Intrinsic Motivation
2023 | February
What's So Important About Intrinsic Motivation?
By John Weiss
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Have your band play a concert in a 400 person venue. Design and silkscreen your own shirts. Learn how to make beats in a genuine music studio. Plan and throw a huge art show for the community.
These are just some of the compelling opportunities that take place at the Neutral Zone and which draw some 400-500 teens to come to the center regularly each year.
Compare these activities to what normally happens for students in school (take a biology test, write a paper analyzing population and settlement patterns, read the chapter on Euclidean geometry and fill out the worksheet) and it's no wonder that most youth prefer out of school time programs over school.
So why do after-school arts and leadership programs like the Neutral Zone hook students in and keep them coming back? One of the key factors is intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation refers to behavior that is driven by internal rewards, behavior which arises from within an individual because it is pleasing and personally rewarding. This contrasts with extrinsic motivation, which involves engaging in a behavior in order to earn external rewards (good grades, money, recognition) or avoid punishments.
Intrinsically motivated behaviors carry their own rewards. These rewards involve creating positive emotions within an individual which can include a sense of meaning, a sense of progress or feelings of competence and achievement.
Researchers have discovered that offering external rewards or reinforcements for an already internally rewarding activity can actually make the activity less intrinsically rewarding, a phenomenon known as the overjustification effect.
Research also suggests that people are more creative when they are intrinsically motivated. In work or school settings, productivity may be increased by using extrinsic rewards such as bonuses or good grades, but the actual quality of the work performed is influenced by intrinsic factors. If you are doing something that you find rewarding, interesting, and challenging, you are more likely to come up with novel ideas and creative solutions.
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Intrinsic motivation is an important driver in education and after-school programs. Malone and Lepper (1987) identify several different ways to create environments that are intrinsically rewarding. The factors that they identify as increasing intrinsic motivation are:
Enjoyment: We are motivated by the things we enjoy, find pleasing and like doing. Think of the drudgery many people have when they need to clean their home. Contrast that with going out to a concert of your favorite artist or checking out a new movie that you’ve been excited to see. In after-school programs when we offer program choices that students’ enjoy (beat making, silk screening, dance) we are helping to motivate them and to pursue high levels of engagement.
Curiosity: Internal motivation is increased when something in the environment grabs our attention (sensory curiosity) and when something about the activity stimulates the person to want to learn more (cognitive curiosity). Think about those places that peak your curiosity - a craft store with lots of interesting supplies, a new city with lots of alluring restaurants. Providing a program space that includes a variety of ways and things to tap youths’ curiosity helps to draw them in and makes them want to engage.
Challenge: People are more motivated when they pursue goals with personal meaning and when attaining the goal is possible but not necessarily certain. Take for instance learning to play one of your favorite songs on an instrument. If the song is slightly above your current playing level (and you really love it!) you will be intrinsically motivated to keep practicing it until you master it. Being challenged helps us work at a continuously optimal level toward meaningful goals.
Control: People want control over themselves and their environments, to have a sense of control over our the activities in our daily lives. This is true for adults and true for youth. By offering youth choice in what they pursue, how they go about it and even whether to engage or not - we are providing them control over their situations and as a result help keep them motivated intrinsically.
Too many of our spaces for young people (especially schools) have an over-reliance on external rewards, behavior charts, and punishments all meant to keep youth on track. We need to counterbalance these approaches with ones that focus on developing self determined people, environments that fill students with a sense of competence, autonomy, and satisfaction. By focusing on how to best support youths’ intrinsic motivation we can go a long way in supporting that goal.
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Malone, T. W. & Lepper, M. R. (1987). Making learning fun: A taxonomy of intrinsic motivations for learning. In R. E. Snow & M. J. Farr (Eds.), Aptitude, learning, and instruction: III. Conative and affective process analysis. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
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When I first began participating in programming at Neutral Zone, it was a few months into lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. I was stuck at home with nothing to do but go to virtual school and virtual dance classes. Both were unfulfilling and began to feel like nothing but a chore within a few weeks. I was desperate for something fun to fill my time, and then I remembered the Neutral Zone. I had been to a few events there but didn’t know much about the organization. After looking through the programs offered, Riot Youth, an LGBTQ+ activism and social support group, was the one that stuck out to me. I registered for the program and attended my first meeting (virtually) later that week. Neutral Zone quickly became a second home to me, and I’ve been attending programs, events, and meetings regularly ever since.
My time at Neutral Zone has been everything I wanted it to be and so much more. I had the opportunity to be in a safe space with other queer people, expand upon my leadership skills, and make positive change within my community. This allowed me to fulfill my desire to have something fun and worthwhile to do with my time, and it is because of this intrinsic motivation to attend programming that I can fully enjoy the work I do there. If I was simply working for an external reward, things such as going to board meetings would just feel like a task, but I am there simply because I want to be, and I look forward to going to Neutral Zone every time.
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I first attended one of Neutral Zone’s events in 8th grade. It was an event to bring in new teens, and my parents insisted I attend. After the event, I didn’t plan on having too much involvement… until the Covid-19 lockdown. All I had to do was play video games, take online percussion lessons, and be on my phone. My friend Stevie posted something on their social media about a Neutral Zone program called Riot Youth. I decided it seemed cool, at least based on the flier, and I had nothing better to do, so I went. It was super fun; everyone was friendly, so I kept going. A little while after, Stevie and I both became the Youth Facilitators. After that, we received an invitation to be on the Board of Directors, which we both accepted. I started attending regular board meetings, became a teen intern during the summer programs, and, more recently, the Co-President of the Board of Directors and the Youth Facilitator of Picture This!, Neutral Zone’s photography program.
I found a second home at the Neutral Zone, where I can be myself, learn and grow, and be part of a growing community. The intrinsic motivation to be around others that I can connect with allows me to properly serve as the Co-President of the Board and the youth facilitator of Picture This!. I’ve had many opportunities I may not have otherwise, and I am forever grateful.
Intrinsic Motivation Exercise
Intrinsic motivation, the motivation from within, is driven by several different components including: enjoyment, curiosity, challenge and control.
As a way to reflect on IM, you (or you and some colleagues) can brainstorm the ways you could uplift IM in your programs across these four domains. Using the table below first reflect on:
How can we increase youth enjoyment in our programs and activities?
How can we tap young peoples’ curiosity through our program activities?
What are ways to provide ‘challenges’ for young people - helping them to stretch out of their comfort zone (but not too far as to make it unreachable)?
How can we provide more control to youth in their program offerings and activities?
Once you’ve brainstormed a number of ideas - put a star next to a couple you can implement right away and circle a couple you want to work on, over time.
