Deprivation Vs. Extrinsic Motivation

Motivation is always being considered as a prompt for people to do something that is the reason why some educational psychologists start discussing on how motivation is important in human learning, especially for intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation, as these two are functioning in two different ways. Before talking about ideas of which motivation method is more important in human learning, it is better to make the twos definitions clear first. According to the Motivation Theories of Maslow , intrinsic motivation definitely represents fulfilling the “inside needs” of a person in order to motivate him/her to perform a thing better, it could be something fulfilling and rewarding to the person. In the other hand, extrinsic motivation

However, it is found that there are students are more able to improve their skills when they are participating some events that they feel likable and they are more willing to join rather than those activities which are forced by their parents. Besides intervention of parents or other parties may change a person’s impression on a skill or an event, praise can help increase intrinsic motivation and self-esteem, it is found by researchers who have done a research on children’s motivation for reading. When people received positive feedbacks when people are able to access certain goals, they are more willing to repeat the act again, which shows that source of feedback that are able to prompt human is not belonged to extrinsic motivation only, intrinsic motivation is also able to do

However, as I think human learning should be life-long, extrinsic motivation cannot be stand out from the crowd without intrinsic motivation as human wants are always changing in grow up process according to the hierarchy of needs by Maslow from “outer needs to inner needs”. Sometimes competing for extrinsic motivators may not be good for people at all time, such as students. If students are just focusing on their GPA instead of the knowledge they are able to acquire from the books, the knowledge will be no longer to be life-long as students’ goals are completing their desired GPA or achieving a good ranking in their class instead of they try to remember certain knowledge that they could be utilize even after their graduation. Extrinsic motivation is definitely a good tool in human learning, it should be best utilized together with intrinsic motivation. If it is able to understand the key differences between the two types of motivation and better consider on the each may impact on behaviors, learning can be efficient and rewarding in its original