Differences between Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

The possibilities are:

1. You have to go to work in order to get paid.
2. You have to start a new week in which you dedicate your experience and skills to making a difference that matters to you.
3. For the two previous reasons combined.
4. You may be a non-worker, and this example does not apply to you, but keep reading to find another example that works for you.

Regardless of your answer to this question, it starts with whatever triggers you to take the action of getting out of bed. Your motivation to do anything is a psychological process that depends on some kind of motivation that pushes you to take action to get what you want and need.

There are two types of motivation: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation.

While both are important factors in achieving success, experts have found that these two types of motivation have different influences on human behavior and the actions people choose to take to move forward in pursuit of their goals.

In order to understand how intrinsic and extrinsic motivation influence your actions and behaviors, you must first know the difference between the two and how each works.

This article will look at what intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are and how you can determine whether your or someone else's sense of excitement is intrinsic or comes from an external factor.

Definitions of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic Motivations

When you have an inner drive to do something, you feel an inner urge to perform that behavior. Because it is naturally pleasing or satisfying to you, this type of motivation occurs when you act without expecting an external reward after engaging in this behavior. You find the activity personally fulfilling, or you view it as an opportunity to learn and realize your potential.

Here's an example you can likely relate to: You must feel a great inner urge to visit your best friend at least twice a month. You don't go to see them expecting anything in return; rather, you expect to gain an inner sense of happiness and contentment from being with them alone, and you do not try to reach a certain social status through your relationship or to earn money by babysitting their children. You just enjoy their company.

When you do something because it brings you pleasure, a sense of personal fulfillment, or a sense of satisfaction, you do so with a sense of inner motivation. So don't look for rewards or praise. This is not to say that doing things with an intrinsic impulse does not bring with it some unique kinds of rewards, but that those rewards are only about producing positive feelings.

For example, volunteering in an organization that is important to you gives you a sense of purpose and progress, especially if you are able to see the positive results of your work. Learning new things from such experiences is also an internal reward if you are learning with the aim of satisfying your sense of curiosity. In these cases, volunteering may help you learn new skills such as teamwork, leadership, communication, and a positive work ethic, along with learning about other cultures or different needs in your community.

Take a moment to think about your motivation for learning in this moment and ask yourself, Why are you reading this article? Are you interested in learning about human behavior and motivation? Do you find this information fascinating and really want to learn more? If that's how it is, you are acting on your inner impulse, but if instead you had to collect essays on the subject in order to get a proper score in your research, you would then act on your sense of external motivation.

Now look at what is involved in an extrinsic motivation.

Extrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic motivation is the motivation that influences the behaviors you perform with the expectation of receiving some kind of external reward at the end, such as money, appreciation, or good grades.

When you are motivated by an external source, you will continue to engage in a certain behavior, even if it is not rewarding in itself. For example, the chef is likely to perform routine tasks that are not very pleasant yet still feel motivated to complete them because he expects a salary in exchange for doing these tasks.

Here's another relevant example: Most people run for hours every week, but is it a fun hobby? Not really; some of them may certainly enjoy exercising in the morning, which is great, but most of them prefer to stay in bed for an extra hour, and yet everyone wants to maintain their fitness and appearance, and this reward may make the extra effort every morning in the exercise worth all the fuss.

Keeping fit is an example of an external reward that may not be tangible, such as a salary, and some external rewards may take on psychological dimensions greater than that. The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about tangible rewards is, of course, money and appreciation. In order to earn these things, people often take actions they would not prefer to take if the choice were in their hands.

Not everyone loves their job, no doubt about that, but they still come to work every day, and when it comes to receiving recognition as a tangible reward, athletes endure tough training sessions to be competitive in their sport and win, and they must often prefer relaxation over the beach instead of doing all this tiring physical effort.

Some psychological forms of extrinsic motivation may include gaining some form of approval from other people or social admiration. The employee may make an extra effort at work to gain praise or attention from the employer, or the child may clean their room in order to gain the praise of their parents. In both examples, the reward is not material or tangible, but it is still motivation that comes from an external source.

Extrinsic motivation may affect you more every day than you realize. Regardless of whether you're employed or not, think about the loyalty cards you shop with in stores to earn points or receive special discounts, or perhaps you use a specific credit card to get hotel points or flights.

Here are some other everyday examples of extrinsic motivation:

• Offering a favor to someone with the hope of receiving some thanks or praise in return.
• Volunteering somewhere so you can add it to your resume.
• Washing dishes to avoid fighting with others in your home.
• Buying a specific clothing brand so you can show the logo to others.
• Filling out a survey to get motivated.
• Buying a new phone because it is fashionable.

Now that you know the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, you can take a look at how you can use this information to improve your life and influence those around you.

How to determine the source of motivation

The distinction between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation emerged in the 1970s after empirical studies suggested that obtaining tangible rewards might be detrimental to a person's intrinsic motivation to engage in a behavior.

This means that people tend to lose interest in activities they once enjoyed after they begin to receive a tangible benefit from doing them.

Keep this in mind: have you ever known someone who was able to turn their passion into a career, only to find that their original love for work faded with time? What was once an activity he chose to do on his own time and on his own terms had become a compulsory activity, which led to him losing his sense of autonomy.

In an episode of Friends, Monica makes candy for her neighbors in order to give something nice to the others who live in the building. However, this kind gesture quickly turns into a chore, for they began to demand sweets from her, and pressure came upon her to make them as soon as possible. This is a perfect example of behavior that is initially motivated by inner satisfaction but is quickly overshadowed by the external reward of admiration from her neighbors.

This does not mean that extrinsic motivation is a bad thing, but it is easily limited in effect, and studies back this up when they show that the effect of intrinsic motivation factors usually outweighs any other effect that might be considered a bribe of some kind, indicating that if you are in a leadership position, it is important to realize that internal factors play a stronger role in motivating your employees than offering some financial rewards.

This is true, especially if you are trying to build a professional culture based on respect, appreciation, trust, and independence. Often, creating an environment in which employees have opportunities to enhance their professional development and advance their careers is the best way to ensure that employees are not satisfied with mediocre work; rather, they will hold on to the incentive to do their best.

Internal sources of motivation may also have a stronger influence on your personal life than external factors. When you think about the most important things to you in life, you don't think about your tangible possessions. Rather, you will think of the memories you made with your family and friends.

Money and possessions are transient, and their value will not always remain the same. Therefore, the possibility of obtaining a reward at work may be very effective in pushing you to work extra hard in the short term, but this source of motivation will not last forever because external motivating factors are rarely sustainable.

Use motivation to boost your success

A critical component of success is being able to know how to motivate yourself effectively. Instead of relying on genius, luck, or your own awesomeness to become successful, you have to know what gives you that necessary push, not only to start tasks but also to ensure they are completely completed. If external sources of motivation, such as money and fame, are not as important to you as feeling internal satisfaction with your actions, you can always remain motivated.

When you rely solely on external value to ensure your continued productivity, you fail to arouse any sense of passion, and all you can guarantee is that the minimum work required for success will pass easily until the reward appears.

So if you are giving others an external motivator in an attempt to influence them to do something, you need to make sure that you continually increase the value of the reward you are offering; otherwise, people will not feel the need to be more productive. This is the reason why companies give raises to their employees; they want their employees to have a good reason to push them to work more than the minimum required of them.

in conclusion

External motivations make us feel good in the short term, especially if we receive them unexpectedly. You can use external sources of motivation to influence others to be successful with words of encouragement, money, positive attention, personal recognition, and other benefits that you can offer if you are in a leadership position.

But external motivation is able to influence others and yourself to increase your productivity only if you see that the reward is more valuable than the effort that you must make to obtain it, and if your passion for these rewards diminishes, so will your effort towards the work that it requires. This is why, if you aim to offer such a reward to others, you must be willing to adjust the reward accordingly in order to continue to motivate people who find this reward valuable.

If you're in a leadership position and want to keep your employees motivated, make sure you give your team the time and resources to develop skills and explore projects they're passionate about without making them do these things as part of their regular job duties. This may lead to results contrary to what is expected.

When it comes to your own business, focus your efforts on the rewards you want, but don't exhaust yourself with the pursuit of external rewards. Instead, make sure that you give yourself enough time, both personally and professionally, to do things you really enjoy doing to make sure you live in a healthy balance between the things you do because you want to and the ones you do because you have to.