Richard Koestner

A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation.

A meta-analysis of 128 studies examined the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. As predicted, engagement-contingent, completion-contingent, and performance-contingent rewards significantly undermined free-choice intrinsic motivation (d = -0.40, -0.36, and -0.28, respectively), as did all rewards, all tangible rewards, and all expected rewards. Engagement-contingent and completion-contingent rewards also significantly undermined self-reported interest (d = -0.15, and -0.17), as did all tangible rewards and all expected rewards. Positive feedback enhanced both free-choice behavior (d = 0.33) and self-reported interest (d = 0.31). Tangible rewards tended to be more detrimental for children than college students, and verbal rewards tended to be less enhancing for children than college students. The authors review 4 previous meta-analyses of this literature and detail how this studys methods, analyses, and results differed from the previous ones.

Extrinsic Rewards and Intrinsic Motivation in Education: Reconsidered Once Again:

The finding that extrinsic rewards can undermine intrinsic motivation has been highly controversial since it first appeared (Deci, 1971). A meta-analysis published in this journal (Cameron & Pierce, 1994) concluded that the undermining effect was minimal and largely inconsequential for educational policy. However, a more recent meta-analysis (Deci, Koestner, & Ryan, 1999) showed that the Cameron and Pierce meta-analysis was seriously flawed and that its conclusions were incorrect. This article briefly reviews the results of the more recent meta-analysis, which showed that tangible rewards do indeed have a substantial undermining effect. The meta-analysis provided strong support for cognitive evaluation theory (Deci & Ryan, 1980), which Cameron and Pierce had advocated abandoning. The results are briefly discussed in terms of their relevance for educational practice.

Les passions de l'ame: on obsessive and harmonious passion.

Passion is defined as a strong inclination toward an activity that people like, that they find important, and in which they invest time and energy. Two types of passion are proposed: obsessive and harmonious. Obsessive passion (OP) refers to a controlled internalization of an activity in ones identity that creates an internal pressure to engage in the activity that the person likes. Harmonious passion (HP) refers to an autonomous internalization that leads individuals to choose to engage in the activity that they like. HP promotes healthy adaptation whereas OP thwarts it by causing negative affect and rigid persistence. Results from four studies involving more than 900 participants from different populations supported the proposed conceptualization.

Self-Regulation and Academic Procrastination

The role of autonomous self-regulation as a predictor of academic procrastination was assessed. French-Canadian students from a junior college (N = 498) completed the Academic Motivation Scale as well as an academic procrastination scale and other measures (anxiety, self-esteem, and depression) that have been found to be related to fear of failure. Correlation results indicated that students with intrinsic reasons for pursuing academic tasks procrastinated less than those with less autonomous reasons (external regulation and amotivation). Regression results indicated that the measures of depression, self-esteem, and anxiety accounted for 14% of the variance in academic procrastination, whereas the self-regulation variables accounted for 25%. These results support the notion that procrastination is a motivational problem that involves more than poor time management skills or trait laziness.

The Differential Effects of Intrinsic and Identified Motivation on Well-Being and Performance: Prospective, Experimental, and Implicit Approaches to Self-Determination Theory

Self-determination theory research has demonstrated that intrinsic and identified self-regulations are associated with successful adaptation. However, few distinctions are typically made between these regulations and their outcomes. In the present studies, the associations between intrinsic and identified motivations and outcomes of psychological well-being and academic performance are compared in educational settings. In Study 1, intrinsic self-regulation predicted psychological well-being, independent of academic performance. In contrast, identified regulation predicted academic performance. Additionally, the more that students demonstrated an identified academic regulation, the more that their psychological well-being was contingent on performance. In Study 2a, priming intrinsic self-regulation led to greater psychological well-being 10 days later. In Study 2b, an implicit measure of identified regulation predicted academic performance 6 weeks later. Results indicate the need to address important distinctions between intrinsic and identified regulations.

Autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and goal progress.

Although the self-concordance of goals has been repeatedly shown to predict better goal progress, recent research suggests potential problems with aggregating autonomous and controlled motivations to form a summary index of self-concordance (Judge, Bono, Erez, & Locke, 2005). The purpose of the present investigation was to further examine the relations among autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and goal progress to determine the relative importance of autonomous motivation and controlled motivation in the pursuit of personal goals. The results of three studies and a meta-analysis indicated that autonomous motivation was substantially related to goal progress whereas controlled motivation was not. Additionally, the relation of autonomous motivation to goal progress was shown to involve implementation planning. Together, the three studies highlight the importance for goal setters of having autonomous motivation and developing implementation plans, especially ones formulated in terms of approach strategies rather than avoidance strategies. The present research suggests that individuals pursuing goals should focus relatively greater attention on enhancing their autonomous motivation rather than reducing their controlled motivation.

The family origins of empathic concern: a 26-year longitudinal study.

This study examined whether adult empathic concern was associated with parent behavior in early childhood. Subjects were drawn from a longitudinal sample first investigated by Sears, Maccoby, and Levin (1957). At age 31, 75 subjects completed the Adjective Checklist (Gough & Heilbrun, 1965, 1983), from which an index of empathic concern was derived. Scores on this index were regressed on 11 parenting dimensions derived from maternal interviews when the subjects were 5 years old. The results revealed a significant multiple R indicating that, taken together, the parenting dimensions predicted the level of empathic concern at age 31. Adult levels of empathic concern were most strongly related to the following parenting dimensions: paternal involvement in child care, maternal tolerance of dependent behavior, maternal inhibition of childs aggression, and maternal satisfaction with the role of mother.

Beliefs about cues associated with deception

Peoples beliefs about the association of 19 visual and auditory cues with deception were assessed in one of two questionnaires: Subjects were asked to indicate the association of each cue with deception in their own behavior (self-perception condition) or in other peoples behavior (other-perception condition). The 19 behaviors listed in the questionnaires had been previously examined in research on actual behaviors associated with deception; ten of these behaviors had also been examined in research on cues associated with judgment of deception. Stronger association between the various cues and deception were obtained in the other-perception than in the self-perception condition, indicating that people believe they control their own deceptive behavior better than other people control theirs. Beliefs about the association of each behavior with deception (averaged across the two conditions and sex of respondents) correlated .11 with the actual association of each cue with deception, and .44 with the association of each cue with judgment of deception. The possibility that the correspondence between beliefs about deception and actual cues to deception is higher for some specific types of lie-telling was discussed.

Autonomous motivation for therapy: A new common factor in brief treatments for depression

Abstract The authors propose a new common treatment factor, autonomous motivation (Deci & Ryan, 2000), defined as the extent to which patients experience participation in treatment as a freely made choice emanating from themselves. Ninety-five depressed outpatients were randomly assigned to receive 16 sessions of manualized interpersonal therapy, cognitive–behavior therapy, or pharmacotherapy with clinical management. Self-report and interviewer-based measures of depressive severity were collected at pretreatment and posttreatment. Autonomous motivation, therapeutic alliance, and perceived therapist autonomy support were assessed at Session 3. Autonomous motivation was a stronger predictor of outcome than therapeutic alliance, predicting higher probability of achieving remission and lower posttreatment depression severity across all three treatments. Patients who perceived their therapists as more autonomy supportive reported higher autonomous motivation.

Self-Regulation and Consistency between Attitudes, Traits, and Behaviors

This research examined the impact of self-regulatory styles on the degree of consistency between behaviors and self-reported attitudes and traits. It was predicted that individuals who regulate their behavior in an autonomous manner would be more like{y to display behavior consistent with their self-reported attitudes and traits than individuals who regulate their behavior in accordance with external or introjected controls. In two intrinsic motivation laboratory experiments, subjects who were classified as autonomy oriented on the basis of their responses to the General Causality Orientations Scale were shown to display significantly higher attitude-behavior correlations than subjects classified as control oriented. In another experiment, autonomy-oriented subjects showed greater consistency between self-descriptions of conscientiousness and a behavioral criterion than control-oriented subjects. Together, these findings support Deci and Ryans hypothesis that individual differences in self-regulation will influence indexes of personality integration.