1.8 The Motivational Effects of Agency Flashcards
what are behaviours driven by extrinsic motivations?
behaviour driven by external rewards. doing something because it leads to a separable outcome.
* tangible: money, food etc
* from external sources: fame, praise
how are external rewards used by behavioural psychologists to explain motivated behaviour?
they say that behaviour has been learned from past rewards, and that behaviour is rational to obtain rewards
what can happen when you give an extrinsic reward for an activity that holds intrinsic interest?
- undermine morale
- make subject feel controlled or like YOU wanted them to do it/were shaping their behaviour
what is intrinsic motivation?
doing something because it is INHERENTLY enjoyable, interesting, challenging, or meaningful
why do extrinsic rewards undermine intrinsic motivation?
- over-justification hypothesis: individuals justify behaviour by referring to extrinsic rewards; if rewards no longer available, no longer justification for behaviour
- premackian punishment: a highly preferred activity is rewarded with a trivial incentive; equivalent to punishment
- aversion to control: when people feel controlled their intrinsic motivation decreases
what is Self-Determination Theory?
the process by which intrinsic motivation develops.
Factors Include…
Competence: seek to control the outcome and experience mastery
Relatedness: want to interact with, connect with, care for others
Autonomy: urge to be causal agent of one’s own life
in which activities is intrinsic motivation more likely to occur?
in activities with a high social goal or utility
compare task-dependent reward and performance-dependent rewards and their impact on intrinsic motivation
task-dependent: rewarded for doing/finishing task, regardless of quality
performance-dependent: only rewarded when performance exceeds some meaningful standard.
task-dependent reduces intrinsic motivation, performance-dependent increases it
why might quality-dependent reinforcers increase intrinsic motivation?
- reduces the aversiveness of effort (if you put in LOTS of effort you might get a reward)
- signals to others an increased competence
- increased feelings of having earned something
- reinforcement for minimal effort may convey task triviality; high effort/low reward = high social status, significance
what did eisenberg and cameron (1996) call the effect of incentives being used to develop intrinsic motivation?
learned industriousness
how does attributional style contribute to motivation?
- internal/external
- global/specific
- permanent/temporary
- optimism/pessimism
how you attribute changes how you measure your personal ability to complete/master task in future
explain the equation EU = Us*Ps
expected utility of an action (EU) = Utility of Success (Us) * Probability of Success (Ps)
so the anticipated benefit from an option/behaviour is equal to how valuable success is multiplied by an individual’s estimation of their chance at succeeding
what shape is the EU = Us*Ps plot?
n
in order to change a behaviour, what must an individual need to understand?
- that the goal is valuable
- that the behaviour leads to the goal
- that the goal is achievable with this behaviour
- that any risks do not outweigh benefits
what is optimism bias
overestimation of the likelihood of positive events, and underestimation of likelihood of negative events. it is moderated by the sense of control you have over the event
what is the dunning-kruger effect?
people at lower abilities overestimate their intelligence; people at higher abilities underestimate them ON AVG
