Week five has focused on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and goal setting. I found a lot of the information quite helpful as it can be applied in a practical way to my current assignment for my learning unit. The aim of the assignment is to change the binge drinking behaviours of university students through operant conditioning, where some sort of reinforcement is given to increase a desired behaviour. It was interesting to note that by just giving external rewards (external motivation) this will not necessarily accomplish a long term fix, as it is an individual’s internal motivation that would inevitably stop binge drinking.
Intrinsic motivation is “The inherent desire to engage in one’s interests and to exercise and develop one’s capacities.” (Reeve 2009, pp. 111). In other words, it is the inherent desire to do and achieve something that you are interested in. An individual is intrinsically motivated when they engage in a behaviour because they find it rewarding on its own, not due to the prospect of an external reward. Despite this fact, an individual can be engaged in a behaviour which may not be 100% intrinsic or extrinsic in motivation. For instance, in this weeks lecture, students would have extrinsic motivation to achieve high grades, but the intrinsic motivation would come from those who actually chose to complete and be in this course in the first place.
Intrinsic motivation also has significant performance benefits over extrinsic motivation. An individuals output is greater, their depth of engagement and learning processes are improved and they are likely to persist with something for a longer period of time (Reeve, 2009). This can be applied to the learning environment. Intrinsically motivated students retain higher class attendance, they focus more on activity at hand and are not easily distracted by external rewards. As a result, deep quality learning is undertaken, leading to more creative responses and positive emotions, increasing individual well being (Neill, 2010). As intrinsic motivation increases positive feelings in one's life decreasing stress and anxiety, this will be an important aspect to touch upon in my text book chapter positive thinking. More so because the questions I will attempt to answer are what motivates someone to want to think positively? And in turn how does thinking positively motivate the individual? Both of which would link to intrinsic motivation.
Extrinsic motivation is “An environmentally created reason to engage in an action or activity (Neill, 2010).” It is the motivation to engage in a behaviour because an environmental event will result. This could come about from the prospect of money, praise, consequences or even to avoid a negative consequence. An individual is extrinsically motivated to get something for themselves from the outside environment, not to reward themselves internally. In my learning assignment, I am outlining a research proposal to regulate the behaviour of university students to stop binge drinking. This will be completed by using external contingencies to change student’s behaviour using operant conditioning. This is where a reward in the form of a punishment or reinforcement will be administered once the desired behaviour is achieved. Despite this, it should also be noted that not all rewards serve as a reinforcer to everyone. This is because in order for a reward to be successful, an individual must see it as valuable, otherwise motivation to engage in the desired behaviour will not take place.
Again, extrinsic motivation is yet another aspect that I will be able to touch upon within my text book chapter. Extrinsic rewards create positive emotion and assist in behaviour as there is the prospect of personal gain. The pleasurable feeling that one receives from getting a reward is a result of dopamine release, which motivates an individual to continue to pursue that behaviour. Despite this, it is also evident that by simply relying on extrinsic motivators to behave, this does not contribute to the psychological growth and development in an authoritative person, decreasing psychological well being (Neill, 2010).
The second half of the lecture focused on goal setting and striving. In this chapter of the text book Reeve (2009) began to focus on the cognitive aspects of personal control and self related constructs. “A goal is whatever an individual is trying to accomplish (Neill, 2010).” Reeve (2009) proposed a Plans: Discrepancy model, outlining how we get from our present state to our ideal state. The present state represents the individuals current status, this is different to our ideal or desired state which is the goal the person wishes to reach. The size of the discrepancy between the present state to the desired state is what motivates us to behave and act. By continually analysing how far we are away from our ideal state, this provides feedback as to how far we have to go. By acting until we resolve the incongruity between the ideal state and current state, we can become closer to achieving our ideal state (Neill, 2010).
The combination of the challenging goal (which increases effort and persistence) and the specific goal (which increases planning) are qualities that drive and enhance performance. As mentioned above, goals and feedback go hand in hand, there is not much point setting a goal if feedback is not constantly given which tells someone how close they are to a goal and if they have achieved it. If feedback is better than expected, people are pleasantly surprised. If it is on target, then this motivates the individual to continue to do what they have been doing. If it is below target however, this means that an increase in effort is needed. When someone reaches a goal, they feel more competent and confident, leading to them being more inclined to set another, higher goal (Neill, 2010).
Tutorials this week covered content which was touched on in both Week 4 and Week 5. Again, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs was raised. However, rather than just taking it at face value, James brought up the question as to whether you really have to have satisfied the lower level needs before you consider those above? (Neill, 2010). The class discussion focused on the hierarchy’s fuzzy boundaries, and one interesting point that was brought up was the fact that in other cultural and situational environments, other needs take priority whilst others are gone without. For instance, in some cultures, the pathway to self actualisation may mean depriving oneself of lower level needs.
What I found amusing in tutorials was all of us trying to label the parts of a brain. Despite the fact that myself, along with others have learnt this numerous times, none of us could remember which parts were what (we must have been extrinsically motivated to pass physiology, as a deeper level of learning clearly did not take place)! Even James admitted to having the same problem, making us all feel a bit better about ourselves! I have included a link to a diagram of the brain if anyone wishes to try and memorise its parts.
This week we also got into our small groups to discuss our chapter drafts. I discussed with the group my two key questions that I would like to answer within my chapter.
1. What motivates someone to think positively? And
2. How can positive thinking motivate the person?
Within my chapter I will discuss the biological aspects of thinking positively, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, goal setting and the self determination theory. I found by exchanging ideas and asking the other group members for their opinion very helpful, it was also interesting to hear about their research and what they had found on their topics. As a result, I was informed of a therapy that promotes positive thinking, this is referred to as solution focused therapy , this is another topic I could include within my text book chapter. Overall I quite enjoyed the topics covered this week and had a very positive learning experience within the tutorial.
References
Looi, S. (2010). Brain Health and Puzzles. Retrieved from http://www.brainhealthandpuzzles.com/diagram_of_brain.html
Neill, J. (2010, September 15). [Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation and Goal Setting Lecture]. Lecture presented at the University of Canberra
Reeve, J. (2009). Understanding motivation and emotion. United States of America USA
Wikipedia (2008). Solution focused brief therapy. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solution_focused_brief_therapy
Wikipedia (2008). Solution focused brief therapy. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solution_focused_brief_therapy
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