Chapter 5 - Intrinsic/Extrinsic Motivation

Chapter five contains so much information that is compatible with every aspect of real life. My favorite chapters have been the ones where I learn what I can relate to my real life. Breaking down motivation into the two main categories, intrinsic and extrinsic, really helped me to see things on a different clearer level. Motivation can be classified in these two categories and then also analyzed based on the outcome and other objectives that correlate such as; rewards, punishers, incentives, and other events. One thing that was surprising to me and interesting were the tables that broke down the actions and psychological outcomes. My favorite table was on page 122, corporal punishment. Spanking is such a controversial topic today. This table made me see it in a different light. I was spanked as a child; therefore, I see it as okay. This table lets me gain psychological background to see all unintended consequences.

Can you be intrinsically motivated yet paid? Yes, you can engage in an activity that has an reward of pay. The fact that you are getting paid might affect the way you work, or the amount. For example, I love my job, Nanning a family of six. Each day I look forward to going to their house to interact with them and find it rewarding to help them in daily activates. I am naturally motivated to spend time with these children. However, the fact that I get paid pushes me to go each day. If I was not getting paid I would not be there every day. I do wake up still looking forward to seeing them and I feel I have an overall better optimal functioning when I am with them on a day vs. not with them.

Personal examples of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation that comply to myself. I personally find many things that I am motivated to do to have natural factors as well as environmental incentives. An example of that includes; I am intrinsically motivated to run. I enjoy the challenge and I naturally want to do it each day. Although, would I be running as much if it were not good for me. I don't know. I personally think that the fact that I enjoy the social aspect of running and the physical outcomes makes it somewhat extrinsic. One thing that I can think has nothing but personal benefit is traveling. I do a program that has not so pleasant implications; I do it solely because I am interested in travel. The amount of work I have to do to get accepted to the program and continue to stay in the program my not necessarily be worth it to others. In fact, I know many who lose motivation based on the work that they have to put into the final goal. But each year when I get the email of list of things that need to be done for further placements, I reply yes. I am naturally motivated, and my persistence each year rises. Many things are solely extrinsic motivation. Work, it extrinsically motivating to me. I work an office job throughout the days, that has nothing to supplement my life besides the money. I feel I have a strong operant conditioning each day I work. Basically, this job only benefits me from an environmental reward, a pay check.

From this chapter I have established an idea to change the way things are done in my life. I think there is several small things that I already do that make an impact on my motivation. For example; making myself finish an assignment before I can eat. I hold a higher position in my chapter here on campus and often I need to motivate a group at large. Some things that I might change will come from this chapter. Providing rewards always help but also pushing them towards natural motivation will be key. This chapter just overall made me think more in-depth.

Key terms: Intrinsic, extrinsic,rewards,punishers, incentives,optimal functioning,persistance,operant conditioning

This chapter is all about extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is evrionmental reasons to initiate action. There are three concepts: incentives, consequences, and rewards. Incentive is an evironmental event that causes people to move toward or away from an action. Consequences involve reinforcers and punishers. A reward is an offering from one person to another for the achievement. Intrinsic is about engaing one's interests and to actually seek it out and accomplish it.

The most interesting thing to me is cognitive evaluation theory. This is where the incentives, consequences and rewards come in. Cognitive evaluation theory has 3 propositions. The first one is external events affecting people's intrinsic motivation when they influence the perceived locus of causality for that behavior. The second one is external events affect people's intrinsic motivation for an optimally challenging activity when they influence the person's perceived competence. The third one is evets relevant to the initiation and regulation of behavior have 3 potential aspects with a functional significance. There are 4 types of extrinsic motivation. 1) external regulation is consisted of incentives and consequences. 2) introjected regulation is avoid guilt, boost self-esteem, and other emotions that follow the "because I should...." statement. 3) identified regulation which is value and the sense of importance. And 4) integrated regulation is value congruence, which is about the motivation reflecting your values.

I believe that it is possible to be intrinsically motivated and to be paid. For example, I work at Pathways Behavioral Services and I love my job. It's something that I enjoy going to, not only because of the money, but because of the interaction I get to have with the clients and knowing that I am helping. I am intrinsically motivated to say yes to my coworkers when they ask me if I can cover their shifts, even when I really don't want to go in, because I know that in the end, I will enjoy my time there & of course the paycheck when it comes later.

I shared my job as one way that I am intrinsically motivated. I love going on adventures, like this weekend I am going camping with a group of friends so my intrinsic motivation is telling me "this week isn't that bad." "This week will go by quickly." I think everyone would agree with me that they're extrinsically motivated when they get a good grade on a test and in a class. Also when you receive scholarships. I got a raise at my job because of a good review from all the clients. It was a surprise, and it made me feel really good. We are all extrinisically motivated by our friends, constantly seeking approval, whether it's what to eat, what to wear, if a joke's funny or not, etc.

This chapter has given me the idea that I should motivate myself to not procrasinate my homework or studying by rewarding myself after an hour of studying. Or after finishing an assignment. But have it be a small reward, like 30 minutes just to browse the internet or watch TV. Or 30 minutes to go on a quick walk before going back to studying. This would be an example of extrinsic motivation. Right now, I volunteer at my church every other weekend to teach bible studies to elementary aged children. I currently got switched from 4th/5th to 2nd/3rd graders and I HATE it. However, I know, intrinsically, that attending church is good and that even though these kids are hard to get to pay attention, they are leaving the church with at least knowing one more thing than when they first arrived.

Terms: extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, incentives, consequences, rewards, cognitive evaluation theory, behavior, competence, external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, integrated regulation

Chapter five was about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation deals with your drive, motives, etc. coming from internal sources. This could be because you enjoy the task itself rather than striving to get the reward. Extrinsic motivation is all about the reward. In extrinsic motivation, you are motivated to emit a certain behavior because you want the reward. When talking about rewards, we can think of them as reinforcement. There are two different kinds of reinforcement: positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is giving them something to reinforce (encourage) the behavior. An example of this would be giving a dog a treat when he does a trick. The dog is extrinsically motivated to perform a trick in order to get the reward, a treat. Negative reinforcement is taking away something aversive in order to reinforce the behavior. An example of negative reinforcement would be not making Bobby do the dishes when he gets an A on his test. Bobby is extrinsically motivated to do well on his test so he doesn’t have to do the dishes. You also may be extrinsically motivated because you want to avoid punishment. Just like reinforcement, there are two different types of punishment: negative and punishment. Negative punishment is taking away something in order to motivate someone to emit a specific behavior. Taking away Bobby’s favorite toy so he listens better is an example of negative punishment. Bobby is motivated to listen so he can keep his toy. Adding something aversive is the definition of positive punishment. An example of positive punishment would be spanking Bobby when he doesn’t listen. This motivates Bobby to listen next time so he can avoid being spanked. I really liked this chapter because it reminded me a lot of a class I took last year with her hubby, Behavior Modification. I really enjoyed that class a lot, and it is fun for me to see the same principles being taught in this class.
I believe it is definitely possible to be intrinsically motivated and to still get paid. A great example of this is when people work who have plenty of money and don’t need to work. Another great example is people who are retired and just work part time somewhere. I also think these people are crazy – I would definitely only be motivated to work with extrinsic motivation, aka, money. So since these people are better people than me, they work without needing the money. So then why do they work? Why do these people still go to work and yet do not need the money? We can see that it is obviously from intrinsic motivation, since the extrinsic motivator no longer holds value. They work because they either have a desire to become a better person, help people, etc. These are all examples of intrinsic motivation – the desire coming from within, rather than an external substance.
As I just stated, I am extrinsically motivated to work. I work as a child care giver for a before and after school program through the YWCA. Though I know there is some intrinsic motivation at work here (getting to help the children and not getting paid NEAR enough), I know for the most part I am being motivated extrinsically. If it weren’t for the paychecks, I would not work at this job, or any job for that matter. I am unfortunately a very lazy person. I am also extrinsically motivated to donate plasma. Though I know donating plasma is a very good deed and it helps saves lives, there is no way I would let these people poke me in the arm with a needle twice a week if I wasn’t getting paid to do so. One example in my life how I am intrinsically motivated is staying in contact with my grandma lovies (yes, that is what I call her, I know, I’m five). We don’t always get along the best and we often bump heads, but I know that she appreciates it when I send her pictures and call her every once in a while. I do this because I know it makes her happy and therefore gives me peace. Now I know what you might be thinking, “You’re just doing that so she sends you money” but trust me – she is not one of those grandmas. But that is okay! I still enjoy keeping her updated with my life because I know she appreciates it.
This class actually is changing my views on what my career choice should be. We have discussed in this class multiple times, even before reading this chapter in the text, how intrinsic motivation is stronger than extrinsic. Right now I am debating to be whether I want to become a school counselor or a school psychologist. It has been a very hard decision for me for the past two years, and I still don’t completely know; I am applying for both graduate programs. However, if you would have asked me this summer to pick only one, I would have picked become a school psychologist because they make more money. I actually enjoy the work of a school counselor more. Now after reading this chapter and being in this class, I wonder if I should make school counseling my first option and school psychology my second. If I will be more motivated to work as a school counselor because I am intrinsically motivated to do so (because I enjoy the work more) would I be happier then? This is a tough decision that I need to decide, but quite frankly, I just hope I get into one of the programs I apply for!

Chapter 5 discussed intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. First, intrinsic motivation was described as “the inherent propensity to engage one’s interests and to exercise one’s capacities and, in doing so, to seek out and master optimal challenges” (Deci & Ryan, 1985b). Intrinsic motivation was described as having the ability to create persistence, creativity, conceptual understanding/high-quality learning, and optimal functioning and well-being.

The authors then changed topics to extrinsic motivation which was defined as arising from environmental incentives and consequences. Within extrinsic motivation, we can begin to see ways our motivation is regulated. These included incentives, (an environmental event which precedes a certain behavior) reinforcers, (extrinsic events that increase behavior) consequences (reinforcers and punishers) and rewards. Next chapter 5 discussed the hidden costs of rewards such as losing intrinsic motivation when extrinsic motivation is available, interfering with the process of learning, and interfering with the process of autonomy followed by the discussed of expected and tangible rewards and the benefits of incentives, consequences, and rewards.

Next, cognitive evaluation theory and it’s three propositions were discussed. The types of extrinsic motivation followed and included external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, and integrated regulation. Lastly, two sections of motivating others to do uninteresting activities and building interest completed the chapter.

Although it was briefly mentioned in class already, the most surprising thing I learned was the idea that extrinsic motivation can decrease intrinsic motivation. Like many other people, I assumed if you’re intrinsically motivated to do something, extrinsic motivation would only motivate one more to do this thing they loved. For example, I love to bowl and it’s always been a hobby of mine. I’m intrinsically motivated to bowl because it’s fun and I enjoy it, but to think that I could get paid for bowling?! That sounds like a fantastic idea but studies show that if I were to start getting paid, I would start enjoying bowling less and it would be less fun for me overall.

The majority of the time when extrinsic motivation is offered, intrinsic motivation decreases or ceases to exist. I do believe, however, that it is possible to be intrinsically motivated and still get paid in the instances when the reward of pay is unexpected. Let me continue my bowling example. If I were to bowl in a “fun” tournament, without the expectation of receiving any monetary reward, and I won and received $100, I would be ecstatic. My intrinsic motivation, however, would not have just disappeared because I would not be dependent on the monetary reward to continue my hobby of bowling. The reward was unexpected and probably a rare, possibly even one time, occurrence.

The bowling example is one way I am intrinsically motivated but I am also extrinsically motivated in many ways. My job is a fantastic example of a way in which I am both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated. I work at Bath and Body Works and I am, most obviously, extrinsically motivated by the pay. I also enjoy the people I work with. I believe I am intrinsically motivated to stay at my job because most of the time I actually enjoy it. I enjoy working with the customers and I enjoy learning about the products we carry.

Another great of example of a way I am both extrinsically and intrinsically motivated is through exercise. I try to work out at least 2-3 times a week (during the summer it was every day because I had more free time). I actually enjoy exercise and am interested in health and fitness which is part of my intrinsic motivation. I am, however, extrinsically motivated to work out because of the health benefits and the appearance benefits exercise can have.

Obviously this chapter has opened my eyes to the fact that in order to be successful in my career and throughout the rest of my academic career, I need to be intrinsically motivated. I do believe I am, for the most part, intrinsically motivated now as it is. That’s a major reason why colleges have a variety of majors because it’s something you choose to study because you are interested in it. How many people would be intrinsically motivated to study a topic they did not like? If I break it down into certain classes, however, and even into specific assignments, I can see that the extrinsic motivation to receive a good grade is there. Instead, I should concentrate more on learning the material and taking interest in the material than on receiving a higher grade. For my future career, I would love to be intrinsically motivated because it will increase my persistence, creativity, understanding/learning, and well-being!

Terms: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation,incentives, consequences, reinforcers, punishers, cognitive evaluation theory, external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, and integrated regulation

Chapter 5 is all about the different ways of expressing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic is the internal part of being motivated while extrinsic is all about how the environment motivates a person. Some different ways of using intrinsic motivation is through persistance which is how a person is able to keep going even when a situation or task is difficult. Intrinsic motivation is also expressed by a person's creativity. The more internally motivated a person is the more creative that person will become. This all leads to optimal functioning and well-being. When someone has high intrinsic motivation the higher well-being they will have in self-esteem, interpersonal relationships, and less anxiety. Extrinsic motivation consists of things like incentives, consequences and rewards. Each of these things stimulate a person to do a particular behavior that is either facilitated by negative or positive aspect. Some examples of extrinsic motivation is someone trying to win the trophy after running a race or a car alarm going off to help stop a robber. These are just some of the examples of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in chapter five.

A part of this chapter that I found very interesting was the part on how rewards can have a hidden cost behind them. The example that they used in the book was if a person that likes to read for the fun of it starts to recieve money for reading can suddenly start to dislike to read. A person would think that if you are doing something you love and then also get a reward for it, then the person should be even happier. The book goes on to explain that it is not true that using extrinsic motivation for something you already are intrinsically motivated to do will make it even better. the opposite effect usually happens instead. i found this interesting because as a kid I had the same thing happen to me. I used to love to read until we were made to read so many books for school to be able to get a good grade. instead of liking the fact that i got to read, I started hating to read and I still do not truly enjoy to read as much as I did whe I was little all thanks to the reading program at school.

The question of wheter or not a person can still be intrinsically motivated and get paid was kind of like my previous paragragh. I believe that a person may start a job they love because of intrinsic motivation and then also think getting paid will just be an added bonus. Well this is most likely going to make a person start to dislike what they do for a living because the paycheck takes away the love for the job since the money comes with consequences such as having to be bossed around and told when they have to work and always doing what someone tells you to do, unless you are a ceo of a company their will always be someone at work that is higher up on the ladder than you. This is why i belive it is difficult to be intrinsically motivated and get paid.

After reading this chaptr it made me think about the ways in my life that I am motivated, either intrinsically or extrinsically. I think that I am very extrinsically motivated when it comes to classes that I do not have any interest in. All i want to do in that situation is to pass the class with a good grade. I am only intrinsically motivated when I feel like the class will benefit me in the future with my hopeful career as a counseling psychologist. Those classes are the ones I want to actually learn and remember the stuff I was told. This chapter will definately help me think about how I am continually motivated in my life. As I start to apply to graduate schools in the next couple of months, I will be thinking about why I really want to apply to a certain school. It may be because of its location or it may be because I like what one of the professors research topics are. I hope to continue to use my newly learned skill of focusing on why and how I am motivated to do any task in my life.

Terms: Intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, persistence, creativity, optimal functioning, well-being, incentives, consequences, rewards.

Chapter 5 deals with the two different kinds of ways we are motivated. The easiest way to explain it is that there is intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is what pushes us to do something that engages our specific interests and master the specific challenges in our life. Extrinsic motivation is the push of an external object or reason outside of our brain. Let’s look at an example of fishing. Many people enjoy fishing, but what would be the motivation to go out there multiple weekends (many cold weekends as well) and go sit on the side of a lake and fish? Well, we could look at what kind of motivation the fisherman has. If the fisherman is intrinsically motivated, that would mean that fishing is an interest of his, and he is probably trying to “master” it by catching a bigger fish than he did the weekend before. If the fisherman is extrinsically motivated, this could mean that there is a fishing contest coming up with a $1,000 prize. The action, though, must be preceded by an incentive. This is what tells us if something is attractive or unattractive. The fisherman has the motivation to go fish because of the $1,000 incentive, or the fisherman DOESN’T go fishing because of the incentive that the temperature is below freezing. We continue to engage in our behavior when we cross paths with a reinforcer. This is an extrinsic event that increases behavior (ex. $1,000).
I find it very interesting how the two ways to be motivated differ in so many ways. It’s really interesting to look at the decisions that I make in my life and see how I am motivated to do those things. Even sitting down to type this essay requires extrinsic motivation because I am typing it so I can get a good grade in the class. I was never a textbook reader in my classes, but now I am extrinsically motivated to do so because I need to type this essay to get a passing grade.
I think that it is possible to be intrinsically and extrinsically motivated at the same time. I think of some people that donate plasma. I understand that the main reason people (especially college students) donate plasma is because they get money after they are done, but I have also met people that feel really happy after they have donated because they know that they have helped someone. Yes, at the same time people can just donate to get money and not care about the patients receiving it, but I feel that most people feel a sense of good moral standing after they get done donating.
One example of being intrinsically motivated is going out to run just for fun. Maybe the runner is interested in living healthy life or maybe they are interested in decreasing their time. If someone is extrinsically motivated to run, that means that they are in a competition where there is some prize or monetary value involved.
This chapter really explains the difficult decision that I have to make this semester. Right now I am deciding between two majors. I feel that I have decided that I want to do education because of both intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivations. To be honest, I feel that I would enjoy working with the youth a lot. I feel that being able to go to work and do something that I enjoy and that interests me is more important than just having something that pays good money.

Chapter five begins the illustrate the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Bringing to light that our motivation may be controlled by the environment around us through our decision making. Which also suggests that people's motivation does not always come from within. Some examples of these environmental motivations can be as little as grades in a classroom to a bonus at work; they are essentially trying to motivate someone to work harder. A main difference between intrinsic and extrinsic is that intrinsic is more of an activity that is enjoyed or done for ones own pleasure while extrinsic is more incentive based.
Intrinsic motivation by definition is “to engage one’s interest and to exercise one’s capacities and in doing so to seek out and master optimal challenges” which in other words means do what you enjoy and do it well damnit. Usually intrinsic activities are done spontaneously and without any incentive behind it usually satisfying psychological needs through autonomy, which comes with more competence and the person having a feel free phenomena. Positives that are gained through intrinsic motivation are persistence and the ability to continue through the very end of whatever is motivated. Through this persistence comes the creative age of putting your own “touch” to a project or opinion.
Extrinsic motivation comes about through environmental “incentives” or “consequences” which could be a variety of things. When we as human beings act to gain the attention and motivation from other human beings this is extrinsic motivation but with this attraction it also motivates us not to embarrass ourselves and or to avoid negative consequences. Essentially extrinsic motivation is another word for operational conditioning; positive behaviors persist through attractive consequences while negative behaviors cease to persists because of aversive consequences. Incentive is an environmental event that attracts or repels a person toward or away from initiating a particular course or activity. Incentives shapes our lives right before us, through goal directed behavior; positive incentives cue approach behavior while negative incentives cue avoidance behavior. Incentives differ from consequences incentives either encourage or inhibit behavior while consequences follow behavior and either increase or decrease persistence of behavior.
A reinforcer is whether or not it increases a behavior. Reinforcers vary in quality i.e money is better than praise; it also is more effective through immediate reaction to the behavior wanting to be reinforced. There are two types of consequences reinforcers or punishment. A positive reinforcement is any environmental stimulus that increases future probability of the desired behavior. A negative reinforcer is any environmental stimulus that when removed increases future probability of desired behavior. A punisher is any environmental stimulus that when presented decreases the future probability of the undesired behavior. Meaning that punishment occurs after the fact and usually has an unsatisfying taste. No long term effects will come from punishment, as you see short-term that there is comprehension but will cause a lot of unwanted “side effects” (negative modeling for coping, ruin relationship, etc.).
Intrinsic motivation is great, until disturbed through extrinsic motivation as it destroys our self-discipline and fun originally put in it. By rewarding a behavior that initially didn't need an award could cause that behavior to become reward dependent, and may also lose that initial intrinsic motivation that began it all. Over time the person will become less and less intrinsically motivated and more and more extrinsically motivated. This also really interesting to me as initially we would all think that the two motivations would only help each other out instead of cause further harm. It is interesting to see how easily we are to grasp onto extrinsic motivations and disperse from our original intrinsic motivation. It makes me wonder if self-esteem plays a role in this at all.
This chapter helped me better understand concepts I used readily in day-to-day life. Before I was unable to identify a difference between punishment and negative reinforcement, and now can see the difference and use it to my advantage. School has always been a side note for me, and I was never really intrinsically motivated to do anything, but as education is becoming more important in my life I can create this motivation, which will help satisfy my needs.

Terms: intrinsic motivation, autonomy, extrinsic motivations, incentive, consequence, positive and negative reinforcement, punisher

I have always found an interest in the reasons why we do certain things throughout our day and even lives. Chapter 5 pretty much just laid out what our motivations can look like from different aspects. Starting off with intrinsic motivation, which basically means a psychological drive from within ourselves, or a personal interest, that emits us to partake in a given behavior. I like to think of it along the lines of; what do I like to do, what makes me happy. Whereas when looking at extrinsic motivation its more along the lines of what other outside or external factors cause for me to emit a certain behavior, what reward or consequence made me want to do that. The chapter continues on to tell of the pros and cons for each intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, I personally would say an intrinsic motivation is going to be more rewarding for someone, after all despite the outcome, eventually you’re not going to want to do something that someone tells you to do, you will want to do it because you personally have an interest. At least that’s my view on things, when I got an allowance to do the dishes; I did them, once I got a job and earned my own money that allowance was no longer reinforcing; however my father made sure he found an even better reinforcement to keep me doing the dishes.

The most interesting thing I read about would have been the section on corporal punishments, as a child I was not spanked but rather I was talked to in a calm manner about what I had done and the consequence I thought I should deserve. This usually came down to me being able to understand in my own sense that the behavior I was essentially getting in trouble for was not acceptable behavior, rather than getting punished and feeling horrible for a behavior I really didn’t understand why I shouldn’t be doing in the first place. On the other hand my cousins were corporally punished, and the section helped me look back to the past and present on our different personalities and how we handle things to this day. When you are physically punished, in that instant you don’t want to feel that pain again, but problems present themselves in different situations, I feel as if a punishment doesn’t teach you how to handle these problems when they arise again. Like right now I really wanted to watch T.V. instead of doing my homework, and I could have because no one is here to spank me; instead my common sense kicked in and made myself aware of the consequences I would later be facing if I didn’t just get it done now, this I believe comes from when I was a child and the logical thinking I had to do to realize why my behavior would be aversive.
Is it possible to be intrinsically motivated and still get paid to do so? Yes, but perhaps how internally motivated you are to do a given job that you are getting paid to do can influence the effort you put forth. Some people enjoy working simply for the fact that it produces a pay check at the end of the week and as an added bonus they don’t just sit around all day; you personally want to work so you stay active, but how far does that go on a daily basis, some days you might not want to get out of bed, but knowing your paycheck would be less than usual will push you to get up. On a personal level I’m a nanny and I love watching children in general, I always have enjoyed watching kids and I have done a lot of volunteer babysitting in the past. However, as I got older I was still very interested in babysitting and being around children, but on my own time, if I wanted to do other plans I simply said no; until obviously I started getting paid to nanny, then it became a matter of do I want to go spend money or go earn money. I still have the internal drive to be around and care for the kids I nanny every day, but sometimes the external factor of knowing I have a paycheck coming, especially after I get thrown up on, is very reinforcing.

I am intrinsically motivated when it comes to reading, books of my liking of course; I would rather gauge my eyes out then read a statistics book, but I would gladly read 50 shades of grey all night long; when in all reality each behavior is the same, I just don’t find one appealing. I am also intrinsically motivated to be alone and relax, I love having my own down time and turning my phone off; it’s something I enjoy. I would have to say that extrinsic motivations pretty much make up our lives; I work because essentially I need a pay check. I go to college because I want a bigger paycheck. I’d like to say I live my life to please myself, but really I’m living it to please my peers in the way I look or talk, to please society in the fact that I have a college degree and to give my family a person t0 be proud of.

This chapter helped me realize that I personally need to learn to find different motivations for myself, especially when it comes to aversive things such as homework, usually I promise myself something but knowing when I promise it I really won’t care if I get it or not. This chapter also helped me that with my job as a nanny I sometimes get flustered and attempt to punish the kids instead of reinforcements; which always backfires into my face, so I realized sometimes I need to slow down and realize that the goal isn’t to get a quick response from them but rather a long term lesson for them.

Terms: Intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, reward, consequence, reinforcement, reinforcing, corporal punishments, punishments, aversive, emit.

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were discussed in the beginning of the chapter. Intrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from psychological needs and from personal interests. Extrinsic motivations come from the environment because of rewards like money. Extrinsic motivation revolves around incentives, consequences, and rewards. Incentives are what attract or push a person away from a certain action while consequences are the reinforcers and punishers. Rewards produce achievements for individuals that they may not otherwise receive.

The cognitive evaluation theory explains how an extrinsic event affects the different motivations. It allows us to predict the effects that an extrinsic event will have on motivation as well. It could increase or decrease extrinsic and intrinsic motivation depending on how it is presented. For example, if it is presented in a controlling way, extrinsic motivation increases while intrinsic motivation decreases. The struggle is to find a balance of these things. Self-determination theory, however, goes even further in discussing the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. There are also four types of extrinsic motivation. External is when externally regulated behaviors are carried out to receive a reward or satisfy an external demand. Introjected regulation was somewhat confusing to me but involves taking in but not accepting other peoples demands of how to behave and think. Identified regulation is basically internal motivation because the person has identified with a personal importance and has accepted these things as their own way of thinking or behaving. Integrated regulation, however, is where people transform their indentified values and various behaviors into the self.

I thought the most interesting aspect of this chapter was that there are so many types of motivation. All of these different types play a role together make up motivation. I thought the aspect of motivating others to do uninteresting types of activities was an interesting topic as well. It is amazing how much our parents and teachers used these techniques to try and get us children to become motivated to carry out a boring task such as washing our hands or doing homework. I know my mom tried various types of incentives, consequences, and rewards to convince us or motivate us to want to carry out these activities.

I definitely think it’s possible to be intrinsicially motivated and still be paid. For example, if a person loves their job, the money will not matter. I happen to love my current job and I learn a huge amount of information each day I go. I think this aspect of my job is rewarding enough. Also, I don’t get paid much so it wouldn’t make a huge difference. But this might occur in other aspects as well. I know there are a lot of people out there that play professional sports who love playing the sport and could care less about the money. Thus, it is definitely possible to be intrinsically motivated without being paid.

Many aspects of my life involve intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Some involve both types whereas others involve only one. An example of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for me is school work. I love the satisfaction of getting a paper or project done and I don’t mind homework all that much. I love to learn and therefore this is an intrinsic motivation for me. I love the satisfaction of a well-earned grade and this is all for myself. However, it is also extrinsic because the effort I put into my school work is all in the hands of the teacher. The professor will either reward me with a good grade or I will receive the consequence of a poor grade. I also have an extrinsic motivation to use these grades to get into grad school as well. Thus, this topic can go both ways for me. Thinking about this topic, I can’t really think about much I do solely for myself. It seems like a lot of things in this world are about the external or extrinsic aspects of motivation. I guess one thing I do that comes from intrinsic motivation is organize. It makes me feel good to have an organized apartment. Extrinsic motivation ranges in my activities anywhere from grades to exercise.

I think this chapter has greatly altered the way I think about my future motivation. As I stated before, the way to motivate people for uninteresting activities really grabbed my attention in that there are many ways to get people to become motivated. I would love to work in a nursing home when I graduate either being an activities director or some other aspect. In a nursing home it’s going to take a great amount of psychology and motivating skills to bring motivation into the lives of the elderly. I’ll know how to bring this about extrinsically and intrinsically for them to become motivated to carry out their activities. I also discovered that throughout the rest of my life I will need to learn to find ways to motivate myself intrinsically. Extrinsic motivations work, but I think intrinsic motivation makes life all that more satisfying. Finding a career I love will help me life a fuller and happier life. I won’t have to spend every morning finding the tiniest bit of motivation to get me through the day. If I’m intrinsically motivated it will come more naturally.

Terms: Intrinsic motivation, extrinsic, incentives, consequences, rewards, reinforcers, punishers, self determination theory, external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, integrated motivation, cognitive evaluation theory,

Chapter 5 discusses and defines intrinsic motivations versus extrinsic motivations. Intrinsic motivation is described as an inherent propensity to engage one’s interests and exercise one’s capacities and, in doing so, to seek out and mast optimal challenges. This natural motivation emerges spontaneously out of psychological needs for: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. An example of intrinsic motivation would be finishing a challenging Sudoku puzzle. Intrinsic motivation offers numerous benefits such as: persistence, creativity, conceptual understanding/high-quality learning, and optimal functioning and well-being. Extrinsic motivation arises from environmental incentives and consequences that are separate from the activity itself. An example of extrinsic motivation would be studying/doing homework for a few hours and then being rewarded with ice cream or stickers.

The text describes the external regulation of motivation as incentives, consequences, and rewards. Incentives are environmental events that attract or repel one toward or away from initiating a particular course of action – incentives always precede behavior and excite or inhibit the initiation of behavior. Consequences are made up of positive and negative reinforcers, and punishers. Positive reinforcers are an environmental stimulus that, when presented, increases future probability of desired behavior (such as a paycheck). Negative reinforcers are environmental stimuli that, when removed, increase future probability of desired behavior (such as an alarm clock – “DO IT!”). Punishers are defined as an environmental stimulus that, when presented, decreases future probability of undesired behavior (such as criticism – “STOP IT!”). Lastly, and according to the text, extrinsic rewards are offerings from one person given to another in exchange for his/her service or achievement (such as a prize for class participation). Another main point in the text was the mention of hidden costs of rewards. In order to benefit from rewards, one must: (1) use rewards that are unexpected and verbal, and (2) limit the use of extrinsic motivators to tasks that have high social importance but low intrinsic appeal.

The cognitive evaluation theory is the theory that all external events have both a controlling aspect and an informational aspect. The text explains that “for intrinsic motivation to flourish, both competence and autonomy must be high, and for both competence and autonomy to be high, an external event needs to be presented in both a noncontrolling and informational way.”

The three types of motivation are: amotivation, extrinsic motivation, and intrinsic motivation. The self-determination theory states that all three motivations “can be organized along a continuum of self-determination or perceived locus of causality.” It is also important to note, as according to the text, that to promote identified regulation during an uninteresting activity one must offer a rationale (a verbal explanation of why putting forth effort during an activity might actually be useful and important to the person).

The most surprising or interesting thing I learned was that extrinsic motivation itself, has four types of motivation that are based on the degree of autonomy. The four types include: external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, and integrated regulation. It was interesting to learn the difference between the different types of external motivation in relation to autonomy. I learned that external regulation is not at all autonomous (external - compliance), that introjected regulation is somewhat autonomous (somewhat external – self-control), that identified regulation is mostly autonomous (somewhat internal – personal importance), and that integrated regulation is fully autonomous (internal – awareness). It is surprising that external motivation can be broken down into so many aspects when one is talking simply about autonomy.

I believe that it is possible to be intrinsically motivated and still be paid. A great example (that seems to be common in previous posts as well) is that of someone who has passion about, and loves their job. I had a friend, Anna, who was a nanny this summer for a seven-year-old girl. My friend absolutely loved her job and had told me numerous times that she would have continued to work with the little girl even if pay was not involved – she was genuinely interested in being a nanny as it offered her a challenge and offered a feel of preparedness for her teaching days ahead. The text states that intrinsic motivation is present if autonomy (“allows person to feel free”), competence (effective), or relatedness (emotionally close) is present. When my friend told me that she “enjoyed being a nanny this summer,” I realized how intrinsically motivated she was (and because being a nanny offered her pay, I believe that one can be intrinsically motivated and still be paid).

An example of how I am intrinsically motivated is when I scrapbook. I genuinely love to be creative and there are no extrinsic motivators motivating me to complete my work. I scrapbook “just for the fun of it” and I also find it enjoying and self-satisfying. An example of how I am extrinsically motivated is based on the grades I get on assignments and tests when I study excessively. This is extrinsically motivating to me because I do not always study extensively (studying an average amount) and thus my grades are not up to my personal standards. However, when I do push myself to study excessively, my grades are equal to or greater than my standards. I am thus motivated to increase my study time in order to receive the grades that I want.

Information from this chapter will definitely change how I think about motivating myself for success in school and in my career. I will keep in mind the value of being intrinsically motivated over extrinsically motivated – mind over matter. I will attempt to not adhere to expected and tangible rewards, but learn to receive verbal rewards instead. I do not want money/salary to be my incentive (extrinsic motivation) for going to work/school, but rather I would like to go to work every day because I love my job and the people I work with. I hope to be intrinsically motivated in my future because I feel that I would be a happier and more positive individual.

Chapter four discusses our intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Intrinsic motivation, the processes of acting out of interest, is a form of motivation that makes us do things just for the heck of it, because we truly enjoy it. Intrinsic motivation is a natural motivation that is caused by psychological needs within one’s self and as just mentioned they truly find enjoyment out of it. The more intrinsic motivation a person has, the more likely they are to be persistent in a certain task, as well as have an enhanced sense of creativity. Extrinsic motivation comes from environmental incentives and consequences such as food or money that make us want to do something. This means that we do certain tasks to receive some sort of reward for completing the task. Different forms of extrinsic motivation can come in the forms of incentives, reinforcer’s, rewards and consequences. Incentives are “environmental events that attracts or repels a person toward or away from and initiating a particular course of action” (Reeve 114). Incentives can be both positive and negative and are learned through experiences, such as knowing a smile as a positive incentive and a scowl as a negative incentive. Reinforcer’s is an “extrinsic event that increases behavior” (Reeve 115). Reienforcers cause and increased behavior but the effect justifies the cause. It is important to know prior to a situation whether or not a reinforcer will work. For example, if someone doesn’t like candy and it is being used as a reinforcement, it is likely there will be much motivation to complete the task if they are only in it for the reinforcement of a candy bar. Consequences involve two things, reinforcers and punishers. The two forms of rienforcers, positive reinforcers (environmental stimulus that increases the future chances of a desired behavior) and negative reinforcers (environmental stimulus that when removed creates the chances for future desired behavior) both create a desired behavior to happen. Punishers are “any environmental stimulus that, when presented, decreases the future probability of the undesired behavior” (Reeve 118). An example of a punisher would be serving a jail sentence or receiving criticisms. Both punishers and reinforcers are trying to either support good behavior or try to decrease the likelihood of bad behavior to continue thus creating different consequences to change behaviors or support good ones. Rewards, consequences, incentives and reinforcers all have their pros and cons. They all can be seen I a positive light in the fact they can cause someone to want to do something or behave in a certain way, or cause people to change a negative behavior. Downfalls of these four forms of motivation can be that people will only want to behave in a certain ways just because of incentives and rewards rather than doing something because deep down they want to.
One thing that stood out as interesting to me was the discussion of how rewards and incentives for doing a behavior that is already a source of intrinsic motivation for a person can cause a person to lose their intrinsic motivation. I can relate to this 100%. When the semester starts I am so eager and excited to start classes and learn something new. I have a high level of intrinsic motivation. By the end of the semester, I am so beat up from school and the incentive of getting good grades is all I care about, rather than actually taking in and learning the information. The fact that creativity comes from intrinsic motivation and that rewards and incentives can flip our intrinsic motivation to extrinsic motivation was really interesting to learn about.
I feel that it is possible to be intrinsically motivated while receiving an incentive such as being paid a monetary value to an extent. I feel that this is more or less based on individual basis. Say someone has a love for children and finds true enjoyment with playing and spending time with children. Now say that person works at a day care and gets paid to do something that they still love and would do even without being paid to do so. This person would maintain intrinsic motivation. However a person maybe intrinsically motivated to be with children but after receiving money for babysitting children their motivation can switch to extrinsic motivation, so It can go either way.
I find myself to be intrinsically to be motivated by things I want to do, such as crafting, hanging with friends, and learning new things. I become extrinsically motivated when it comes to making list of homework and task I need to do because I am only motivated to get that item crossed off my list. I am also extrinsically motivated by money. For instance I love the job I have now but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t in it for the money because deep, deep down I know I am.
Information from this chapter defiantly has me thinking about how I learn in my classes and for further classes. I have already been noticing a change in learning styles that work best for me this semester by being exposed to different types of classes where there are no tests with grades to extrinsically motivate me to get good grades. It is more of what I learn and to make sure that I am actually learning it, not just memorizing something to get a good grade on a test. This information defiantly gives food for thought for my years of school to come.
Terms: Intrinsic, Extrinsic, Consequence, Reinforcers(Positive and Negative), Incentives, Rewards

Chapter 5 was centered on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. First, it discussed how intrinsic motivations are from within you. When people are intrinsically motivated, they act out of interest and fun. It comes from psychological needs and innate strivings. Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, comes from environmental incentives and consequences. An incentive comes before a behavior happens, and is an environmental event that either attracts or repels a person toward or away from initiating that particular course of action (p.114). A consequence, though, comes after a behavior. The chapter then goes on to discuss what reinforcers are and how one can manage behavior by offering reinforcers. There can be positive reinforcers and there can be negative reinforcers. Positive reinforcers are pleasant stimuli that are presented to increase the happening of a desired behavior. A negative reinforcer is the removal of an aversive stimulus to increase the happening of a desired behavior. Both achieve the same goal of increasing a desired behavior. There are also things that are known as punishers. Punishers are used to decrease the occurrence of undesired behaviors. After discussing reinforcers and punishers, the chapter goes on to discuss how rewards may not work if they are facilitating desirable behavior based on extrinsic motivation. This is because there are hidden costs of reward that undermine intrinsic and extrinsic motivation toward a certain activity. Tangible and expected rewards are often less useful that verbal or intangible rewards. The next section of the chapter covered what is known as the cognitive evaluation theory. This discusses how all external events have both a controlling and an informational aspect, and it assumes that people have physiological needs for autonomy and competence, therefore stating that the controlling aspect of an external event affects the person’s need for autonomy and the informational aspect of an external event affects the person’s need for competence (p.128). The chapter then went on to talk about three different types of motivation: amotivation, extrinsic motivation, and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation was then broken down into four categories: external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, and integrated regulation. Next, the chapter discussed how to motivate others to do uninteresting activities and then ended on the topic of building interest within yourself and others.

The most surprising thing that I learned from this chapter was that intrinsic motivation truly is necessary if a job is to be done well. Without any type of intrinsic motivation, the person may not feel the need to get the job done to the best of their abilities. Extrinsic motivation can help push a person along, but the end result will not be as good as if the person were intrinsically motivated, which would allow for them to have persistence, creativity, conceptual understanding and high-quality learning, and optimal functioning and well-being. This interested me so much because I realized how many things I do in my life because of extrinsic motivation. It opened my eyes and made me see that I may not be doing my personal best on certain tasks because I have no intrinsic motivation to do so.

The blog asks the question, “Is it possible to be intrinsically motivated yet still be paid?” and I believe that the answer is yes. If we are able to have a certain amount of autonomy and competency, then it is definitely attainable. If you are doing a job that you truly love and are interested in, then getting paid will just make them see that they are getting rewarded for doing something that they excel at. If your pay is controlling your purpose for being at your job, though, then that is a different story. If someone is truly intrinsically motivated, they will not be less so for getting paid.

There are many examples of how I, personally, and intrinsically and extrinsically motivated. I love to read Cosmopolitan, which is an intrinsically motivated behavior. There is no other reason that I read it religiously than because of the fact that I enjoy it and am truly interested in it. I am also intrinsically motivated to work at my job at a group home for children with special needs. It is something that I have a passion for, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I don’t work there because I get paid for doing so; I work there because it is something I love to do. On the other hand, I am also extrinsically motivated for certain activities. For example, I played the piano for nine years when I was younger. I stuck with it because I felt like I had to. My parents were paying pretty good money for my lessons and competitions, so I felt like I owed it to them to practice and play the piano. I am also extrinsically motivated by homework due dates and grades. I know that if I want to achieve good grades, I have to put in the time and effort to learn the material we are covering in class. Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations play large roles in my daily life.

Information from this chapter will definitely change how I think about motivating myself for school and career success. I realize that punishers may be somewhat useless and ineffective, and I know that I need to have some degree of intrinsic motivation to get a task done at my personal best. Also, if I am ever in a position where I am a boss, I know that I have to go about reinforcing and rewarding my employees in the correct way so that I don’t rid them of their intrinsic motivation or just provide something to them that has no meaning or value. All in all, throughout this chapter I have learned so much more about motivation and emotion that I knew before, and I am extremely excited to move forward and learn more!

Terms: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, psychological needs, incentives, consequences, behavior, reinforcers, positive reinforcer, negative reinforcer, punishers, rewards, hidden costs of reward, cognitive evaluation theory, physiological needs, autonomy, competence, amotivation, external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, integrated regulation

Chapter 5 is full of information! Motivation can be broken down into 2 categories: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is when a person’s motivation comes from inside the individual rather than outside external factors. Intrinsic are things you enjoy doing. Extrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from outside an individual. An example the book uses is grades. You get the grade you put into it. The more you are motivated and put into it, the better your grade will be in the long run.

I think it is possible to be intrinsically motivated but yet still get paid if someone enjoys their job and what they do. Intrinsic motivation comes from psychological need satisfaction such as autonomy, competence and relatedness. Autonomy is the independence and freedom, competence is doing your job properly and relatedness is how well you relate to others through connections and relationships. I nanny in the summer and absolutely love it! I have so much freedom (autonomy) that I wouldn’t have working somewhere else. I have babysat and worked with kids for years so I know how to deal with kids (competence). When I am home from college I visit the kids I nanny and try to catch one of their sports events. It is so nice and rewarding watching them grow through the years (relatedness). It is obviously different day to day though. There are times I don’t want to go to work and just be a bum but I know they are depending and relying on me unlike another job where they could call in a replacement.

I found the part about incentives and consequences interesting. I always use incentives and consequences when I am studying and doing homework but never knew if it was actually effective. An incentive is something that tends to stimulate you to put forth greater effort, as a reward is offered. Consequences are the result or outcome of something occurring earlier. When I am doing homework and want to quit or check Facebook I tell myself two more pages of reading or five more sentences writing. Telling myself these things actually helps me stay motivated because I know I have something to look forward to when I am finished with the task at hand. When I break down and quit before I have reached by goal I tell myself I can’t have another break until I work for a longer period of time now kind of like a punishment.

I am intrinsically motivated to do the things I enjoy such as riding my bike, hiking and playing sports for fun. Intrinsically motivated is things I enjoy doing without feeling the need to have to do them. I am extrinsically motivated when I get my paycheck as I am sure everyone is, also when my parents acknowledge my work in school and many others!

This chapter has taught me to continue my incentive study habits because it obviously works! It has also made me question what I want to do with my career choices. It has made me realize how much I love working with children and I don’t consider it work!

Terms used: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, incentives, consequences, autonomy, punishment, reward, competence, relatedness

This chapter was about motivation! More specifically, about different types of motivation based on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is something inside of us that is excited and moved to get a challenge done or accomplished. Intrinsic motivation is something that originates inside of us, while extrinsic motivation comes from the environment. It's environmental incentives such as "food, money, praise, attention, stickers, gold starts, privileges, tokens, approval, scholarships, candy, trophies, extra credit points, certificates, awards, smiles, public recognition, a pat on the back, prizes, and various incentive plans", as said by our book. It goes on to talk about Baldwin and Baldwin's idea of operant conditioning, which is the way people learn to act effectively in our society. They illustrate this by S : R -> C. S, being the a situational cue, R being the behavioral response, and C the consequence. Reinforcers can be used in two ways, negative and positive. Positive reinforcers, when used in the environment, should decrease the behavior after used. Negative reinforcers, however, will produce different effects. A negative reinforcer is any stimulous that, when removed, the desired behavior increases in the future. For example, a negative reinforcer is anything that one would say is "annoying", like the beep that your car gives off if you do not put your seat belt on. The beeping is the negative reinforcer, and when removed, the desired behavior (putting on your seat belt) happens. This will assume that the annoyance of the beeping will increase the desired behavior (a.k.a. make the beeping, or negative reinforcer go away). This may be confusing when compared to punishers, which are environmental stimulus's that make the probability of the undesired behavior go away. The difference is whether or not it is a desired behavior, or an undesired behavior. The chapter goes on to talk about rewards, which are extrinsic offering (an offering that comes from the environment) like a smile from a boss, or a present from a friend if you get your blog done on time ;). Interesting questions arize in this chapter as to whether or not rewards and punishers work. It is said that rewards do indeed work. The brain, like we learned in chapter 3 releases dopamine when excited, thus making the task at hand more desirable. Punishers, however, have been studied and are ineffective, yet popular. There are more side effects of punishment than anything. These are unseen, usually, which is why punishing is used so much. The long term effects of spanking, for instance, is something that isn't looked at much by people who spank their kids. Punishing is definitely not the way to go, most times.
Being intrinsically motivated is an awesome thing! Getting paid is also an awesome thing! But what happens when we put these two great things together? Do two positives make a negative? The answer is generally, no. It's called "hidden cost of reward". Money is an extrinsic reward, and it is said that when people are intrinsically motivated to do something, they may get distracted by the idea of being rewarded with extrinsic motivators. For instance grades; Grades are extrinsic motivators (they come from the environment to reward us). In my own life, and that I have seen from other students, we strive for a good grade. It is all about the grade, not necessarily learning the information and applying it. Or, I will do the bare minimum that I know will get me a passing grade. This chapter really helped me with this realization. It is VERY hard for me to find intrinsic motivation inside of me when I think about my grades. The grades distract me, instead of me learning something because it interests me and I really want to learn. The grading system is practicle, but hard to stay intrinsically motivated because I am so extrinsically motivated for the grade.
Something that I am really intrinsically motivated for is being a healthy person. No one has to tell me or give me rewards when I reach a certain fitness or weight goal. I have enough intrinsic motivation to get excited for myself.
This chapter really, honestly, made me scared to have children. There is such a fine line of motivation that will actually work. In a perfect world, I would want my child to be very intrinsically motivated to do most things, but I know this is not possible..? Rewarding and punishing your child is also a fine line. I learned that punishing your child isn't a good way to go, and I also learned what kinds of rewards are bad (like rewarding someone that is already intrinsically motivated to do something). This chapter will help me in my career as a health coach! We talk a lot about intrinsic motivation and the importance of it. If one is not intrinsically motivated, losing weight and staying focused is a very hard task. As a health coach, I can reward my clients with "great jobs" and "way to goes", but most importantly give them good reasons why they should be very proud of themselves. Fueling their intrinsic motivation is the way to go. I learned (and already had a good idea) to not punish someone when they do not reach a goal weight, or follow the program the right way. Punishing really is useless and only inhibits negative consequences, especially with weight loss. Trying to keep spirits lifted with words of encouragement is definitely the way to go. Giving money (extrinsic motivation) can shy the person away from the true intrinsic motivation that they should have. It will help them lose focus on their goal, and when they reach their goal, they will not have learned anything as far as health because they have been extrinsically motivated until then end when the extrinsic motivation disappears, they would have nothing inside of them (intrinsic motivation) to keep them motivated to stay healthy.

Terms: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, reinforcers, punishmers, positive reinforcers, negative reinforcers, incentives, dopamine response, hidden cost of reward, operant conditioning

This chapter focuses on motivation, specifically intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is the inherent drive within an individual to seek out and engage in ones interests, in other words, to do something 'for the fun of it' as our textbook points out. While extrinsic motivation is the flip-side of this; it is the result of environmental incentives and consequences. Studies have shown intrinsic motivation to be more beneficial in productivity and cognitive growth within an individual. It encourages persistence, creativity, effective learning, and optimal well being. Extrinsic motivation revolves around operant conditioning, or the "process by which an individual learns how to operate effectively within an environment. Within operant conditioning, the individual learns to repeat behaviors that give them desirable consequences, while avoid behaviors from which they receive undesirable consequences. Consequences of behaviors can be both positive or negative, and cause an individual to either continue or cease that behavior respectively. For example, a reinforcer, weather positive or negative, is an environmental catalyst which increases the probability of the individual to complete the behavior in the future, weather through removing a negative stimuli (negative reinforcement) or adding a desired stimuli (positive reinforcement. However these sorts of extrinsic rewards are not always beneficial when discussing motivation. When an individual is intrinsically motivated to do something (for example play basketball) then begins to receive extrinsic rewards (such as scholarships and money) instead of becoming doubly motivated, their motivation wanes, and rather undermines their intrinsic motivation. Rewarding intrinsic motivations also causes a decrease in learning and it interferes with the capacity for autonomous self-regulation. On the other hand however, it is possible to turn an extrinsically motivated behavior into an intrinsically motivated behavior through these same acts of reward. For example, a parent tells a child they'll receive a candy bar for washing their hands, then the child slowly realizes the usefulness of the activity, transforming the behavior form an extrinsically motivated behavior to an intrinsically motivated one.
To me the most interesting in this chapter was how truly detrimental rewarding intrinsically motivated behaviors can be. I had always seen movies of athletes that stop playing for the love of the game and instead play for the money. However, I never realized that not only does rewarding intrinsically driven behaviors undermines the motivation of the behavior, but it also decreases the learning associated with the behavior. I often find my self thinking of teachers when discussing this realization, and think about how difficult it would be to find a balance between motivating students who need extrinsic motivation, and those who already posses intrinsic motivation towards studies. If you don't give enough of a reward, the students who are extrinsically motivated in school won't do well, however if they receive too many rewards, the students who are intrinsically motivated will suffer as well.
I think it is possible to be intrinsically motivated yet still get paid, however it is not a common or easy balance to find between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. I think the longer an individual who is intrinsically motivated works, the harder it would be to stay intrinsically motivated. I think about people now, who are so effected by the economy that it is not uncommon to find people living from paycheck to paycheck, and in that light, the individual would easily transfer from intrinsic to extrinsic motivations. Their reward, though originally unnecessary to motivating their behavior, is so important to them that it could begin to overshadow their 'love of' whatever it is they're doing.
I am definitely extrinsically motivated when it comes to classes. I want to do well in class so I can get good grades and get a good job when I graduate. Though I like to read, I hate to read textbooks, study, and write essays, however I realize doing these things well will cause the desirable outcome.
Terms: Intrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic Motivation, Reward, Reinforcements (Positive & Negative), Operant conditioning

This chapter discusses intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Intrinsic motivation is described as engaging in one’s interests (e.g. playing video games) simply because the individual enjoys doing so. Extrinsic motivation is described as engaging in activities to seek the reward or benefits of those activities (e.g. studying to get good grades). This chapter also discusses incentives, consequences, and rewards and the effect they have on our behaviors.

It was interesting learning about motivating others to do uninteresting activities and how much of a role rewards and incentives play in getting people to do this. For instance, a parent might get their child to clean their room (an uninteresting task) by offering them ice cream once the task is complete. This makes the uninteresting task of cleaning their room more interesting because of the added incentive. This makes the task worth doing because of the reward, not because the task itself needs to be done. However, the downside to using rewards to motivate people to do tasks they don’t want to do is that the reward becomes expected. Providing rewards for tasks also yields low quality (shoving everything under you bed to make you room appear clean) and dependence on further external regulation. This has lead researchers to explore ways to promote autonomous types of extrinsic motivation. One way to do this is by providing rationale to help explain why an uninteresting task is useful and important, rather than offering a reward. For instance, explaining to your child the importance of cleaning his/her room might motivate them to do it because they realize it’s the right thing to do, not just because they are seeking a reward. Although the task may still be uninteresting, recognizing the importance of it has the potential to motivate them enough to do it anyway without using a reward.

I believe it is possible to be intrinsically motivated while being paid. The textbook provides a good example of a musician who loves the playing the piano because it interests them and they have a psychology need to play (intrinsic motivation). Even though the pianist is paid to play, the money isn’t the motivation behind playing. Therefore, the musician’s motivation remains intrinsic, even while he/she is being paid to play. I think that even if you’re being paid to do something as long as you genuinely enjoy it and would do it regardless of the money then whatever it is you’re doing is intrinsically motivated. However, I do think that overtime money can turn intrinsic motivation into extrinsic motivation. For instance, a musician might start out making music simply because they enjoy it, but once they start getting paid to do it their motivation to perform focuses on the incentive (i.e. money) rather than the sheer enjoyment of performing. In my opinion, it depends on the person and whether or not they let rewards come between them and their intrinsic motivation.

Everybody has different intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. It depends on what you’re interested in and what you aren’t interested in. For instance, an intrinsic motivation for some people might be reading, while others people have no desire to open a book unless it benefits them in some way. An example of extrinsic motivation could be studying. Individuals might view studying as an uninteresting task but still perform the task because of the rewards or benefits that result from it. For instance, what motivates people to study who don’t enjoy doing isn’t the studying itself but the fact that it increases their chances of scoring higher on exams and finishing the course with a good grade. An example of intrinsic motivation could be listening to music. People are motivated to listen to music because they have a need or desire to do so, not because of the benefits or rewards associated with it.

After reading the chapter I realized that it is important to me to seek a career in which my motivations remain intrinsic. I want to get up and go to work every day simply because I enjoy doing so, not for the paycheck. This chapter also helped me understand how to become more motivated to do engage in tasks that I don’t enjoy doing, like reading my textbooks or studying. I learned that rationalizing be used as motivation to help me complete these tasks. For instance, I can motivate myself to study by telling myself that it will help me accomplish my goals. This allows me to realize the benefits of studying, which in turn makes me want to do it. Although I do have goals to make a lot of money (like most people), I’m not willing to do something I don’t truly enjoy just because of the reward. I’d much rather make an average income doing something I enjoy rather than let money control my motivation and career choice.

Terms: Intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, rewards, incentives, consequences.

This chapter is all about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and how they impact and change behaviors. At the very opening section, I had to laugh at the example of the car dinging to remind you to put on a seatbelt. It's so true and a very good example because of it. However, some people don't see that as an annoyance they should remove as the bell usually doesn't last long. Also, when talking about teachers motivating students, the "threats of doom" was another laugh inducer. Intrinsic motivation is the most beneficial because it is already there. It is a personal predisposition to do something for the enjoyment of it or the challenge. People who do things they aren't required to do and get nothing special from doing are typically intrinsically motivated. For those who are intrinsically motivated for a given task, they typically are more persistant, more creative, better understand and end up better off in general than their extrinsically motivated counterparts. Extrinsic motivation is and environmental stimulus that is not inherent in the person or activity than generates motivation for a given task. This extrinsic motivation is based upon operant conditioning, a process by which one may learning about their environment and how to best act in it. This can be demonstrated by a simple model, S: R - C (with the - being an arrow). S is the environmental incentive that potentially motivates behavior, R is the behavior itself, and C is the consequence that behavior leads to. An example could be Social Acceptance: Drinking Behavior - Enjoyment. The enciting incentive is the environmental stimulus motivating an event. An incentive must precede the behavior or it would be considered something else entirely. A reinforcer would be an environmental stimulust increasing the liklihood of the behavior recurring. A reinforcer can be positive or negative, the distinction between the two is whether there is a stimulus added or taken away to increase the liklihood of the behavior. Positive reinforcers add a stimulus, such as money while negative reinforcers take away a stimulus, such as aspirin removing a headache. A punisher is a stimulus that decreases the liklihood of the behavior occuing again, such as jail time or spanking. This idea as a motivator of behavior is contested as to its actual long term validity. Rewards and reinforcers have more evidence in their favor for motivation. A reward is something shared between people in response to some service or achievement, such as a boss smiling at you when you've done a good job. For a reward to be truly rewarding, it must actually increase the liklihood of the behavior occuring in the future so all positive reinforcers are rewards but not all rewards are positive reinforcers (if they don't accomplish that increase). For those people who do not need any extrinsic motivation to do a specific task, adding a reward does not lead to increased motivation, it can actually have the opposite effect. Extrinsic rewards can hinder learning if given in setting such as school, the reward becomes more important than actual understanding. There are two main factors that are present in the undermining of intrinsic motivation when using rewards, expectancy and tangibility. If the reward is expected, communicated before the behavior is done, that can decrease the intrinsic motivation whereas an unexpected reward afterwards will not. Those rewards that are tangible, such as money or a gold star, may lead to this undermining while abstract concepts and verbal praise do not undermine the initial intrinsic motivation.

The most intersting things I found in this chapter were the examples of studies done. The orthodontic study and the preschool drawing study stood out to me the most. They seemed to be very pertinent examples of what would seem to be well done studies and had such interesting findings. For the kid wearing their ortho gear, money was the biggest motivator while for some people that would not be the case. With the children, an incentive for drawing actually lead to decresed desire in those who were initially intrisically motivated to do so while no reward and an unexpected reward after drawing had no such effect. I do believe that intrinsic motivation and monetary reward can go hand in hand but it is a difficult relationship. When getting paid for doing something, it may quickly become something one does simply for the money. In order to continue to be intrinsically motivated, it should be something you do without thought for the money that you would do with that monetary incentive. If the job is rewarding in more ways than just the tangible, such as fulfilling a person's need for competence and autonomy, etc., then it has a good chance to continue being intrinsically motivated. Some examples of how I am motivated include reading as an intrinsic and an extrinsic. I really enjoy reading "free reading" books of my own personal choice. That may not happen as often as I like but I am always intrinsically motivated by my own enjoyment of it. When reading for class, I am extrinsically motivated by the desire to get good grades and do well on exams. This can make my class readings very dull and hinder my learning from them. The information from this chapter has been very important in how I view my own motivation, especially for school. As far as that goes, I will probably try to do the tasks that I believe are more intrinsically motivating first. By choosing to do what I want, when I want, I am giving myself a boost of autonomy that may keep me going longer at things I may not enjoy quite as much. There is also a need for challenge with the tasks that I find boring and I can try fixing that in some way by making them more challenging for myself in some way.

Terms: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, operant conditioning, incentive, reinforcer, positive reinforcer, negative reinforcer, punisher, reward

Chapter 5 of the textbook discussed what motivates individuals. Each of us is motivated by different internal and external variables. We are typically motivated by our hedonistic tendencies. That is, we are driven to pursue pleasurable things and to avoid painful situations or punishment.
The chapter discussed two main types of motivation: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is the “inherent propensity to engage one’s interests and to exercise one’s capacities and, in doing so, to seek out and master optimal challenges.” In other words, intrinsic motivation is an individual’s internal psychological drive to engage in activities that they find interesting. It is based around an individual’s needs for autonomy, feeling free and independent; competence, feeling effective and able to achieve; and relatedness, feeling emotionally close to others. Extrinsic motivation is generated from external, environmental incentives. Incentives are things within the environment that draw people toward or prevent people from engaging in particular events or activities. These incentives can include tangible rewards such as money, candy, etc., to intangible praise, attention, etc.
According to the textbook, “the presence of incentives and consequences creates within us a sense of wanting to engage in those behaviors that will produce the sought-after consequences.” An important thing to remember is that incentives are presented before a behavior is acted out and the consequences occur after the behavior. After incentives help to bring about a desired behavior and consequence, we then turn to reinforcers. A reinforcer is an environmental event that increases a particular behavior, but it is difficult to know will be a reinforcer before it is given as a reinforcer. Therefore, it must be thought of independently from the behavior itself. Reinforcers can produce consequences that are positive, negative, elicit punishment, or provide a reward. Positive reinforcers are environmental stimuli that are presented to increase desired behavior, negative reinforcers are environmental stimuli that are removed to increase desired behavior, punishers are environmental stimuli that are presented to decrease behavior, and rewards are environmental offering given by one individual in exchange for another individual’s service or achievement. Of these four, punishers are found to be the least affective. An important theory discussed in this chapter is the cognitive evaluation theory. According to the book, the cognitive evaluation theory is suggests that both controlling and informational aspects can be seen in all external events. Praise and competition are just two examples of external events possessing both controlling and informational qualities. Throughout reading this chapter, I saw the importance, uses, and consequences of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The most powerful of these when thinking of motivation is intrinsic motivation because it is purely one’s own drive and desire to complete a task, rather than environmental factors affecting an individual’s decisions and motivation.
The most surprising thing to me from this chapter was how extrinsic motivation has the ability to be both good and bad. It is good in the sense that it can draw people to participate in activities that they would otherwise find uninteresting. It is bad because it can take away an individual’s intrinsic motivation to participate in an activity that interests them and that they find enjoyable. An example from the book suggests the affect extrinsic motivation can have on a musician. At first, a musician begins to play an instrument because of the interest they have in it, the joy that it brings them to play it, and the challenge of learning more about the instrument. If this musician begins playing for money, those initial intrinsic motivators can be lost leading to the musician only playing the instrument for the extrinsic motivators, the money, glory, and attention.
I do believe that it is possible to still be intrinsically motivated and to get paid. On most occasions, it just becomes difficult for the individual to differentiate what is motivating them. In order to be able to stay intrinsically motivated, even with extrinsic motivators such as money, we must find a balance. We must understand ourselves. It is important not to lose interest or enjoyment from an activity. If an individual wants to stay intrinsically motivated, he or she must always maintain his or her interest and desire in the activity, such as a musician playing an instrument.
I am intrinsically motivated to sing. I love singing and I am happy and find enjoyment when I sing. It is something I do for me. I always want to better myself as a singer, so I practice on my own accord. I do occasionally sing at weddings, but I do not sing at them for the money. I am not a music major because I didn’t want singing to become a chore. I wanted it to always be something enjoyable for me to do.
I am extrinsically motivated to do well in school. I always like to see those A’s on an assignment, test, or grade report. I am extrinsically motivated because I know and receive the benefits of doing well, such as receiving an award or recognition for my achievements. I also know how a college degree will benefit me when looking for a job or a grad school after graduation. But I am also intrinsically motivated in school because my classes interest me, I enjoy them, and I enjoy the challenge. I must remember to keep my intrinsic motivation in order to make my efforts worthwhile for me. This will also apply to my career later in life. I can do it for the extrinsic/environmental incentives, but I must keep enjoying what I am doing.

Terms: Intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, incentives, rewards, positive reinforcer, negative reinforcer, punisher, cognitive evaluation theory.

Chapter 5 was about intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. The chapter talked more about extrinsic motivation than it did intrinsic. Intrinsic motivations are usually acting out of interest and for the challenge of the activity. Behavior usually occurs spontaneously and is not done for any extrinsic reason. People experience intrinsic motivation because they have psychological needs within themselves. People who are intrinsically motivated do the activity to make them feel free (autonomy), effective (competent), or emotionally close (relatedness). Intrinsic motivation is natural and gives the person benefits. The benefits it produces are persistence, creativity, conceptual understanding, and subject well-being.
Extrinsic motivation comes from environmental incentives and consequences. Unlike intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation comes from a consequence that is not a part of the activity that one is engaging in (e.g. working hard to get a good grade in class). It is a “do this and you will get that” type of behavior.
There are three major concepts involved in extrinsic motivation. They are incentives, consequences, and rewards. Incentives either attract a person toward a particular behavior (positive incentive), or it repels them away from a certain behavior (negative incentive). Incentives precede behavior while consequences follow behavior. Consequences involve reinforcers and punishers. A positive and negative reinforcer is an environmental event that increases the likelihood of that behavior in the future. A positive reinforcer is something that is given to you for a particular behavior, such as a earning a trophy or praise. A negative reinforcer is like taking something away, such as taking medicine for a headache. You are more willing to take the medicine to make the headache go away. Punishers are is an environmental event that decreases the probability of the behavior happening again (e.g. when you are given a parking ticket for parking the wrong spot). A reward is any offering from one person given to another person in exchange for a service or achievement (e.g. when a teacher offers a prize for her students if they participate more. This may sound similar to a positive reinforcer but the difference is that all positive reinforcers are rewards, while rewards are not always positive reinforcers.
The “hidden costs of rewards” is when incentives, consequences, and rewards that are expected and tangible undermine motivation.
I believe it is possible to be intrinsically motivated and still be paid. The way I think about it is that you love your job. You get joy from doing what you do for a living, instead of looking it as just work. So for you to be intrinsically motivated, yet still get paid, you should get a career that you are very interested in. I think a good example of this would be most professional athletes. Yes there is extrinsic motivation from competition, but you hear over and over that they love playing football, basketball, baseball, etc. When you have that, you are getting paid for what you enjoy and are interested in, which would be intrinsic motivation.
This information will change how I want to prepare for my career. If I'm not intrinsically motivated at my job, I know I won't enjoy my career as much. I would like to be able to want to get up for work, not have to get up for work. Out of the work place, I can use this information to make better decisions in everyday life.

Chapter Five was about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation comes from environmentally created reasons to initiate actions. The study of extrinsic motivation revolves around three central concepts (incentives, consequences, rewards). An incentive is an environmental event that either attracts or repels someone toward or away from a course of action. Consequences involve reinforcers and punishers. A positive reinforcer is an environmental event that increases the probability of a behavior. A negative reinforcer is an environmental event that decreases the probability of a behavior. A punisher is an environmental event that decreases the probability of a behavior in the future. The differences between incentives and consequences are when each occurs and how each motivates behavior. Incentives come before behavior and either excite or inhibit the initiation of action. Consequences follow behavior and either increase or decrease the persistence of behavior. A reward is anything offered from one person to another in exchange for his or her service or achievement.

Cognitive evaluation theory explains how an extrinsic event affects intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. When an extrinsic event is presented in a relatively controlling way, it increases extrinsic motivation but decreases intrinsic motivation because of its effects on autonomy. When an extrinsic event is presented in a informational way, it increases intrinsic motivation because of its favorable effect on competence. Self-determination theory expands the distinction between intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. Four types of extrinsic motivation exist. External regulation is the least self-determined type of extrinsic motivation. Externally regulated behaviors are performed to gain reward or to satisfy an external demand. Introjected regulation shows some self-determination because the person acts as if they were carrying other people’s rules and commands in their head to the extent that the introjected voice generates self-administered rewards and punishments. Identified regulation is mostly internalized extrinsic motivation because the person has identified with the personal importance of an externally prescribed way of thinking and behaving. Integration is the most self-determined type of extrinsic motivation.

The most interesting part of this chapter was the section on competition. When the social context puts a lot of pressure on winning, competitors usually compete with a sense of contingency, pressure, and doing others’ work. When experienced in a controlling way, competition decreases intrinsic motivation because competitors do not care as much about the task itself but care more about the reward of winning. Even when people win a high-pressure competition, they still have lower intrinsic motivation. However, when the social context places little emphasis on winning, then competition’s informational aspects often because its relatively salient aspect. Winning and making progress promote perceived competence and therefore increase intrinsic motivation. Losing and lack of progress undermine perceived competence and therefore decrease intrinsic motivation. Even if a person loses in competition, intrinsic motivation can still be high if that person thinks that they performed competently. This means that for intrinsic motivation to flourish, both competence and autonomy must be high. For both competence and autonomy to be high, an external event needs to be presented in both a noncontrolling and informational way.

Terms: Intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, reinforcement, consequences, incentive, reward, cognitive evaluation theory, self-determination theory, external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation

Chapter five is all about how we are motivated to do things, either intrinsically or extrinsically. Intrinsic motivation comes from the self; you do what you want to do. With intrinsic motivation, people are often inspired by creativity, or develop more of an understanding. Extrinsic motivations comes from the outside, and has to deal with environmental consequences or incentives.
I thought that it was interesting the idea that by using rewards and incentives as a way of encouraging behavior, it actually lowers someone’s ability to make a decision intrinsically, because we as so motivated by rewards and punishments. I also thought that it was interesting that the book explained about how to try and motivate others to do things they may not want to, like shoveling snow. If the incentive outweighs their disposition to not shovel snow, they will probably change their mind to go do it (eg. 1$ vs 5$). Or, they do the behavior to avoid the consequence (not got grounded, eg). If you explain why you want them to act a certain way, they are more likely to do that.
I think you can be intrinsically motivated while still having a money flow from what you’re doing. For example, if I loved doing art and teaching students, I could be an art teacher and be intrinsically motivated to do so, because I love working with children and making things with them; getting paid for it is just a bonus. I’m sure there are times when you are extrinsically motivated to go to work; like when you have bills to pay or something like that.
I am, intrinsically motivated by listening to music, talking with others, playing games, and reading and writing. I’m extrinsically motivated by working for money at my job, getting good grades for studying, and attention from family for going to school.
This chapter has really opened my eyes up to how to better motivate and encourage others, as well as how to discourage unwanted behaviors in a less harsh way, while still getting the desired response. Not that I was harsh before, but just to try negative feedback, and positive feedback in a whole new light. I plan on using delayed gratification as a way of motivating myself, by not just giving into the temptations I have to do fun stuff without first getting through some of the more boring things. I am notoriously bad at that, and am working on it.
Terms: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, behavior, incentives, and consequences, rewards, negative feedback, positive feedback.

This chapter was about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Chapter fine went in depth about how the body uses both motivations as well as uses them together. The chapter talked about incentives, consequences, and rewards and how they are external regulations of motivation. This chapter talked about reinforces. It went into detail about how reinforces can either increase a certain behavior or decrease a certain behavior. It also talked about the consequences which can be one of two things either a reinforce or a punisher.
The most surprising thing I learned in this chapter is that everything has a form of motivation behind it. Even things that we start to do out of habit and not realize things like buckling our seat belt or brushing out teeth before bed. Its simple things that we have always done since kids but after reading this chapter you actually stop and think about why we do it now when our parents are not here telling us to. I think it is possible to be intrinsically motivated and still get paid because if you like your job you will have a drive to go to work regardless of the fact that you have to get paid. I think this is higher in people who work in a place where you are helping the well-being and health of people. I think some things that intrinsically motivate me are snowboarding. I love to do it even though its outside in the cold and my body has to constantly give me negative feedback because I’m cold. I feel free when I do it and like a kid again. I think there is also an extrinsic motivation is also involved because I like being better at it then most boys so I like the attention as well as being better at it then my brothers who are usually better at most sports then me. I think this chapter will help with school and my career because I think that even though I feel school is many extrinsic motivation I want my career to be a balance of both. I think if I work in a job that is just extrinsically motivating I will hate my job and it will start to affect my drive along with emotion as a person because I would be unhappy.
Terms: Extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, negative feedback, reinforce, punisher,