Inside, outside or in between - part 2

In a previous post I tried to explain the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and how these two concepts are misunderstood. For those who haven't read it and don't have the time to do so, intrinsic and extrinsic are not about whether motivation lies within us or outside of us. All motivation is within us in the form of thoughts, feelings and basic chemical and physical states. At the same time, it is external to us because our thoughts, feelings and behaviours are always coloured and influenced by the external environment in which we find ourselves.

What inner and outer are really about is where we ourselves, in our own thoughts, locate the origin of our own behaviour and how we explain or justify it to ourselves. When we experience high levels of intrinsic motivation, the motive for our behaviour tends to merge in our experience with the behaviour itself. For example, if we have sex because we enjoy having sex, the motive or goal of the act in our minds merges with the act itself. I emphasise again that it is our experience that the behaviour as such is still being performed in some form of interaction with the environment (in the case of sex, usually with a partner), an environment that continues to feed or reinforce our experience of the goal of our behaviour being merged with the behaviour as such.

This experience, or perceptual confusion, which researchers have chosen to call intrinsic motivation, is often experienced as very satisfying and positive, which is why intrinsic motivation can be desirable in itself. However, in addition to being intrinsically pleasurable, intrinsic motivation appears to be a psychological state that is associated with a range of other positive outcomes, such as creativity, persistence, work performance, learning, and physical and mental health. The research evidence is extensive, so there seems to be good reason to be interested in the phenomenon as such, but also in the circumstances and individuals in which it tends to occur.

However, this may be the subject of future articles. In the remainder of this article, I will focus instead on extrinsic motivation, that is, motivation that consists of the perception that the motive for one's behaviour is separate in time and/or in nature from the behaviour itself. This perceived separation between action and motive for action can be of various kinds. In other words, there seems to be not just one type of extrinsic motivation, but several. The four types that have been identified in research within the theoretical framework of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) are referred to as external, introjected, identified and integrated, and are briefly described below.

External motivation refers to the perception that one's behaviour is driven by a desire to obtain some form of external reward, such as praise, a penny, or a treat. It also includes those behaviours we perform to avoid some form of external punishment, such as a scolding, a pay cut or being dropped from the team. In its purest form, it means that the behaviour itself has no value apart from the external consequence of performing it. This means that if we realise that the reward or punishment will not be forthcoming, the motive for the action itself is removed, with the result that the action either does not take place or the motive for the action is forced to be reconsidered and changed.

Introjection is also a form of motivation in which one seeks to achieve or avoid rewards or punishments through one's behaviour. In this case, however, the rewards and punishments you seek are not external but internal, in the form of your own thoughts and feelings. If you think that your behaviour will make you feel good about yourself, or that you will avoid feelings of anxiety and guilt, this is an example of this type of extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic because the action itself is a means of achieving or avoiding something else.

The two remaining forms of extrinsic motivation presented in SDT are very similar and are sometimes presented as one and the same type. Identified motivation involves acting to achieve a goal that one wants to achieve, that is personally urgent and important to oneself, that one identifies with, so to speak. Integrated motivation refers to behaviours that stem from one's ideals about how one wants to live one's life, which are one's most important values and principles. For example, if you have the behaviour of regularly arriving on time at work, and at the same time you have the idea that you are doing this because it will give you a better chance of getting the attractive job you dream of in the future, this is an example of the first type. If, for the same behaviour, you think that it is something that is important to you because you have a strong value and desire to be a person who respects other people's time, this is an example of the second type.

All of these types of extrinsic motivation, as well as the intrinsic motivation mentioned above, refer to thought patterns or explanatory models for our behaviour that take place in our own minds. They are not intrinsic and extrinsic in the actual sense, but only in the psychological sense. However, they can feel very different, with the first two forms of extrinsic motivation often described as controlled motives, characterised by thoughts of oughts, shoulds and needs, and often carried out with a sense of discomfort. The second two are often described as more autonomous or self-determined forms of motives that we attribute to our actions, where the thoughts are characterised by the fact that we choose to do what we do, and where the feelings are more positive than when the motives are more controlled. They are therefore similar to intrinsic motivation, which can be seen as the most purely autonomous form of motivation.

It is important to emphasise that the same action often has elements of both intrinsic and different types of extrinsic motivation; it is quite rare for us to have only one type of motivation for an action. The most salient motivations for the same behaviour may also vary over time and across situations, but a large body of research has shown that the more we experience intrinsic motivation and the more autonomous forms of extrinsic motivation, the better we feel and the better we perform. This is, of course, one reason why it can be useful to know something about why we think we do what we do, rather than just what we do.

For those who are curious to read more about this, I have written A little book about motivation which you can find here.

References

Cerasoli, C. P., Nicklin, J. M., & Ford, M. T. (2014) Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic incentives jointly predict performance: a 40-year meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 140(4), 980-1008.

De Jesus, S. N., Rus, C. L., Lens, W., & Imaginário, S. (2013). Intrinsic motivation and product-related creativity: A meta-analysis of studies published between 1990 and 2010. Creativity Research Journal, 25(1), 80-84.

Fishbach, A., & Woolley, K. (2022). The structure of intrinsic motivation. Annual review of organisational psychology and behaviour, 9, 339-363.

Howard, J. L., Bureau, J. S., Guay, F., Chong, J. X., & Ryan, R. M. (2021). Student motivation and related outcomes: A self-determination theory meta-analysis. Perspectives in Psychological Science, 16(6), 1300-1323.

Howard, J. L., Chong, J. X., & Bureau, J. S. (2020). The tripartite model of intrinsic motivation in education: A 30-year retrospective and meta-analysis. Journal of Personality, 88(6), 1268-1285.

Patall, E. A., Cooper, H., & Robinson, J. C. (2008). The effects of choice on intrinsic motivation and related outcomes: a meta-analysis of research. Psychological Bulletin, 134(2), 270-300.

Ryan, R. M., Duineveld, J. J., Di Domenico, S. I., Ryan, W. S., Steward, B. A., & Bradshaw, E. We know this much is (meta-analytically) true: A meta-review of meta-analytic evidence evaluating self-determination theory. Psychological Bulletin, 148(11-12), 813-842.

S?derfj?ll, S. (2020). A little book on motivation. Ett hum f?rlag AB.

Van den Broeck, A., Howard, J. L., Van Vaerenbergh, Y., Leroy, H., & Gagné, M. (2021). Beyond intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: A meta-analysis of self-determination theory's multidimensional conceptualisation of work motivation. Organisational Psychology Review, 11(3), 240-273.