds that self-chosen motivation lasts longer and produces better-quality effort (Ryan & Deci, 2000).
The Situation
On the medical unit where I had my rotation, the charge nurse was asked to raise hand hygiene compliance from 72 to 90 percent within three months. The hospital's plan: a hidden observer and a posted chart of each nurse's compliance rate.
The plan was well meant. Clean hands are one of the strongest defenses against infections that spread inside hospitals, and the target was reasonable. The question was whether the method would produce effort that lasted after the observer left.
Three Components
The theory names three needs whose support fosters self-chosen motivation: autonomy, a sense of choice and ownership; competence, a sense of being effective; and relatedness, a sense of connection to others (Ryan & Deci, 2000).
Autonomy: a hidden observer and named public charts are controlling. Nurses may comply when watched and not otherwise.
Competence: nurses already know how to clean their hands; the barrier is often busy moments with full hands, not skill.
Relatedness: the posted chart ranks colleagues against each other.
Read through the theory, the hospital's plan supported none of the three needs well. It controlled rather than invited, addressed a skill nurses already had and set colleagues against each other.
Conditions a Leader Can Arrange
The charge nurse changed three things. Autonomy: the staff meeting asked nurses where hand hygiene fails on this unit and let them choose two changes; they chose sanitizer on every medication cart and a reminder at the bedside computer. Competence: weekly feedback was given as unit-level rates, with the specific moments most often missed. Relatedness: the unit's chart showed the unit's rate, not individuals', and the goal was framed around patients on the unit who had caught infections that year.
Conditions Nobody Arranges
Staffing. On short-staffed nights, every nurse has more patients and less time. No motivational design changes the number of minutes in a shift. Tiredness late in a twelve-hour shift is another. The theory explains the quality of motivation but cannot supply time.
Naming these limits keeps the essay from claiming that good motivation design can fix everything. A leader can arrange choice, feedback and purpose; a leader cannot arrange enough nurses on a night shift without the hospital's budget.
The Forecast
If the charge nurse's changes support self-chosen motivation, compliance should rise and stay up after the observer leaves. If compliance falls once the observer is gone, the motivation was controlled. The unit's audit continued for two months after the observer left; compliance held at 87 percent, short of 90 but well above the starting point.
Eighty-seven percent after the observer left is the important figure. Under a controlled plan, compliance often drops when the watching stops; here it held, which is what the theory predicts when motivation feels self-chosen.
What I Take for Nursing Leadership
A leader who wants a behavior to last arranges for choice, useful feedback and a shared purpose, and is honest about the limits that staffing places on any plan.
References
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68-78. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68
The Chamberlain PSYC 110N Week 8 instructions
The motivation essay applies one named theory to one leadership situation. Define motivation at the level the course uses, with a source. Describe the situation and the target, including any existing plan. Break the theory into its components and read the existing plan through each. Then describe changes a leader could arrange, linking each to a component. Name conditions no leader can arrange, such as staffing, and say how they limit the theory. Make a forecast that could be checked, and report the result if you know it. Close with a lesson for leadership in your field. One theory explored fully is better than several mentioned briefly.
Inside the PSYC 110N Week 8 example
The definition section describes motivation and self-chosen versus controlled motivation, citing Ryan and Deci (2000). The situation section describes a hidden observer and named compliance charts and notes the target was reasonable. The components section reads the plan as controlling, aimed at a skill nurses already had and setting colleagues against each other. The leader section describes nurses choosing two changes, weekly unit-level feedback and a unit chart framed around patients. The limits section names short-staffed nights and the end of a twelve-hour shift. The forecast section reports compliance holding at 87 percent two months after the observer left. The close states a lesson about choice, feedback and purpose.
Where the points sit in the PSYC 110N Week 8 rubric
Faculty look for one theory applied in depth. A paper that surveys several theories of motivation without applying any loses the most. Rewarded instead: a clear definition, the situation and target described, each component applied to the existing plan, changes linked to components, honest limits and a forecast with a result. Sources should be original and cited in APA. Practical detail about the workplace earns marks. The essay should avoid overstating what motivation design can achieve, and the lesson for leadership should follow directly from the evidence presented. Linking each change the leader made to one specific component of the theory shows the theory doing the work.
Common PSYC 110N Week 8 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Essays most often slip by listing the three components without showing how each applies. Another frequent gap is a set of recommendations with no link to the theory. Some essays ignore conditions like staffing that no motivation design can fix. Others forecast success without saying how it would be measured. If you have no leadership example of your own, use one you observed on a clinical unit and say so. An essay that ends with a result measured after the pressure was removed shows whether the motivation was self-chosen, which is the test the theory sets. Report the measure after the pressure was removed, since that is the result that tells you what kind of motivation was built.
Get a PSYC-110N Week 8 example written to your instructions
Send your classroom's assignment instructions and rubric and a PSYC-110N Week 8 essay is written to them in 24-48h, one named theory taken apart, conditions separated from character, and limits stated at the end. The first one is free. If your section assigned the theory, say which and the essay is built on it.
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PSYC 110N Week 8 questions, answered
Does the essay need a workplace episode in it?
Short illustrations help, and most sections expect at least a couple, but they belong inside the argument rather than in a separate block. Two or three paragraphs of description with the theory attached afterward reads as a story with analysis bolted on. Put each illustration under the component it demonstrates and keep it to a few sentences so the argument stays visible.
How many motivation theories should the essay use?
One as the spine, with a second brought in only where it disagrees. A Week 8 essay covering four accounts at equal depth has room to describe each and no room to argue with any, and the rubric rows on this assignment reward the argument. Where your classroom explicitly asks for a comparison, the comparison becomes the structure and the example is built that way.
How much of this is supposed to be about leadership?
Enough to answer what a person in charge can change, and no further. The essay stays a psychology essay: the subject is what effort responds to, and leadership enters as the set of conditions somebody happens to control. Essays that drift into the management practices of a specific profession lose the theory rows, because the argument stops being about motivation and becomes about a job.
Where can I find a free PSYC 110N Week 8 sample paper?
The PSYC 110N Week 8 essay applying self-determination theory to a hand hygiene audit is printed in full under the summary above.
What happened after the observer left in the PSYC 110N Week 8 sample?
Compliance held at 87 percent for two months, short of the 90 percent target but well above the starting 72 percent, which suggests the motivation was more self-chosen than controlled.