Motivation is
the activation or energization of goal-oriented behavior. Motivation is
said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. The term is generally used for
humans but, theoretically, it can also be used to describe the causes
for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation.
According to various theories, motivation may be rooted in the basic
need to minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure, or it may include
specific needs such as eating and resting, or a desired object, hobby,
goal, state of being, ideal, or it may be attributed to less-apparent
reasons such as altruism, selfishness, morality, or avoiding mortality.
Conceptually, motivation should not be confused with either volition or
optimism.
Motivation concepts
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
*Intrinsic motivation
comes from rewards inherent to a task or activity itself - the
enjoyment of a puzzle or the love of playing.This form of motivation
has been studied by social and educational psychologists since the
early 1970s. Research has found that it is usually associated with high
educational achievement and enjoyment by students. Intrinsic motivation
has been explained by Fritz Heider's attribution theory, Bandura's work
on self-efficacy, and Ryan and Deci's cognitive evaluation theory.
Students are likely to be intrinsically motivated if they:
*attribute their educational results to internal factors that they can control (e.g. the amount of effort they put in),
*believe they can be effective agents in reaching desired goals (i.e. the results are not determined by luck),
*are interested in mastering a topic, rather than just rote-learning to achieve good grades.
Extrinsic motivation
comes from outside of the performer. Money is the most obvious example,
but coercion and threat of punishment are also common extrinsic
motivations.
While competing, the crowd may
cheer on the performer, which may motivate him or her to do well.
Trophies are also extrinsic incentives. Competition is in general
extrinsic because it encourages the performer to win and beat others,
not to enjoy the intrinsic rewards of the activity.
Social
psychological research has indicated that extrinsic rewards can lead to
overjustification and a subsequent reduction in intrinsic motivation.
In one study demonstrating this effect, children who expected to be
(and were) rewarded with a ribbon and a gold star for drawing pictures
spent less time playing with the drawing materials in subsequent
observations than children who were assigned to an unexpected reward
condition and to children who received no extrinsic reward.
