Why do some people devote themselves to learning a new language, training for a marathon, or perfecting a new skill just for fun? They have something known as intrinsic motivation, an internal drive to engage in a behavior because of the inherent satisfaction of the activity rather than the desire for a reward or specific outcome.
Intrinsic motivation happens when we act without being compelled by obvious external rewards. In other words, the activity itself is its own reward. Intrinsic motivation can be contrasted with extrinsic motivation, which involves engaging in a behavior to earn external rewards or avoid punishment.
The three main elements of intrinsic motivation are autonomy, purpose, and mastery. People are intrinsically motivated when they can act independently, feel that their efforts matter, and gain satisfaction from becoming more skilled.
Is It Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation?
What Are Examples of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation?
Consider for a moment your motivation for reading this article. If you are reading it because you have an interest in psychology and simply want to know more about the topic of motivation, then you are acting based upon intrinsic motivation.
If you are reading this article because you have to learn the information for a class and want to avoid getting a bad grade, then you are acting based on extrinsic motivation.
How Intrinsic Motivation Works
When was the last time you did something simply for the enjoyment of the activity itself? You can probably think of many activities that fall into this category. For instance, you might plant a garden, paint a picture, play a game, write a story, take a walk, or read a book.
Some of these activities might be productive or result in some reward, but that’s not really your goal. Instead, you do them because you like to. They make you happy.
When you pursue an activity for the pure enjoyment of it, you are doing so because you are intrinsically motivated. Your motivations for engaging in the behavior arise entirely from within rather than out of a desire to gain some external reward, such as prizes, money, or acclaim.
Of course, that isn’t to say that intrinsically motivated behaviors do not come with their own rewards. These rewards often involve creating positive emotions within the individual.
Activities can generate such feelings when they give you a sense of meaning, like participating in volunteer or church events. They may also give you a sense of progress when you see that your work is accomplishing something positive, or competence when you learn something new or become more skilled at a task.
How Extrinsic Reinforcement Affects Intrinsic Motivation
Sometimes, extrinsic rewards can have a detrimental effect on our existing internal drive to engage in a behavior. Researchers have discovered that offering external rewards or reinforcements for an already internally rewarding activity can actually make the activity *less* intrinsically rewarding. This phenomenon is known as the overjustification effect.
Essentially, intrinsic motivation means that a person already feels that the internal rewards they experience provide sufficient justification for engaging in the behavior. However, adding an external reward to the mix can create confusion. In order to understand their true motivation, people will sometimes mistakenly attribute their motivation to the external reward.
People tend to be more creative when they are intrinsically motivated.
In work settings, for instance, productivity can be increased by using extrinsic rewards such as a bonus. However, the actual quality of the work performed is influenced by intrinsic factors. If you are doing something that you find rewarding, interesting, and challenging, you are more likely to come up with novel ideas and creative solutions.
How It Impacts Your Behavior
Intrinsic motivation can drive behavior in all aspects of life, particularly in education, sports, careers, and personal pursuits.
In Education
Intrinsic motivation is an important topic in education. Teachers and instructional designers strive to develop intrinsically rewarding learning environments. Unfortunately, many traditional paradigms suggest that most students find learning boring, so they must be extrinsically goaded into educational activities.
Some researchers suggest that this does not need to be the case. They identify several different ways to create intrinsically rewarding learning environments.
An activity is intrinsically motivating if people do it for the sake of the activity and not to get a reward or avoid a punishment. The words fun, interesting, captivating, enjoyable, and intrinsically motivating are used interchangeably to describe such activities.
In Personal Pursuits
Examples of intrinsic motivation in daily life abound. If you participate in a sport because you enjoy it rather than to win awards or competitions, you’re responding to intrinsic motivation.
Another example: You try to do your best at work because your tasks and mission provide fulfillment and satisfaction, regardless of extrinsic factors such as pay and benefits.
Perhaps you maintain a beautiful garden because you enjoy planting it and watching it grow, not because the neighbors would complain if your yard were messy. Or, maybe you dress stylishly to express yourself and your interest in fashion, rather than to garner attention. Whenever you do something “just for you,” you’re responding to intrinsic motivation.
Factors That Influence It
While intrinsic motivation arises from within an individual, it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. There are a variety of environmental and psychological factors that can either help or hurt a person’s internal drive. Understanding these factors can help us create conditions that foster greater intrinsic motivation.
- Challenge: People are more motivated when they pursue goals with personal meaning and when attaining the goal is possible but not necessarily certain. When performance feedback is available, these goals may also affect self-esteem.
- Control: People want control over themselves and their environments and want to determine what they pursue. They feel more intrinsically motivated when they have this sense of control.
- Cooperation and competition: Intrinsic motivation also strengthens when people gain satisfaction from helping others. It also applies to cases where they can compare their performance favorably to that of others.
- Curiosity: Internal motivation is increased when something in the physical environment grabs the individual’s attention (sensory curiosity). It also occurs when something about the activity stimulates the person to want to learn more (cognitive curiosity).
- Recognition: People enjoy having their accomplishments recognized by others, which can increase internal motivation.
Potential Pitfalls
Experts have noted that offering unnecessary rewards can have unexpected costs. While we like to think that offering a reward will improve a person’s motivation, interest, and performance, this isn’t always the case.
When children are rewarded for playing with toys that they already enjoy playing with, their enjoyment of those toys, and their motivation to continue playing with them, actually decreases.
It is important to note, however, that a number of factors can influence whether intrinsic motivation is increased or decreased by external rewards. Salience or the significance of the event itself often plays a critical role.
An athlete competing in a sporting event might view the winner’s prize as confirmation of competence and exceptionalism. On the other hand, some athletes might view the same prize as a sort of bribe or coercion.
The individual’s view of the importance of different characteristics of the event impacts whether the reward will affect their intrinsic motivation for participating in that activity.
Takeaways
In your own life, there are probably many things you do which are prompted by intrinsic motivation. These are important elements for a well-balanced life. If we spend all of our time working to make money, we may miss out on the simple pleasures of life. Realizing your own intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and balancing them can be quite rewarding.
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Levy A, DeLeon IG, Martinez CK, et al. A quantitative review of overjustification effects in persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities. J Appl Behav Anal. 2017;50(2):206–221. doi:10.1002/jaba.359
Malone TW, Lepper MR. Making learning fun: A taxonomy of intrinsic motivations for learning. In: Snow RE, Farr MJ, ed. Aptitude, Learning, and Instruction: Iii. Conative and Affective Process Analysis. Erlbaum.
Morris LS, Grehl MM, Rutter SB, Mehta M, Westwater ML. On what motivates us: a detailed review of intrinsic v. extrinsic motivation. Psychol Med. 2022;52(10):1801-1816. doi:10.1017/S0033291722001611
Liu Y, Yang Y, Bai X, Chen Y, Mo L. Do immediate external rewards really enhance intrinsic motivation? Front Psychol. 2022;13:853879. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.853879
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