During the afternoon lecture series, Richard M. Ryan from the University of Rochester outlined his "Self Determination" theory. The part of his talk (which was also the main point) that I found the most interesting was the idea of "Intrinsic Motivation" which is the idea that an action is performed "just for the sake of doing it" as opposed to doing something because of the potential for rewards or punishments. Ryan showed the results of several experiments that showed that people are more inclined to excel in all aspects of life when their motivation is intrinsic rather than extrinsic.
One experiment that he discussed that I found particularly shocking was based on the fact that only about 40% of prescribed medication is actually taken by the people it prescribed to. Ryan found that the majority of the people who actually took their prescriptions did so because they felt it was the right thing to do, not because the doctor influenced them to do so.
I wonder what Freud would have said about this!
I am also very interested in the concept of intrinsic motivation...this speech makes me wonder just how many people are actually intrinsically motivated in today's world?
ReplyDeleteIt seems as if most of the things we do these days are motivated by extrinsic factors--sure, most people go to school to learn, but the final goal is usually to get a job. I feel as if a lot of students are simply motivated to get good grades, but not as interested in learning the subject and mastering it. Most of the things we do are guided by rewards and punishments, and I think the few people that are intrinsically motivated--doing something for the pure satisfaction of it without caring about the outcome--is a very rare thing.