INTRINSIC MOTIVATION: CHARACTERISTICS AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE
Intrinsic motivation is important at school, university, and work to learn and understand new things. Intrinsic motivation is now well-researched in science and can even be influenced. It can also influence your performance at 22Bet login.
DEFINITION
In education and motivation research, scientists differentiate between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation can be defined as follows:
“One is motivated when the required activity itself appears to be interesting, exciting, and challenging. So that no additional reward is needed”.
With intrinsic motivation, the motivation to do something lies in the action itself. For example, someone who enjoys reading is motivated to read a book. Experts say that intrinsic motivation is more desirable than extrinsic motivation. This is because it enables someone to learn more than just superficially.
CHARACTERISTICS
Intrinsic motivation means acting on one’s initiative. Intrinsic motivation can be divided into activity-specific intrinsic motivation and object-specific motivation:
Activity-specific motivation: In this case, an activity associated with the action motivates. Example: I enjoy reading.
Object-specific motivation means a specific object that motivates. With which someone is preoccupied during the action. Example: The book is interesting.
Intrinsically motivated people act out of their own volition. For example, out of interest in the topic or for self-realization. Many people get into a flow, which is a common characteristic of intrinsic motivation.
The flow theory comes from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. For a feeling of flow to occur, the difficulty of the task must strike the fine line between overchallenging and underchallenging. The tasks must be at a high level, but must not be too difficult. This can lead to flow, in which the learner/employee becomes completely absorbed in the task and forgets everything around them.
MOTIVATION THROUGH INTEREST
Intrinsic motivation can be promoted through the experience of autonomy and competence. Interest is an essential characteristic of intrinsic motivation and can be expressed in various forms:
Value-based: People assign a value to a topic based on rational considerations. For example, people read books because it educates them and people do sports because they want to stay healthy. For example, bosses can convey their tasks’ meaning to their employees.
Emotional: People do not always justify their interests rationally, but emotionally. For example, they enjoy reading or doing sports to feel fit.
Intrinsic motivation has a high effect on work performance and the quality of work. Cerasoli and Nicklin concluded in 2014 that employees show more personal commitment. They also successfully carry out more complex work on their responsibility.
If fun at work and the well-being of employees are important to a company, it must also promote intrinsic motivation. This has another effect. If employees or students are well intrinsically motivated, there is hardly any need for external rewards. Like good grades or bonus payments.
HOW CAN YOU PROMOTE IT?
According to self-determination theory, intrinsic motivation can develop. But only when the learner/employee experiences autonomy and competence. This means:
Competence: The experience of competence can be promoted through feedback. The successful solution of the task should be attributed to one’s abilities. Failure should be attributed to a lack of effort, for example. In companies, it makes sense to conduct competence-oriented feedback discussions and to highlight the development of competence in them. The tasks should have an optimum level of difficulty. In other words, it is an easy challenge that can be mastered.
Autonomy: Scope for action promotes intrinsic motivation and can be encouraged by strengthening personal responsibility and involving the learner/employee in decisions. For example, they can decide for themselves when they want to work on which tasks and how they want to continue working. It is therefore particularly important for companies to involve employees in decisions.
Intrinsic motivation mustn’t be weakened or destroyed by an external reward (corrupting effect). This means that anyone who receives a reward for something that they already enjoy doing will lose their desire to do it.