Articles
- Category: Motivation
- Written by BRC Staff
Motivation is defined as the persistence, arousal, and direction of behavior. According to Franken, motivation is an internal condition that energizes behavior that gives direction towards one’s desire. Motivational drive is an instinctive need usually associated in the effort of behavior that leads to goal-oriented cause.
The two motivation concepts
There are two motivation concepts that most people usually use such as: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic motivation generally refers to motivation that is caused by an enjoyment or interest in the existing task; it exists within the individual instead of depending on any external pressure.
Educational psychologists have already conducted studies about intrinsic motivation, and they found out that it’s usually associated with enjoyment and high educational achievement of students. Good and detailed explanations of “intrinsic motivation” can be found in the writings of the following authors: a.) Deci and Ryan’s Cognitive Evaluation Theory, b.) Bandura’s Self-efficacy, and c.) Fritz Heider’s Attribution Theory.
Now, students are intrinsically motivated if:
- They are showing interest in mastering a particular topic, rather than just memorizing the topic to get good grades.
- They honestly attribute their educational results to the so-called internal factors that they can actually control; (like the amount of time invested to study).
- They believe that they could become effective forces to achieve desired goals or outcomes; (it is more of certainty of results not based on lucks).
Extrinsic motivation on the other hand arises from the outside force. The most common extrinsic kind of motivation is in form of rewards like money in exchange of getting good grades, it could also be coercion or a threat of punishment.
Competition is also in general extrinsic because it motivates the performer to beat others in order to win. Another example of extrinsic motivation is the crown cheering on a particular performer or the prize that awaits the winner.
Social psychological researchers say that extrinsic rewards could lead to over-justification and a gradual decline in intrinsic motivation. Self-determination theory on the other hand suggests that extrinsic motivation could be internalized by the person once the task itself fit their beliefs and values that could help them in fulfilling their basic psychological needs.
Another important thing that you should remember is “self-control of motivation”; it is understood as a subdivision of emotional intelligence; an individual may be highly intelligent as measured by “intelligence tests”, yet he is not fully motivated to dedicate his intelligence to a certain task.
The role of stimuli and extrinsic rewards can be best describe in the example of training a pet by giving him a treat whenever he does a trick correctly. The treat motivates the animal to perform the trick correctly even if the treat is already been removed from the process.
In other words, intrinsic motivation is more of personal or internal motivations, and extrinsic is more of external motivations.
