Classic Definitions and New Directions (Feb. 9)

In this reading they gave examples of motivation. It showed that the amount of motivation does not necessarily change, but what the person is motivated by can be different for many different people. If someone is intrinsically or extrinsically motivated can change by how good the person is at doing the the task. Someone would more likely be intrinsically motivated if they are good at something, then if they are bad at something and keep on failing. Extrinsically motivated people can dread the task or they can want to do it. Students may not always enjoy the task the teacher is giving that is why extrinsic motivation can be affective for teaching the students. Intrinsic motivation was first seen in experimental studies with animals. They saw that the animals did task because it gave them a positive experience. The animals were not forced to do the task they chose to. People are not always intrinsically motivated in every activity and some are never intrinsically motivated. Research shows that intrinsic motivation becomes less and less through out school. Extrinsic motivation is used more because not everything that a student is taught is interesting to them. Introjected regulation is a form of extrinsic motivation. Introjected regulation is when a person performs a task so they don't feel bad for not doing it. Integrated regulation is another form of extrinsic motivation. Integrated regulation is done because of a reward, but the person also sees it as something that will help them. Studies have shown that extrinsic motivation that is motivated by the person will have a more positive outcome of the task.

I enjoyed reading this reading. I could place myself in different categories of motivation that sometime motivate me. One motivation I found was interesting was that people may work hard at something because of the connection between a person or would like to feel connected to that person. For example in the school students may work hard because they want the teachers respect and care. The reason I found that one interesting because my dad always said how important my relationship was with a teacher and how my sister on the other hand doesn't care as much. He worried that if I didn't enjoy the teacher that I wouldn't work as hard. He did not want me to let the teacher control me in how well I did. In high school I enjoyed going to class more because I enjoyed the teacher and I wanted to work extra hard, but now I do it for myself. I have two math teachers in college that I am not very fond of, but I look at the class as something that will help me in the future so that's what keeps me motivated to do my best. It does make me feel better if I am nervous about a class and I email the teacher and they email me back right away. That makes me feel that they care about what they are teaching and they want to help their students. I know I shouldn't even care about that, but there is a part of me that still does.