Intrinsic Motivation PERSPECTIVES IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY A Series of Texts and Monographs • Edited by Elliot Aronson INTRINSIC MOTIVATION By Edward L. Deci ·1975 In preparation SCHOOL DESEGREGATION By Harold B. Gerard and Norman Miller A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring delivery of each new volume immediately upon publication. Volumes are billed only upon actual shipment. For further information please contact the publisher. Intrinsic Motivation Edward L. Deci Department of Psychology University of Rochester PLENUM PRESS· NEW YORK AND LONDON Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Deci, Edward L Intrinsic motivation. (Perspectives in social psychology) Bibliography: p. Includes index 1. Motivation (Psychology) I. Title. [DNLM: 1. Motivation. 2. Behavior. BF683 D295i] BF683.D43 153.8 75-17613 ISBN-13:978-1-4613-4448-3 e-ISBN-13:978-1-4613-4446-9 001: 1 0.1 007/978-1-4613-4446-9 First Printing - August 1975 Second Printing - June 1976 © 1975 Plenum Press, New York Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1975 A Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation 227 West 17th Street, New York, N.Y. 10011 United Kingdom edition published by Plenum Press, London A Division of Plenum Publishing Company, Ltd. Davis House (4th Floor), 8 Scrubs Lane, Harlesden, London, NWI0 6SE, England All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher Preface As I begin to write this Preface, I feel a rush of excitement. I have now finished the book; my gestalt is coming into completion. Throughout the months that I have been writing this, I have, indeed, been intrinsically motivated. Now that it is finished I feel quite competent and self-determining (see Chapter 2). Whether or not those who read the book will perceive me that way is also a concern of mine (an extrinsic one), but it is a wholly separate issue from the intrinsic rewards I have been experiencing. This book presents a theoretical perspective. It reviews an enormous amount of research which establishes unequivocally that intrinsic motivation exists. Also considered herein are various approaches to the conceptualizing of intrinsic motivation. The book concentrates on the approach which has developed out of the work of Robert White (1959), namely, that intrinsically motivated behaviors are ones which a person engages in so that he may feel competent and self-determining in relation to his environment. The book then considers the development of intrinsic motiva­ tion, how behaviors are motivated intrinsically, how they relate to extrinsically motivated behaviors, and how intrinsic motivation is affected by extrinsic rewards and controls. It also considers how changes in intrinsic motivation relate to changes in attitudes, how people attribute motivation to each other, how the attribution process is motivated, and how the process of perceiving motivation (and other internal states) in oneself relates to perceiving them in others. The book assumes that there is personal knowledge (i.e., that persons have access to their own internal states in a way in which v VI Preface others do not}. However, it also shows that these internal states are changeable and that cognitive processes represent one means by which they change. The emphasis of the book is on cognitive processes, and the reasons for this are simple: Not only do cognitions affect internal states such as attitudes and motives, but, as this work shows, individuals choose what behaviors to engage in on the basis of their cognitions about the outcomes of those and other behaviors. This work is intended as a source book on intrinsic motivation; it has attempted to draw together from many areas of psychology all of the available literature related to intrinsic motivation. Differ­ ent aspects have been the subjects of varying degrees of attention, and this is largely a reflection of my own interest. The book is appropriate for use as a textbook for upper-level courses and seminars in human motivation, social cognition, and social psychol­ ogy. In Chapter 8 some of the applications of research and theory on intrinsic motivation are considered, especially as they relate to the areas of education and organizational motivation. Throughout the book I have employed the referent pronoun "he" in the generic sense, i.e., to refer to such nouns as "person." I have done so, despite the current criticism of this usage as sexist, because there is to my mind no really satisfactory alternative available to the writer. The use of "they" to refer back to "person" is grammatically incorrect, and the use of "he or she" is rather cumbersome for repeated use throughout a work of this length. I originally began investigating the area of intrinsic motiv(!tion about five years ago when I was a second-year graduate student in the Psychology Department at Carnegie-Mellon University. At that time Vic Vroom was very supportive and helped me begin to formulate my ideas on the topic. I began writing the book about two years ago while working as a part-time research associate in the Management Research Center at the University of Rochester. Bernard Bass, director of the Center, provided the financial support which enabled me to begin this book, and Wayne Cascio and Carl Benware were at that time working actively with me on the research reported in Chapters 5, 9, and 10. To all these people I acknowledge my gratitude. I wrote most of the book during the 1973-1974 academic year, with the financial support of an interdisciplinary postdoctoral Preface VII fellowship at Stanford University granted by the National Institute of Mental Health. I am grateful to both Stanford and the NIMH for providing me with a stimulating (and sunny) environment for working on this project. Elliot Aronson read the entire manuscript and made many useful suggestions. I appreciate his help and his friendship. I would also like to acknowledge the aid of Daniel Berlyne, who commented on the entire manuscript; Ralph Haber and Zur Shapira, who read several chapters; Edward Walker, who contrib­ uted to Chapter 2; Doug Stern and Ned Dwelle, who made suggestions about Chapter 1; David Elkind, who offered feedback on Chapter 3; and Eileen Zucker, who reviewed Chapter 10. Charles (Skip) Lowe helped enormously by making extensive comments on an early version of Chapter 10, and David Landy worked with me in developing some of the ideas presented in Chapter 7. I appreciate the intellectual and personal companion­ ship of both these colleagues very much. During the first few months that I worked on this book, I was living in a commune with six other psychologists: Drs. Harold Bernard, Ken Cohen, Sandy Ehlinger, Judy Krusell, David Landy, and Allan Schwartz. Their love and support was at times distract­ ing, nonetheless it provided me with energy to live and work enthusiastically. To them, and to the rest of the "extended Canterbury"-Nancy Wickens-Thies, Lou Morrice, Amanda Mor­ rice, Louise Sheinman, and Mitchell Bernard-this book is affec­ tionately dedicated. Stanford, California Edward L. Deci Acknowledgments I would like to thank the following publishers for permission to reprint quotations of copyrighted material: Academic Press, Inc: de Charms, R. Personal causation. New York: Academic Press, 1968; and Pritchard, R. D., Equity theory: A review and critique. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 1969, 4, 176-211. American Association for the Advancement of Science: Copyright holder of Berlyne, D. E. Exploration and curiosity. Science, 1966, 153,25-33. American Psychological Association: White, R. W. Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence. Psychological Review, 1959,66,297-333; McClelland, D. C. Toward a theory of motive acquisition. Amencan Plychologlll, 1965, 20, 321-333; Hebb, D. O. Drives and the c.n.s. (conceptual nervous system). Psychological Review, 1955, 62, 243-254; Kagan, J. Motives and development. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1972,22,51-66. Columbia University Press: Woodworth, R. S. Dynamic psychology. New York: Columbia University Press, 1918. Crown Publishers: Applied Psychology from Ausubel, Nathan (Ed.), A treasury of JeWl.lh folklore. New York, Crown, 1948, pp. 440-441. Hart Publishing Co: Neill, A. S. Summerhill: A radical Approach to child rearing. New York: Hart, 1960. Harvard University Press: Bruner, J. S. On knowing: Essays for the left hand. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962. McGraw-Hili Book Co: Tolmon, E. C. Principles of purposive behavior. In S. Koch (Ed.), Psychology: A study ofa science, Vol. 2. New York: McGraw-Hili, 1950, pp.92-157. Pitman Publishing Corp: Copyright holders for Holt, J. How children fail. New York: Pitman, 1964. University of Nebraska Press: Hunt, J. MeV. Intrinsic motivation and its role in psychological development. In D. Levine (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motiva­ tion, 1965, 13, 189-282. John Wiley and Sons: Heider, F. The psychology of interpersonal relations. New York: Wiley, 1958; Young, P. T. Motivation and emotion. New York: Wiley, 1961. viii Contents I THE NA TURE OF INTRINSIC MOTIVATION 1. Some Comments on the "Why" of Behavior 3 Mechanistic Approaches 5 • Organismic Approaches 13 • About ThIs Book 20 2. Conceptualizations of Intrinsic Motivation 23 Drive-Theory Accounts 26 • Optimal Stimulation 31 • The ReductIon of Uncertainty 51 • Competence and Self­ Determination 54 • Concluding Comments 59 • Summary 62 3. Intrinsic Motivation and Development 65 The Intrinsic Motivation of Development 66. The Development of Intrinsic Motivation 72 • Summary 91 4. The Intrinsic Motivation of Behavior 93 A Cognitive View of Behavior 96 • Stimulus Inputs 98 • Awareness of PotentIal Satisfaction 99 • Goal Selection 106 • Goal-Directed Behavior 119 • Rewards and Satisfaction 121 • Summary 124 IX X Contents II EXTRINSIC REWARDS AND INTRINSIC MOTIVATION 5.