Data from Motivation plays a key role (including motivation training) in determining how a person behaves, anticipating what a person does in the future, at what point he will face obstacles and at what point he will achieve a goal. Motivation is often divided into two different types, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, but we will focus here on extrinsic motivation, which drives people to perform a task for an external reward. In this article, we’ll explore the workings of extrinsic motivation, how it influences our behavior, and where it can be used most effectively.
What Is Extrinsic Motivation?
Extrinsic motivation is the impetus to perform an activity to achieve an external reward, such as money, praise, or effort avoidance. Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, does not involve oneself participating in an activity because they find it intrinsically rewarding or pleasurable but rather focuses on certain outside tangible entities.
External motivators include:
- Sales and other monetary incentives (e.g., salaries, bonuses, or commissions)
- Awards (e.g., awards, certificates, public acknowledgment)
- Getting any promotions or advancing your career
- Serious business — grades in an academic context
- Prevent punishment (e.g., fines, reprimands or negative feedback).
- Participation and fun (e.g., the completion of a task, relationship building)
How Does Extrinsic Motivation Work?
This mechanism can be observed where there is a direct link between the action, behavior and the reinforcement given externally for that behavior. For example, an employee is driven to learn a task because they are told that by completing their task and doing it well by a given date will lead to financial gain or the possibility of advancement. For example, a student may work hard studying for an exam because they want to earn a good grade.
The operant conditioning theoryThe theory which B.F. Skinner was a proponent of operant conditioning emphasizes principles of rewards and punishments that follow the behavior of an individual. Here, positive reinforcement (rewards) increases the repetition of a behavior and negative reinforcement (punishments) decreases wrong behavior.
Advantages of Extrinsic Motivation
There are many pros to extrinsic motivation especially in an environment that demands instantaneous results or behavior. Some benefits include:
- Higher Productivity: Extrinsic rewards can lead to a substantial increase in an individual productivity, primarily on task-oriented works where clearly define performance is desired.
- Performance: For people who are more focused on performance metrics in their life, like employees or pupils, external motivators can give a clear target and drive to do their best.
- Short-Term Tasks are Motivated by Extrinsic Motivation: When a task is due in a short period, like a deadline that needs to be met or a certain prerequisite, individuals are highly likely to conduct it based on an extrinsic factor.
- Key Structures of Extrinsic Motivation: These are key ways to facilitate extrinsic motivation in a learning environment: Extrinsic motivation, for example, can help people pick up new habits or behaviors that do not interest them naturally.
The One Key to Motivation You May Be Missing
Although external motivation can be a great stimulus for performance, it does have some limitations that can affect long-term behavior and well-being:
- Negative Effects of Relying on Rewards: When people are motivated by rewards primarily, making themselves intrinsic motivated for future tasks may be a struggle for them. As rewards become frequent, the desire for them may eventually fade, reducing motivation once incentives are taken away.
- Diminishing Intrinsic Motivation: The overjustification effect refers to the finding that reward can diminish intrinsic motivation. For example, if someone who already likes doing something (like playing a musical instrument) starts getting rewards (in the form of money) for doing that activity, they will then lose interest in it when the rewards are taken away.
- Stress and Pressure: In contexts where external rewards are contingent upon performance, individuals may experience stress, anxiety, or burnout as a result, especially if the rewards are unrealistic or overly demanding. Importantly, fear of failure or of failing to live up to external measures can dampen motivation and have a negative an impact on well-being.
- Shallow Engagement: External incentives may not always result in a full-fledged involvement or intrinsic enjoyment. Intrinsic motivation is driven by the thrill, excitement, and permanent interest in a point, so it will give the best results in action that require creativity or a long time span in intermediate tasks.
This proposed increased level of control over learning contributes to a balance between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in contextualized problem-solving learning.
That said, the best strategy typically sits in between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Intrinsically oriented and extrinsically focused motivations can exist in balance. For example, although external incentives may be effective in the short run, intrinsic motivation supports long-term motivation, interest, and engagement.
This sounds simple, but organizations and educators have strategies they can implement to take advantage of both types of motivation. Some methods include:
- Providing appropriate incentives that resonate with personal motivations
- Fostering independence and offering people a say in how they do their work
- It provides opportunities for personal promotion to help intrinsic motivation with external incentives
- Establishing clear goals and rewarding positive behaviors with recognition and praise
- Try to create an environment with external incentives and intrinsic happiness
Extrinsic Motivation Applications
Extrinsic motivation: used essentially everywhere:
- In the workplace: Many organizations use bonuses, commissions, or performance-based rewards as motivational tools for employees to achieve certain thresholds or targets.
- Academically: Grades, awards and certificates are external motivators to encourage students to excel academically.
- In sports: Medals, trophies and the thrill of competition can drive athletes to greater training regimens and success.
- In health and wellness: Someone offering external incentives — a discount, say, or a prize — can encourage people to stick to exercising or other healthy habits.
Conclusion
The force is applied by others who have power over us, these cues that elicit extrinsic motivation can be a huge influence on behaviour and performance across a wide variety of behaviours and situations. It guides people on how to do this and that or perform and hit goals and give their all. But I think to ultimately win and be satisfied we have to join the two. Which when done in combination on both levels is to follow a synergistic potpourri, moreso to cast the widest net in questing for a richer experience ultimately leading to further development of individual and thus of societal evolution as well.
