The importance of challenge for the enjoyment of intrinsically motivated, goal-directed activities

Although early interview-based analyses of the enjoyment of intrinsically motivated, goal-directed activities (e.g., chess, rock climbing, art making) suggested the importance of relatively difficult, "optimal" challenges, subsequent findings derived from a wider range of activities have not provided consistent support for this proposition. Two studies were conducted to clarify the relation between challenge and enjoyment. Study 1 focused on a single activity-Internet chess. The importance of challenge was evident at the subjective level (perceived challenge strongly predicted enjoyment) as well as the objective level (games against superior opponents were more enjoyable than games against inferior opponents, and close games were more enjoyable than blowouts). In Study 2, the experience sampling method was used to examine the enjoyment of challenge across a wide range of everyday activities. Activity motivation (intrinsically motivated, non-intrinsically motivated) and activity type (goal directed, non-goal directed) moderated the relation. Implications for theories of intrinsic motivation are discussed.     

Ego-involved persistence: When free-choice behavior is not intrinsically motivated

Experiments on factors affecting intrinsic motivation have generally inferred intrinsic motivation from subjects' engagement in a target activity during a “free-choice period” when external contingencies are no longer operative. However, internally controlling regulation is a form of internal motivation that is very different from intrinsic motivation and can underlie free-choice-period activity. This paper presents three experiments concerned with differentiating internally controlling from intrinsically motivated persistence in situations where ego-involved vs. task-involved subjects had received positive vs. nonconfirming (or no) performance feedback. The first experiment showed that ego-involved (relative to task-involved) subjects displayed less free-choice persistence when they received positive feedback, whereas the second experiment showed that ego-involved (relative to task-involved) subjects displayed more free-choice persistence when they received nonconfirming feedback. In both experiments, however, it was shown that ego-involved subjects did not report the expected affective correlates of intrinsic motivation—namely, interest/enjoyment and perceived choice—whereas task-involved subjects did. In the third experiment, as predicted, ego-involved subjects tended to show less free-choice persistence than task-involved subjects when they received positive performance feedback but greater free-choice persistence when they received no performance feedback. The problem of distinguishing intrinsically motivated activity from internally controlled behavior is discussed.     

La motivation et son ancrage utilitaire/désirable dans l’évaluation

Motivation has an important place among the personal characteristics that professional assessors take in account. A first study shows that different professionals do not choose the same criteria to assess motivation and also shows that normative factors affect their judgement. Then a series of studies focuses on the valorization of intrinsic motivation and on the anchoring in utility / desirability of this attribution of value. It appears that, compared with extrinsically motivated applicants, intrinsically motivated applicants are rather described by judges with desirable traits than with utility traits. This result is found as well with professionals and non professional respondents. So it seems that the valorization of intrinsic motivation would be more anchored in desirability than in utility, which is a difference with the norm of internality that is clearly anchored in utility.     

Is Bad News Always Bad?: Cue and Feedback Effects on Intrinsic Motivation

Although previous research has suggested that, in general, negative feedback concerning performance reduces intrinsically motivated activity, results of the present study indicate that mild negative feedback can increase intrinsic motivation when associated with environmental cues signalling self-determination (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Subjects working on brain-teasers who were given mild negative feedback—but who had a choice of problems to solve, no expectation of evaluation, and who received scores privately—retained as much or more intrinsic motivation than subjects given positive feedback under the same conditions. Subjects in controlling contexts showed less intrinsic motivation. The measure of intrinsic motivation used in this study was a sum of standardized mood and target activity, following recent criticisms of the use of strictly behavioral measures to operationalize intrinsic motivation (Ryan & Deci, 1986).     

Managers’ theories of subordinates: A cross-cultural examination of manager perceptions of motivation and appraisal of performance

The present study sought to examine the relationship between managers’ perceptions of employee motivation and performance appraisal by surveying managers and employees in three distinct cultural regions (North America, Asia, and Latin America) within a single global organization. Three distinct cultural patterns emerged in the theories managers’ held about their subordinates. While North American managers perceived their employees as being more extrinsically than intrinsically motivated, perceptions of intrinsic motivation proved to be a more robust predictor of performance appraisal. Asian managers exhibited a holistic tendency in that they perceived their subordinates as equally motivated by intrinsic and extrinsic factors, and their perceptions of both motivations proved to be comparable predictors of performance appraisal. Latin American managers perceived their employees as being more intrinsically than extrinsically motivated, and accordingly, only their perceptions of intrinsic motivation proved to be significantly correlated with performance appraisal. In contrast to the cultural variations exhibited in manager perceptions, employees consistently reported themselves as being more motivated by intrinsic than extrinsic incentives. Explanations for the distinct cultural patterns that emerged and their implications for the study of culture and organizational behavior are discussed.     

Motivational synchronicity: Priming motivational orientations with observations of others’ behaviors

Two experiments tested the motivational synchronicity hypothesis, according to which observation of a target person’s behavior implying an intrinsic or an extrinsic motivational orientation primes the observers’ corresponding motivational orientation. Experiment 1 revealed that participants exposed to a target person intrinsically motivated to perform a task, relative to those exposed to an extrinsically motivated target person, showed greater intrinsic motivation (free-choice persistence) for the same task. Experiment 2 extended this in two important ways: (1) different tasks were used for the target and participant in order to rule out an expectation-based interpretation of the results, and (2) performance on an activity known to be facilitated by intrinsic motivation was used as the dependent measure. It appears that simply observing others’ motivational orientations influences the accessibility of the observers’ corresponding motivational orientation.     

Dispositional Influences on Pay Preferences

This study tested whether individual measures of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and positive and negative affect predict a job seeker's attraction to organizations offering merit pay, skill-based pay, or broad banding. Intrinsic motivation was found to predict a decision for merit pay while extrinsic motivation did not. Hierarchical regression analysis results suggested that job seekers who were intrinsically motivated or experienced positive affect were attracted to pay plans that offer high levels of personal involvement. Individuals who were extrinsically motivated or experienced negative affect were attracted to pay plans that offer higher than average starting salaries.     

Competitively Contingent Rewards and Intrinsic Motivation: Can Losers Remain Motivated?

We explored the effects on intrinsic motivation and ego-involved persistence of winning versus losing a competitively contingent reward and, for losers, the additional effects of receiving either positive performance feedback or performance-contingent rewards. Winners were more intrinsically motivated than losers. Losers given an explicit normative standard who received positive feedback for meeting the standard were more intrinsically motivated than losers who did not receive the additional standard and feedback. Losers who received a performance-contingent reward for reaching the same explicit standard displayed less intrinsic motivation behaviorally assessed than did losers who got positive feedback, but the two groups did not differ on self-reported enjoyment. Effects on enjoyment were mediated by perceived competence, but effects on free-choice behavior were not. People who lost the competition showed more ego-involved persistence than people who won or did not compete.     

Effects of individualist and collectivist group norms and choice on intrinsic motivation

Previous research suggests that the positive effect of personal choice on intrinsic motivation is dependent on the extent to which the pervading cultural norm endorses individualism or collectivism (Iyengar and Lepper in J Pers Soc Psychol 76:349–366, 1999). The present study tested effects of personal choice on intrinsic motivation under situationally-induced individualist and collectivist group norms. An organizational role-play scenario was used to manipulate individualist and collectivist group norms in participants from a homogenous cultural background. Participants then completed an anagram task under conditions of personal choice or when the task was either assigned to them by an in-group (company director) or out-group (experimenter) social agent. Consistent with hypotheses, when the group norm prescribed individualism participants in the personal choice condition exhibited greater intrinsic motivation. When the group norm prescribed collectivism, participants’ assigned to the task by the company director were more intrinsically motivated. The implications of results for theories of intrinsic motivation are discussed.     

Intrinsic and extrinsic motives for originally following a sport team and team identification.

Research indicates that both highly and lowly identified fans are more likely to be intrinsically than extrinsically motivated and that highly identified fans have a particularly strong inclination for intrinsic motivation. The current investigation was designed to extend this work by examining the relationship between level of identification and one's intrinsic and extrinsic motives for originally following a sport team. Preference for intrinsic motives for originally following a team should be highest among those high on team identification. 88 participants completed questionnaires containing the Sport Spectator Identification Scale and items assessing their intrinsic and extrinsic motives for originally identifying with a team. Analyses provided clear support for the hypotheses.     

Rethinking the value of choice: a cultural perspective on intrinsic motivation

Conventional wisdom and decades of psychological research have linked the provision of choice to increased levels of intrinsic motivation, greater persistence, better performance, and higher satisfaction. This investigation examined the relevance and limitations of these findings for cultures in which individuals possess more interdependent models of the self. In 2 studies, personal choice generally enhanced motivation more for American independent selves than for Asian interdependent selves. In addition, Anglo American children showed less intrinsic motivation when choices were made for them by others than when they made their own choices, whether the others were authority figures or peers. In contrast, Asian American children proved most intrinsically motivated when choices were made for them by trusted authority figures or peers. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Investigating Iranian Medical Students’ Second Language Reading Motivation

Concentrating on second language reading motivation as an important construct with different constituents, this study sought to investigate the factors that majorly motivated medical students to read in English, and to find the orientation of the students in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The data were collected from a sample of 131 students in Fasa University of Medical Sciences, Iran, using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. On the basis of the data collected, the researchers found that among the eight constructs of L2 reading motivation proposed by Komiyama, the lowest mean value was found in the construct “social sharing”, whereas the highest mean value was found in the construct “grades”. Moreover, it was observed that the medical students were both extrinsically and intrinsically motivated.     

Performance and motivational deficits of helplessness: the role of motivational orientations

The present study examined the hypothesis that the effect of failure feedback in producing learned helplessness would depend on the motivational orientation of a child. Extrinsically motivated children were predicted to exhibit performance decrement following a failure experience, whereas the opposite was predicted for intrinsically motivated children. In addition, success feedback was predicted to enhance subsequent performance only for the intrinsic group. Following success, failure, or no feedback on an activity reflecting spatial skills (an incomplete picture task), subjects' performance on an activity tapping different skills (i.e., anagrams) provided by a second experimenter served as the primary measure of helplessness. Subjects' intrinsic motivation in performing the incomplete picture task, a similar task (embedded figures) and a dissimilar task (dots-to-dots) was also examined. The results supported the predictions on both performance and intrinsic motivation measures. The results are discussed in terms of implications for learned helplessness as well as cognitive evaluation theories.     

Intrinsic Motivation,Organizational Justice,and Creativity

For employees to generate creative ideas that are not only original, but also useful to their company, they must interact with their workplace environment to determine organizational needs. Therefore, it is important to consider aspects of the individual as well as their environment when studying creativity. Intrinsic motivation, a predictor of individual level creativity, is associated with feelings of enjoyment and interest in the task at hand. To the extent that tasks are nested in an environment, intrinsically motivated individuals may perceive their environment more favorably than individuals who are not interested in the task. Specifically, such individuals may view the rewards (i.e., distributive justice), decision-making procedures (i.e., procedural justice), and their interpersonal treatment (i.e., interpersonal justice) in their work environment as more fair, due to the positive affect associated with intrinsic motivation. This study examines the relationships between intrinsic motivation, perceptions of organizational fairness, and creativity. Participants (n = 133) worked on a task in a laboratory setting and completed measures of intrinsic motivation and organizational justice. Findings were supportive that intrinsically motivated participants viewed their environment as fairer than participants that were uninterested in the task. Consequently, distributive and interpersonal justice were shown to significantly mediate the relationship between intrinsic motivation and creativity. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Immunizing children against the negative effects of reward: A further examination of intrinsic motivation training techniques

An investigation was conducted to extend previous research on the effect of intrinsic motivation focus sessions on children's subsequent motivational orientation and creativity in an expected‐reward situation. Numerous earlier studies have demonstrated the over justification effect: Initially interested in an activity, an individual who is led to engage in that activity in the presence of some salient extrinsic constraint will judge him‐ or herself to be motivated by the constraint and not by his own interest. This phenomenon has been demonstrated across the life span. Even very young children who work on an interesting task in order to obtain a reward evidence lower subsequent intrinsic motivation than do children not working for a reward. Other research has shown similar negative effects on creativity. However, two recent investigations indicated that the usual over justification effect need not always occur. These studies demonstrated that the undermining of school children's intrinsic motivation and creativity may be counteracted by means of videotaped modeling and directed discussion sessions that explicitly (a) deal with ways to cognitively distance oneself from reward contingencies and (b) focus on intrinsic reasons for working in school. The present study incorporates important refinements of these earlier immunization attempts and provides particularly strong evidence for the hypothesis that children participating in sessions designed to focus on intrinsic reasons for doing things in school will later treat reward as an actual augmentation of intrinsic motivation. Theoretical and practical implications of this phenomenon are discussed.     

Individual Differences in Religious Motivation Influence How People Think

Motives matter and may have implications for how people cognitively experience meaning through religion and spirituality. Specifically, intrinsically motivated people perceive religion and spirituality are more central to meaning in life, which should promote a tendency to adopt more coherent, expansive cognitive representations. In contrast, extrinsically motivated people may adopt narrower cognitive representations since their motivation is more proximally oriented. The present study tests these possibilities by examining how religious motivation relates to action identification (tendency to use coherent, higher‐level cognitive representations). Results from 630 participants revealed that among religious people, intrinsic and extrinsic‐personal religious motivations indirectly influence higher‐level action identification through strength of spiritual beliefs. These relationships were not evident among nonreligious people. Furthermore, extrinsic‐social religious motivation and religious service attendance did not relate to action identification. These findings demonstrate that religious motivation differences are consequential for the action identities people rely upon to form a sense of meaning.     

Emotional experiences during engagement in intrinsically and extrinsically motivated tasks

Previous theories of intrinsic motivation have traditionally ignored the experiential or subjective aspects of engagement in intrinsically and extrinsically motivated tasks. Part of the reason for the lack of research in this area was our ignorance of which emotions to study. Data are presented here from two studies designed to produce the first systematic evidence of changes in basic emotional states during task engagement. Our findings suggest that intrinsic and extrinsic tasks can be differentiated according to the emotional changes subjects retrospectively report about their engagement with these tasks, and point the way to future research incorporating emotion as an important variable to consider.The first author was supported in part by a Minority Fellowship administered by the American Psychological Association under a Clinical Training Grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (5 T01 MH13833), and by a Regents Fellowship from the University of California, Berkeley.     

Trait vs. nontrait conceptualizations of intrinsic/extrinsic motivational orientation

The present study questioned whether intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation should be conceptualized as a trait among elementary school students. Previous instruments employing question formats that pit an intrinsic orientation against an extrinsic orientation typically result in normal distributions around the midpoint of the scale. Such a pattern could only result from a majority of children endorsing both intrinsic and extrinsic items. In the present study we investigated the hypothesis that such children may be intrinsically motivated in some school subjects but extrinsically motivated in others. Questions designed to assess motivational orientation in each of four academic subjects (math, social studies, English, and science) revealed three types of students: (a) those that were intrinsic in some subjects but extrinsic in others, (b) those that were intrinsic in all school subjects, and (c) those that were extrinsic in all school subjects. It was concluded that for the first group, motivational orientation does not function as a trait, but rather is specific to the academic content. However, for the second and third groups, motivational orientation does appear to be trait-like since children consistently report the same orientation across academic subjects. A similar analysis was applied to consistency vs. change over time where three groups were also identified. Discussion focused on the larger issues involving trait- vs. situation-specific approaches.     

Intrinsic Motivation and Flow in Skateboarding: An Ethnographic Study

Intrinsic motivation was examined in a spontaneous and natural context by observing and interviewing skateboarders as they engaged in their sport. At the same time, the flow phenomenon and its relationship to intrinsic motivation was explored. Data were collected from twenty skateboarders. Results indicated being intrinsically motivated can be a rich, subjective experience characterized by a sense of freedom, euphoria and efficacy, challenge and satisfaction. Likewise, flow is a rich, subjective experience characterized by peak performance, heightened concentration, positive affect, and transcendence.