Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation is when people engage in an activity, such as a hobby, without clear external incentives. Intrinsic motivation has been studied by educational psychologists since the 1970s, and many studies have found it to be linked with high educational accomplishments and enjoyments by students. There is at present no universal theory to explain the origin or elements of intrinsic motivation, and the majority of explanations combine elements of Fritz Heider's attribution theory, Bandura's work on self-efficacy and other studies relating to locus of control and goal orientation. Though it is thought that students are more likely to be essentially motivated if they:

• Attribute their educational results to internal factors that they can control.
• Believe they can be efficient agents in reaching desired goals.
• Are interested in mastering a topic, rather than just rote-learning to achieve good grades.

In organizations and knowledge-sharing communities, people regularly cite altruistic reasons for their contribution, including contributing to a common good, a moral duty to the group, mentorship or 'giving back'. In work environments, money may provide a more powerful extrinsic factor than the intrinsic motivation provided by an enjoyable workplace. The majority obvious form of motivation is coercion, where the avoidance of pain or other negative penalty has an immediate effect. Extreme use of coercion is considered slavery. While coercion is considered morally reprehensible in many philosophies, it is extensively practiced on prisoners, students in mandatory schooling, within the nuclear family unit, and in the form of mobilization. Critics of modern capitalism charge that without social safety networks, wage slavery is predictable. However, many capitalists such as Ayn Rand have been very vocal against coercion. Successful coercion sometimes can take priority over other types of motivation. Self-coercion is infrequently substantially negative, however it is interesting in that it illustrates how lower levels of motivation may be sometimes tweaked to satisfy higher ones.