Have you ever stopped to think what motivates you? There are many views on what motivation is and what motivates people. According to theorists there is intrinsic motivation which comes from inside wanting to achieve something without having to have any external rewards, such as praise, stickers, certificates, money, toys, adulation, recognition, or fame so basically intrinsic motivation is the simple desire to do well without any need for external rewards – a warm fussy feeling, knowing that you did a good job is enough. Whereas, extrinsic motivators come from the desire of receiving some form of reward external to oneself. Some believe that being intrinsically motivated is more desirable and should be aspired too, but the more I think about it, I feel intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are interlinked and not separate because of both result in some form of reward. What? You might be thinking, and this is a valid response. However, think about it for a moment – do you do anything for no gain? You love your job, but would you do it if you didn’t get paid? You work hard on assignments, but would you do them to such a good standard if you didn’t have a chance of getting a good grade or getting into the university you want to go to? You enjoy writing poetry or music and you write them for pure enjoyment, but don’t share them with anyone, keeping them in a book. To me what a waste not to share them with others to liked and enjoyed.
So, am I convincing you? According to Sarah Mae Sincero, factors that promote intrinsic motivation are competition, cooperation, and recognition. Let’s look at co-operation. Co-operation is achieving a sense of satisfaction helping others to achieve their goals but doesn’t this result in friendships, or being liked and respected by others? Aren’t these rewards external from oneself? Thus, making intrinsic motivation similar to extrinsic? You are rewarded with friendship, recognition or respect. With many of these rewards being aspired to through extrinsic motivation.
After talking to some friends on their views on what motivates them was interesting to find out that Meghan, who is in her last year of secondary school is motivated by acknowledgment of achievement from her teachers and Lochlain is motivated by the simple good feeling that personal accomplishment gives him, stating that any other form of reward is simply a positive by-product. On the other hand, Raffie feels that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are related stating that you can start off being intrinsically motivated, but the way our society is set up encourages our actions to be motivated by rewards such as wages, recognition, appreciation, respect and the like.
Summing up, motivation is the driving force behind everything that we do and the reason why we do the things we do result in some form of reward whether it be fame, respect, acknowledgment or money. Looking at what has been discussed motivation is simply that and shouldn’t be divided into intrinsic or extrinsic because regardless, all actions come from motivation and end up with some form of reward – I vote we rename it Trinsic motivation or just plain old motivation and no longer deem one better than the other.
By Corin Bateman
