Adaptive preferences versus internalization in deprivation: A conceptual comparison between the capability approach and self-determination theory

This chapter provides a conceptual exploration about the validity of people’s subjectivity in policy making. Featuring the capability approach in development and self-determination theory in psychology, it examines a fundamental question: whether full internalization can be made in externally deprived conditions, as the capability approach assumes, or whether it cannot, as self-determination theory assumes. For this investigation, this chapter (1) makes a comparative analysis between central capabilities in the capability approach and the basic psychological needs in self-determination theory to confirm the similarity in needs requirement; (2) examines the type of goods required for the need satisfaction and the way of assessing them in both approaches; and (3) discusses the feasibility of justice in internalization vis-à-vis adaptive preferences.