Intrinsic Motivation vs. Extrinsic Motivation

The intrinsic motivation to learn about the world around us begins in infancy. My 7 month old granddaughter explores for the pure pleasure of learning about her environment. There is no concern for what others think.

Intrinsic motivation is an inner drive that propels a person to pursue an activity because the action is enjoyable. A person is motivated by the fun, challenge, or satisfaction of an activity.

Intrinsic motivation can either be encouraged or suppressed by the experiences adults provide for children. Depending on how the adults in my granddaughter's world consistently respond to her exploration, she will either continue to explore for the sake of her own pleasure or she will start to behave in a manner that elicits praise and pleasure from the adults in her life.

This is called extrinsic motivation. Being extrinsically motivated refers to doing an activity to attain some separate outcome, such as earning a reward or avoiding punishment.

Extrinsic Motivation vs. Intrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic motivation is related to a fixed mindset. It undermines resilience in children by teaching them to place value on external modes of validation. Ultimately, this can be rather damaging to their sense of agency, resiliency, and overall well-being. When children are motivated by external rewards or praise, they often feel like they have failed or can’t meet expectations, real or perceived.

More than ever, children are bombarded with external sources of motivation; reward systems, behavior charts, and grades. Social media is a concerning external source of validation as we concern ourselves with measuring up to what others post and whether others like what we post. Thus, it has never been more important that we consider the impacts of intrinsic motivation versus extrinsic motivation and how we can nurture intrinsic motivation.

If parents want to give their child a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning. That way their children don’t have to depend on praise from others. They will have a lifelong way to build and repair their own confidence.

(Carol Dweck)

Intrinsic motivation is related to a growth mindset. It is the drive to adopt or change a behavior or complete a task because it is interesting, challenging, or absorbing or because it makes us happy. We find joy in the process. We don’t require the reward at the end for enjoyment. Failing to hit the goals, marks or achievements we are hoping for can be tough, but it’s even harder if the outcome was the only thing we cared about. When we enjoy the process, it takes some of the stress off the end result and makes us feel more satisfied overall. (The Umbrella Effect, Dr. Jen Forristal ND, pg 163)

Intrinsic Motivation - Why Does It Matter?

Intrinsic motivation can either be encouraged or suppressed by the experiences adults provide for children. Why does it matter?

Intrinsic or extrinsic motivation make up the underlying reasons, attitudes, and goals that give rise to human behavior. Motivation is essentially the “why” we do what we do.

Honestly, when children are young, there are times that it may seem best to encourage extrinsic motivation. Afterall, wouldn’t it be great if they acted to please us and did what led to rewards; stickers, grades etc. But is that what you want for them when they are teenagers, when their peers are the influence? Do you want them to act to receive approval from other teens or do you want them to make decisions that feel right for them? Do you want them to stress about what others think of them or do you want them to feel good about who they are? Do you want them to feel helpless when things are hard or do you want them to know that they can do hard things? Intrinsic motivation fosters resilience and well-being.

Conclusion

We can give our teens the gift of intrinsic motivation by nurturing it throughout childhood. In the next blog post I will share 5 ways to nurture intrinsic motivation and the third post in the series on Motivation will be The Slippery Slope of Praise. Subscribe to Child and Parent Resilience Blog to receive notice when new blogs are posted.

- RM COUSE

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