The intrinsic/extrinsic motivation models
To enjoy an activity is to desire doing it simply for its own sake (Aristotle as quoted in Rawls, 1971: 431-2); we are most inclined to pursue an activity because of the activity itself rather than for reasons external to the activity (Deci, 1975). This distinction between being moved from within or without has come to be termed that between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Asking people whether they will continue to do an activity if they are no longer required to do so will determine whether they are doing it for intrinsic or extrinsic reasons (Vallerand, 1997).
Csikszentmihalyi called the act of wholeheartedly doing something just to do it "flow," a term that subjects in his studies had used to characterize such experiences (Csikszentmihalyi and Rathunde, 1993). Flow is an act of concentration in which time passes without any awareness of it having passed. It takes all of one's attention, leaving no space for the desire to be doing anything else (Csikszentmihalyi, 1985) or for self-consciousness or for the negative thoughts that commonly accompany boredom or apathy (Csikszentmihalyi and Rathunde, 1993). Other requisites for flow are being in control of a task, having clear goals within it, and being challenged by it while possessing the skills to perform it. Such challenges must increase in proportion to increases in skills if one is to be truly able to put oneself into a task and enjoy concentrating on it fully and doing well. Lacking sufficient skills can over-challenge one and cause anxiety, while having more skills than required can lead to boredom. Vallerand (1997) equated this concept of experiencing flow with receiving pleasure, but while one can re-experience a pleasurable activity by doing it in the same manner as before, being completely involved and having the enjoyment of peak performance requires continual growth (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).
There is considerable research on
the efficacy of making choices, which, as Hunt was the first to propose (1965), also intrinsically motivates. deCharms (1984) had 5th to 7th graders set their own goals in classes so that their "loci of causality" would be internal.
Having such options in their learning resulted in their being more self-confident and taking more risks in their learning, being more responsible for it, achieving more academically, and missing school less. Years later, they were still more responsible learners, had bigger career plans, and the boys among them were more likely to have graduated than boys who had not had the experience of being in charge of their learning (deCharms, 1984). Spring (1974) had also found that greater learner influence over classroom activities proportionately increased personal causation and the amount of learning. Likewise, learners allowed to choose which puzzles they were to solve in class learned more (Ryan, Connell, and Deci, 1985), and those who could determine the schedule for their homework assignments completed more of them (Wang, 1983).
Increased effort results from perceiving that one has played a role in causing an event (Maehr and Archer, 1987).
The efficacy of making choices is due to people desiring power over their own lives (Deci, 1975; deCharm, 1984; Deci and Ryan, 1983; Csikszentmihalyi and Nakamura, 1989; Deci et al., 1991). They determine one course of action over another, whenever they can, by consciously choosing to do something that they want to do (Csikszentmihalyi and Nakamura, 1989).
Their authority to choose their own actions is motivating (Deci and Ryan, 1983; Dörnyei, 1994) and is
positively correlated with doing well, that is, with having increased conceptual learning, better long-term memory, and greater creativity; with feeling positive emotions, enjoyment, and satisfaction; with being self-initiating and self-responsible; and with having an interest in learning, valuing learning, and having confidence in being able to learn. <-6->
Conversely, doing things for a reward can take away one's feeling of ownership of them. With an "external locus of causality" (Rotter, 1966), one can feel pushed around or like a "pawn" (deCharms, 1984). Being watched over, being forced to rehearse, receiving deadlines, being threatened with grades, or competing with others inhibits learning (Ryan et al., 1985; Lepper, 1983; Maehr, 1976). Whatever takes place as a process of compliance or coercion rather than discovery has lesser tendency to be internalized and made into one's own (Ryan et al., 1985). Even doing an interesting task to avoid negative consequences may decrease intrinsic motivation and related parameters (Deci et al., 1991). As long-time proponent of intrinsic motivation in language learning H. Doug Brown (1994) has said, we are not motivated to consume what is shoved down our throats.
A representative externally controlled form of learning is preparation for a -*test*-('"). Grolnick and Ryan (1987) showed that 5th graders who were given material to read and told that it was for learning had the same retention of its details on the -*test*-('") as those asked to learn the material for it but had a better grasp of central concepts than them. In a follow-up study ten days later, those who had thought they had been learning for the -*test*-('") remembered significantly fewer details. This loss was attributed to "core dumping," the common discarding, after a -*test*-('"), of all the material learned for it (Ryan et al., 1985). The ease with which we forget things learned for exams suggests the value of intrinsic motivation for long-term retention (Brown, 1994).
The self-determination theory, an extension of Deci and Ryan pioneering studies on the intrinsic/ extrinsic dichotomy (1983) posited that
for an activity to be intrinsically rewarding, it must fulfill the basic human needs for experiencing competence, relatedness, and autonomy. People feel competence in repeatedly succeeding in an activity, relatedness in doing activities with others, and autonomy in making choices about activities and having personal control over them. Satisfying any of these three needs increases intrinsic motivation, but competence and relatedness do so only if accompanied by some form of autonomy.
Deci and Ryan (1985) further differentiated extrinsic motivation into four types dependent on the degree of self-determination that learners have in it. These range from external regulation, extrinsic motivation for a task over which one has no control, to integrated regulation, extrinsic motivation for a task that one wholeheartedly accepts and adopts. While the more controlling and so less self-determining that regulation is, the less learning takes place (Deci et al., 1991), an extrinsically motivated activity, even a -*test*-('"), can be self-determining if learners accept the value of it.
Vallerand (1997) further refined the elements of self-determination theory into a hierarchy of motivations for doing an activity: in ascending order of effectiveness, amotivation, having no reason to do an activity; three of the four above categories of extrinsic motivation, having to do an activity, feeling obligated to do it, and fully agreeing with the value of doing it; and three types of intrinsic motivation, getting pleasure from doing an activity, achieving by doing it, and satisfying a curiosity or desire for knowledge in doing it. In other words,
learners are self-determining and intrinsically motivated in learning when they are interested in it, want to do well in it, or enjoy doing it. They are self-determining but extrinsically motivated when they value learning because of its importance to them, are extrinsically motivated but less self-determining when learning what they feel they ought to, and are not self-determined when learning what they have to do or else. They are not motivated at all when they have no reason to learn. <-7->
Another way that learning imposed from outside may not necessarily impede motivation is if, because of it, learners acquire a knowledge of or proficiency in a subject that causes them to have interest in the subject (Deci et al., 1991). As Lepper (1983) stated, the best way to counter the possible demotivating effects of external controls on the performance of a learning activity is if the continuance of it results in acquiring abilities that have value for learners. Indeed, most tasks are begun for externally motivated reasons, according to Csikszentmihalyi (1990), such as receiving money or recognition or something else of external value;
only over time do people find themselves interested in and enjoying such tasks (Csikszentmihalyi and Nakamura, 1989).
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Okay, more choices for a start.
