May 13th 2015.
The New York Times cites self-determination theory in their article, Lawyers with Lowest Pay Report More Happiness.
“Law students are famous for busting their buns to make high grades, sometimes at the expense of health and relationships, thinking, ‘Later I’ll be happy, because the American dream will be mine,’ ” said Lawrence S. Krieger, a law professor at Florida State University and an author of the study. “Nice, except it doesn’t work.”
The problem with the more prestigious jobs, said Mr. Krieger, is that they do not provide feelings of competence, autonomy or connection to others — three pillars of self-determination theory, the psychological model of human happiness on which the study was based. Public-service jobs do.
Read more at:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/lawyers-with-lowest-pay-report-more-happiness/