Benefits of Being Motivated By the “Big Self”: Chinese Students’ Self-Transcendence Motivation Predicts Increased Agentic and Cognitive Engagement and Well-Being Beyond Identified Motivation

This study shows that Chinese students’ self-transcendence motivation (i.e., learning for the contribution to society and making the world a better place) predicts positive changes in various forms of student engagement and well-being. Additionally, we show that self-transcendence is a unique explanatory phenomenon different from traditionally measured identified motivation.