What Causes Intrinsic Motivation?

Intrinsic motivation is what causes us to engage in and want to perform tasks. We do these activities because we want to and because we get joy out of doing them. Depending on the situation and circumstances we may or may not feel intrinsically motivated. Some situations and conditions that may help or hurt intrinsic motivation have been outlined below.

To be intrinsically motivated we need to feel interested and receive enjoyment from the experience, humans feel this way when they are satisfying their psychological needs. The first psychological need is autonomy. Autonomy is when you feel as though you are able to make your own choices and no one is controlling you. When autonomy is supported, intrinsic motivation increases. (Reeve, 2005)

There are several qualities that make an event feel autonomous. The first is Perceived Locus of Causality (PLOC). PLOC ranges from internal to external and is determined by whether the person feels they are performing a task of their own free will or if they are being forced to do the task. If you are going for a walk because you enjoy it, it is internal PLOC. However, if someone is forcing you to go on a walk then it is external PLOC and your intrinsic motivation will be much lower. The second is volition, which is how much you do or do not feel pressured while you are doing an activity. Volition would be high when you are doing an activity solely because you like to do it and low when you feel that you are being forced into participating in the activity. The last quality is perceived choice. When we are in a situation where we have different choices to choose from you have perceived choice but when there are strict guidelines about what you must do you feel a sense of obligation and your intrinsic motivation goes down. (Reeve, 2005)

Autonomy can be seen in the workplace where the worker may have a controlling boss or a boss that allows the workers freedom. A controlling boss may tell the worker exactly what they must be doing at all times, making the worker feel a sense of obligation, like they have no control over their environment. This will cause the worker to lose intrinsic motivation and their workmanship will begin to decline. A boss that supports autonomy may let the employee decide what work they want to do or when they want to do it. The employee will experience perceived choice and will end up being the more motivated employee.

In order to support autonomy, there are several actions that can be taken. Someone who would like to support autonomy should listen well, provide choices, encourage effort, explain why people need to do things that are not intrinsically motivating, and let others know that they are proud of their accomplishments. It would be damaging to others’ autonomy to give commands with no explanation as to why they need to be done, ask controlling questions, and act demanding and unappreciative. (Reeve, 2005)

The second psychological need is competence. Competence is the feeling that the task that you are undertaking is the optimal challenge for your skill level. If the task is too challenging for your skill level then you will feel anxiety and worry and will not be intrinsically motivated. On the other hand if the task is too easy for your skill level then you will feel boredom and apathy and will once again not be intrinsically motivated. When the challenge level matches your skill level you feel involved in the activity and intrinsically motivated to do it. This proper matching of skill and challenge is known as flow. (Reeve, 2005)

The need for competence can be seen in sports. If someone has only done minimal hiking throughout their life and then tries to climb a large mountain they will most likely experience negative emotions as they try to undertake a task that is far too difficult for their level of skill, leading to lower motivation. Similarly, if a very experienced hiker does a very easy hike they would likely find themselves to be bored and have little motivation to continue the hike. When a intermediately experienced hiker hikes a mountain at their skill level they will feel an adequate amount of challenge and feel intrinsically motivated to continue hiking.

The last psychological need is relatedness. As humans we need to feel connected and have social interactions with others. We need to feel it is a reciprocal relationship and both parties are benefiting from the relationship. When we have these types of relationships we tend to function and respond to stress better. Motivation can come from knowing that we have others that we can depend on and trust to look out for our well-being, just as our motivation will decrease when we know or even think that we are alone or have no one to rely on. (Reeve, 2005)

Another variable that must be taken into account when looking at intrinsic motivation is rewards. Rewards may seem like a good way to enhance motivation, but rewards may end up decreasing internal motivation. Rewards tend to decrease intrinsic motivation because in our society a reward hints that the task at hand is a chore and undesirable. (Benabou and Tirole, 2003)

There are several ways that rewards can be used that is less damaging to intrinsic motivation. First, the reward should not be expected. When the reward is expected the person focuses on the reward and not the task, which interferes with the quality and process of learning. Second, the reward should be something intangible such as a smile or a kind word. A tangible reward will be much more likely to decrease intrinsic motivation then an intangible rewards. It would be a much better idea to reward a child for reading a book with praise rather than money or awards, as the praise would be less likely to decrease the child’s intrinsic motivation to read. (Benabou and Tirole, 2003)

Rewards can be tricky because there are times when it is believed that you should not give them and there are times when they may be necessary. One important thing to remember is that the worst time to give a reward is when the task is already intrinsically motivating. It is as though you are telling the person that the task should not be fun. You may however need offer a reward when the task is very boring or when there is no intrinsic motivation to begin with. An example may be when a child has to do a chore, such a cleaning the gutters. That task is gross, boring, and the child may see no purpose in it and may need to be motivated by a reward. (Brandit, 2005)

It may be easy to conclude that we should give people the things that they like as a reward because they will want the reward and will perform the task. This may be a bad assumption. As Brandit explains, “By virtue of being controlling, they're [rewards] likely to be experienced as aversive in the long run… none of us enjoys having the very things we desire used as levers to control our behavior” (Brandit, 2005). This relates back to the feeling of autonomy, and once we are feeling controlled our intrinsic motivation is more likely to decrease.

A better way to motivate someone would be to make the task more engaging or interesting. For example, if a teacher is teaching about Columbus coming to America, instead of making the students write a research report that sticks strictly to the facts, they could write a creative story from the view of Columbus that still incorporates the correct information. In both cases the students are learning about the historical event but with the creative story the students will be more interested and intrinsically motivated. Kids like doing creative things and because they are interested they are more likely to learn the information better and want to keep learning more. (Brandit, 2005)