User:S.emp/Week 5, lecture 5

=Week 5, Lecture 5=

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
According to Reeve (2009) intrinsic motivation is an ‘inherent propensity to engage in one’s interest and to exercise one’s capacities and in doing so to seek out and master optimal challenges.’ This behaviour is spontaneous and is done for any extrinsic reason. In other words, intrinsic motivation is doing an activity because the person enjoys the task, not because an someone or something is motivating them to do it. Intrinsic motivation comes from psychological needs (autonomy, competences and relatedness) and innate strivings for growth. Intrinsic motivation is worth nurturing because it leads to benefits such as, persistence, creativity, subjective well-being and conceptual understanding.

Extrinsic Motivation ‘arises from environmental incentives and consequences' (Reeve, 2009) for example, if a person cleans their room they will be given $20. Extrinsic motivation is easy to remember as ‘what is in it for me’ motivation, while intrinsic motivation can be remembered as 'I enjoy it' motivation. The study of extrinsic motivation revolves around the idea of operant conditioning. Operant conditioning basically means that a person learns to engage in behaviours that produce attractive consequences, the person also learns not to engage in behaviours that produce aversive consequences. These consequences can be caused by incentives, reinforcers (positive or negative), punishers and rewards.

In regards to using an extrinsic reward to motivate a person there are intended and unintended effects. The intended effects would be that it would promote compliance, however, the unintended effects would be that it would undermine intrinsic motivation, it interferes with quality and process of learning and it interferes with the capacity for autonomous self-regulation. Interestingly research indicates that the impact of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation in limited to interesting activities, as extrinsic rewards have no effect on a person’s intrinsic motivation for uninteresting tasks. I completely agree with this idea, when I was younger my parents would use extrinsic motivation (money) to try and get me to clean my room, however, I was never motivated to perform this task, as while I liked to idea of getting money, I really did not enjoy spending my time cleaing, when I could do fun things, such as spending time with my friends.

According to Reeve (2009) there are four reasons why a person should not use extrinsic motivation:


 * They undermine the quality of performance and interferes with the process of learning


 * They distract attention away from the hard question as to why another person is being asked to complete an uninteresting task.


 * They are better ways to encourage participation


 * Undermines the individual’s long term capacity to autonomous self-regulation

So far we have discussed 2 of the three motivations. The third motivation is amotivation. Amotivation is a person ‘without motivation, a state in which the person is neither intrinsically nor extrinsically motivated’ (Reeve, 2009). Amotivation personally interests me because I think in today’s society in some circumstances people can not be motivated. For example, some days I know I have an assignment to do but it does not matter if I tried to use intrinsic or extrinsic motivation I am unable to become motivated, I just want to sleep, read a book or watch tv. I just want to turn off my brain.

Motivating others to do uninteresting tasks this can be done by:
 * Giving a reason for why it is important and useful.
 * Building interest, by first creating it and building it over time.

I think that these motivations to do uninteresting tasks are good in theory and I would be interested to see if they work but I believe that if a person is not motivated to do a task, they will put it off as long as possible and trying to reason with them will not make a difference.

Goal setting and goal striving
The Test-operate-test-exit model (TOTE) is a ‘cognitive mechanism by which plans energise and direct behaviour’ (Reeve, 2009). This model is a repetitive cycle in which a person initially tests to see if their current and ideal states match, if they do not match than according to the model a person will act in some way to make the two states match. After this has occurred, the person tests their ideal and current state again. At this point there are two options, if the states do not match the test-operate-test occurs until the two states match, if the states do match the person can exit the model.

An example of the TOTE is if a person really want to become fit (ideal state), however, they do not exercise (current state). There is obviously a discrepancy between the person’s ideal and current state, so according to the model the person would make plans to fix this discrepancy, for example join the gym and the person would continue in the model until the two states matched.

According to Reeve (2009) a discrepancy between a person’s present state and their ideal state creates the sense of wanting to change the present state so that it will move closer to the ideal state. There are two types of discrepancies (it is worth noting that both discrepancies provide the motivational basis for action).


 * Discrepancy reduction = Based on the discrepancy-detecting feedback that underlies plans and corrective motivation.


 * Discrepancy creation = Based on feed-forward system in which the person looks forward and proactively sets a future higher goal.

This chapter also looked at goals and the effects of setting a goal. A goal is defined as ‘whatever an individual is striving to accomplish’ (Reeve, 2009), for example, getting a distinction in motivation and emotion. Goals generate motivation by focusing people attention on the discrepancy between their present level of accomplishment and their ideal level of accomplishment. Goals generally enhance a person’s performance, however, the type of goal a person sets is a key determinate in the extent to which the goal translates into performance gains, as goals vary in how difficult they are and how specific they are. The more difficult the goal the more it energises the performer. I understand the concept that a difficult task can energise a person, however, I think that a difficult task or a task that is a long way away can put a person off the goal. Therefore, I think that it is essential that if a goal is difficult or a long way away, that a person creates short term gaols. In my opinion this would ensure that a person does not become overwhelmed by the difficult goal or bored with the goal. In theory creating short term goals would help the person to stay motivated and alert.

Goal setting is associated with pitfalls that limit its usefulness in applied settings:
 * Increased stress
 * Possibility for failure
 * Non-goal areas ignored
 * Short-range thinking
 * Cheating
 * Undermines intrinsic motivation

Reeve (2009) states that feedback is crucial in making goal setting effective. As it allows people to keep track of their progress. I completely agree with this idea, I think feedback helps us learn and move closer to our goal. For example, in one assignment I got my mark and no comments, however, in another the lecturer had obviously gone to a lot of trouble and made numerous comments throughout the assignment. I found the later extremely helpful, as I knew what I had done right, wrong and how I could improve.

I think an important thing to keep in mind is that goal setting is more about enhancing performance, not necessarily about motivation.