Human Motivation: What Drives Us?

Lately, I've been really interested in human motivation. In a course I took, we learned about a concept called the "overjustification effect." According to this concept, bestowing someone an external incentive (i.e., a reward) for performing a task that is intrinsically motivated (i.e., a task that the person is performing for the benefit of the task itself) leads to decreased motivation to continue performing the task. For example, paying a child to play video games may in fact decrease the likelihood that the child will continue playing video games once the money stops coming. The underlying rationale is that we, as humans, want our actions to be internally controlled. We want to have control over our actions. When we perceive our actions to be externally controlled, we are less interested in pursuing them if given a choice.

How does this apply to everyday life? Do professional athletes enjoy their sport any less than recreational athletes? Is the education system stripping us of our innate desire to learn? Some may say yes, but it appears to be more complicated than just a yes or no question.

The following video comes from a very interesting man, Daniel H. Pink, an American author and journalist. Pink argues for the necessity of autonomy, mastery and purpose. We want to control our actions, be able to see improvement in the mastery of our skills, and feel like we are contributing to the world as a whole. Enjoy the video!