1)
Research Question: Which motivation type
is best for people? Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic?
As you know extrinsic power is coming from
outside but intrinsic power is coming from inside for people as we present in “Motivation”
in our CTE 216 lesson. First of all, I want to share examples of some kind of extrinsic motivation:
- Studying
because you want to get a good grade: Most of students want to get good
grades and takes easy lessons in university even if they do not love them.
- Cleaning
your room to avoid being reprimanded by your parents: In this example,
there is a power which is your parents, and you want to make them happy or
you do not want getting punishment any more.
- Participating
in a sport in order to win awards: In this kind of examples, there is
always a big award at the end of the process, and all people can do
everything to get awards by using more efforts and trying to be best and
get popularity. Sometimes people need this really, for example, most of
all university students prepared student selection exam to win best
university by having scholarship in Turkey.
Therefore, in each of extrinsic examples,
the behavior is motivated by a desire to gain a reward or avoid a negative
outcome. I think extrinsic motivation is permanent mostly because they will
forget everything after the get rewards.
Now I want to share some examples of intrinsic motivation:
- Participating
in a sport because you find the activity enjoyable: I think this is
the most motivated beautiful thing in life because people always give
their all power and effort when they love something, that’s why the most successful
businessman and sportsman are the most love their jobs J and this
feeling is permanent.
- Solving
a word puzzle because you find the challenge fun and interesting: Children always
love the interesting toys, that’s they do not interested in basic toys or
toys which they played lots of times. That’s the reason they always want a
new one J
- Playing
a game because you find it exiting: Oh that’s me! Because I have game addiction.
I played an online game which name is “League of Legends” with my friends
and we are really fun because you have a really good team to be successful.
There are 2 teams and they are fighting each other. Each team has 5
people. J I want to send you
a screenshot.
In this game, there are two teams (blue
and red)
Intrinsic motivation involves doing things
because we find them enjoyable and rewarding for their own sake.
Extrinsic
vs. Intrinsic Motivation: Which Is Best?
So, the
primary difference between the two types of motivation is that extrinsic
motivation arises from outside of the individual while intrinsic motivation
arises from within. Researchers have also found that the two type of motivation
can differ in how effective they are at driving behavior.
A number of studies have demonstrated that offering
excessive external rewards for an already internally rewarding behavior can
actually lead to a reduction in intrinsic motivation, a phenomenon known as the overjustification effect. In one study, for
example, children who were rewarded for playing with a toy they had already
expressed interest in playing with became less interested in the item after being
externally rewarded.
Extrinsic
motivation can be beneficial in a number of situations, however:
·
External
rewards can induce interest and participation in something the individual had
no initial interest in.
·
Extrinsic
rewards can be used to motivate people to acquire new skills or knowledge. Once
these initial skills have been acquired, people may then become more
intrinsically motivated to pursue the activity.
·
External
rewards can also be a source of feedback, allowing people to know when their
performance has achieved a standard deserving of reinforcement.
Extrinsic
motivators should be avoided in situations where:
·
The
individual already finds the activity intrinsically rewarding
·
Offering
a reward might make a "play" activity seem more like "work"
While
most people would suggest that intrinsic motivation is best, it is not always
possible in each and every situation. In some cases, people simply have no
internal desire to engage in an activity. Excessive rewards may be problematic,
but when used appropriately, extrinsic motivators can be a useful tool. For
example, extrinsic motivation can be used to get people to complete a work task
or school assignment in which they have no internal interest.
Researchers
have arrived at three major conclusions with regards to extrinsic rewards and
their influence on intrinsic motivation:
1.
Unexpected external rewards typically do not decrease
intrinsic motivation. For example, if you get good grade on a
test because you enjoy learning about the subject and the teacher decides to
reward you with a gift card to your favorite pizza place, your underlying
motivation for learning about the subject will not be affected. However, this
needs to be done with caution, because people will sometimes come to expect
such rewards.
2.
Praise can help increase internal motivation. Researchers have found that offering
positive praise and feedback when people do something better in comparison to
others can actually improve intrinsic motivation.
3.
Intrinsic motivation will decrease, however, when
external rewards are given for completing a specific task or only doing minimal
work. For example, if parents heap lavish
praise on their child every time he completes a simple task, he will become
less intrinsically motivated to perform that task in the future.
Extrinsic
and intrinsic motivation can also play an important role in learning settings.
Some experts argue that the traditional emphasis on external rewards such as
grades, report cards, and gold stars undermines any existing intrinsic motivation
that students might have. Others suggest that these extrinsic motivators help
students feel more competent in the classroom, thus enhancing intrinsic
motivation.
"A person's interest often survives when a reward
is used neither to bribe nor to control but to signal a job well done, as in a
"most improved player" award. If a reward boosts your feeling of
competence after doing good work, your enjoyment of the task may increase.
Rewards, rightly administered, can motivate high performance and creativity.
And extrinsic rewards (such as scholarships, admissions, and jobs that often
follow good grades) are here to stay," explains David G. Meyers in his
text Psychology:
Eighth Edition in Modules.
As you
have seen, extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation are both important
ways of driving behavior. In order to comprehend how these can be best
utilized, it is important to understand some of the key differences between the
two types of motivation including the overall impact that each can have on
behavior.
THEREFORE INSTRINSIC MOTIVATION IS ALWAYS
BEST AND PERMANENT FOR US.
