Intrinsic And Extrinsic Rewards

Reward, whether it is financial (in terms of a monetary bonus) or simply praise and the recognition of success, will positively impact levels of motivation within a team. For example, a sales team working towards a target, that if achieved will mean a financial bonus will be more motivated than a team without this incentive, especially if a high percentage of that team have money as a primary motivating factor. The effect of praise and recognition on staff will be a team that feels valued and appreciated by its organisation. This will help promote harmony and make for a stronger, healthier and a more motivated team. A team that is not praised and recognised will soon start to feel that their hard work is not appreciated.

Margaret Heffernan once said, “For good ideas and true innovation, you need a mix of human interaction, conflict, argument, and debate.” In the article it is debated if there is any benefit in monetary rewards for students. Teachers, and parents alike are always trying to find the best way to reward and inspire there students to do well in school. Matthew G Springer is a professor of Public Policy and Education at Vanderbilt University. He is also the director of the National Center on Performance Incentives. He wrote this article to display his research and studies.

Cameron, J., Banko, K. M., & Pierce, W. D. (2001). Pervasive Negative Effects of Rewards on Intrinsic Motivation: The Myth Continues. The Behavior Analysist , 1-44.

Specific Praise. Specific praise includes verbal or written statements to a student that recognize a desired or correct behavior. Praise can function as a tool for instruction and for increasing social and academic behaviors. To be effective, the student must view the attention provided through praise as pleasurable or motivational (Curran, 2017). Specific praise promoted more on‐task behavior than positive praise and significantly increased academic self‐concept (Bizo, 2004). Offering specific praise will help Sam because it sends a message that the teacher is aware of the effort he is putting into staying on task. As time goes on, Sam will desire the teacher’s positive statements. He understands that the statements are the result of him remaining on task and reaching his six-week goal. Sam will also develop an understanding of how to meet the teacher’s expectation. In the end, Sam will mature and advance in his academics. As he matures, the need for constant specific praise will become unnecessary. The added benefit of specific praise is to the teacher. The high levels of stress and emotional exhaustion while attempting to teach in the classroom with Sam will diminish as he progresses.

Education today is too Type X- meaning the emphasis on greater rewards for doing what you should do anyways is based on extrinsic rewards. The education system seems to be heavily based on carrots and sticks. The biggest way to motivate someone seems to be by dangling something, such as a carrot, in front of someone 's face or poking them with a stick. If you want a student to do something, why are they motivated with some type of compensation such as an A in the class? In his book, Drive, Daniel H. Pink divides motivation into three categories that evolved over time- Motivation 1.0, 2.0, 3.0. using these theories to challenge this motivation of carrot and sticks.

The reason is that the reward is not the main thing that is backing up the action; but something else that could be self-develop, peace, etc. An example is a boy does his homework just because he was told by his parents to do his homework. Based on that the boy believes that his parents know what is best for him to do.

They may contend that students should want to do well for themselves and their own future and should not expect a reward especially bribery. They may also say that this will encourage cheating in schools. However, this is not true for all students because some individuals may need some incentive in order to do well and actually pay attention in class or to the teacher. Some individuals may need that extra push and that idea of an extrinsic reward. Schools chief Arne Duncan observed that when he went to schools they seemed more excited and the excitement increased when they got their checks (Ripley, 5). Sometimes the idea of getting a reward pushes individuals to do better than they usually would. In this case, the reward would be pushing the students to get better grades in school and generally do better in school to get their reward, money. Many studies showed, there were students that no matter how hard they tried they were unable to get the “A” grade to get the reward (The Time Schools Tried, 2). Even if the student does not earn the money, at least they tried and their grade has made a small improvement since their last report card. In some cases even graduating earned the students money. Having the extrinsic reward

Throughout the book, the author’s major theme is that we, as a society, use reward almost like “bribes”. For example, we say “If you do this, then you can have this”. The author sees this as problematic for a number of reasons. For one, it is bad motivation for students They are doing what they’re told solely because they hope to get what they are promised in return. In all actuality, they should be doing what they are told simply because it is the right thing to do. Also, it is a bribe. The only reason teachers are giving students these things in return is because they hope it will convince the

If students receive payment for attendance and performance it could potentially affect them later on. If a child were to have rewards all through elementary and middle school, it could change the way they view their future. Once the child gets to a higher education level, they m ay find they are no longer offered the same rewards and incentives. It could then make them have to learn a new way of motivation late in the game. If a child has the idea that doing well in school is important for the future and not for rewards, they may do better later

The section in this chapter that I found fascinating is when the authors discusses intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Before this section, I only heard of these words in my behavior modification psychology class third semester. In this section however, I especially enjoyed the example about the children playing math games. I was not surprised to see that the children spent more time playing the games when a reward was at stake. I feel, people in this day and age work or participate in activities majorly for the prize at the end (whether that be a paycheck, trophy, recognition, etc.). Of course there are many exceptions to this statement, and many people participate in certain things for the self-validation or pure interest.

Dan Pink also speaks of the discrepancy between what science knows and how we motivate others. The evidence he showed was giving an extrinsic reward produces substandard results when individuals where asked to complete a job where critical thinking was needed to complete the task at hand. Individuals become less creative and unable to solve problems when they are given a reward in the end. Dan showed that people are motivated by cognitive task than those who are rewarded.

A reward is a high extrinsic motivator. The reward can be monetary, gift certificate, day off with pay, a two hour lunch, or working for two hours on anything but work. All entice performance and competition in the workplace. A gold star, being the teacher’s helper for a day, no daily

The rewards offered can be extrinsic such as wages, incentives and bonuses, or intrinsic such as job satisfaction, an internal feeling of worth and a sense of well being on the job.

Intrinsic/Internal Rewards are obtained from within the individual. This could be an employee feelings good about a job they performed and taking pride in it.

On its face, it seems contradictory that a reward would be an unhealthy means to assist the process of learning or behaving. How else would the unpleasantries of learning, of working, or