Abstract

Recently, there have been many simposiums and discussions on the quality of life in Korea. The reasons of these activated concerns on the the quality of life might be two. One is that Korea has achieved rapid economic development, providing the objective condition of putting attention on the subjectively perceived life satisfaction. The other is that many Korean are not satisfied with their current state of quality of life. This research focused upon some motivation theorists, such as Fromm, Maslow, Hebb, Fiske and Maddi, Deci, deCharms, and Csikszentmhaly. Even though these theorists have diverse research orientations and interests, their suggestions have basic common assumptions. First, they assume that people have innate tendency to feel self-determination and competency through intrinsically motivated activities. Second, with this kind of activities people can achieve the innate tendency of self-actualization. Third, this innate tendency of actualizing self can be achieved optimally under the condition of balancing between challenge provided by environment and individual capability to cope with. Forth, by doing intrinsically motivated activities, people feel the positive affects such as excitement, joy, interest, and self-worth. Finally, with this positive affects, people can increase the level of the subjunctively perceived quality of life. Therefore, in oder for Koreans to achieve high level of quality of life, Korean social structure has to change in the direction of providing many challenges for individual, and people also try to do intrinsically motivated activities according to their capability.