The Effect of Extrinsic Reward on Helping Behavior

There is egoistic helping where the helper is providing service in order to benefit themselves as opposed to the recipient of the assistance. On the opposite side, there is altruistic helping when the helper is helping for the sake of the recipient and expects nothing in return. These motives are said to be driven by the presence of the empathy- altruistic hypothesis, or lack thereof. The empathy- altruistic hypothesis is the assumption that “empathy motivates people to reduce other people distress, as by helping them” (Comte, 313). The amount of empathy will determine what the helper is trying to gain from this

Third possibility is the both type of motivations, intrinsic and extrinsic, are the reason for someone’s action. It is when the person is doing something knowing there is going to be a reward at the end, also during that action the person will develop in skills, professionalism, etc. The example could be taken from the essay that Kohn wrote. The reward that Kohn could have got is being paid for writing the essay, with the main back up that the action will bring development of experiences in writing professionally. Another example could be a man runs in a burning building to save his neighbor’s kid. That man

Extrinsic motivation it is the motivation brought about by what a person is getting from a certain task, rather than interest in the task. An example of extrinsic motivation is when a student who is not particularly interested in math works hard in order to attain a good grade, and in a working person’s life, it could be working on a task that is not necessarily interesting to him/her, but that is giving a good amount of financial reward. A good example of intrinsic motivation is working as a volunteer in a children’s home because taking care of children is of personal interest and satisfaction, to the person, despite getting no reward.

Altruism is the selflessness acts of an individual in which they involve themselves into the lives of other individuals in the hopes of positively affecting their feelings and/or well-beings. “Altruism and empathy permit the assessment of the extent to which volunteers perform voluntary service for selfless reasons” (Veludo-de-Oliveira, Pallister, & Foxall, 2015, p. 375). Veludo-de-Oliveira, Pallister, and Foxall believe in order for an interaction to be an altruistic one, “Firstly, the act must have the intention of benefit-ing others; secondly, the act must be initiated voluntarily by the helper; and thirdly, there should be no expectation of any reward from external sources.” (2015, p. 378).

Dan Pink in Ted Talks gives insight on motivation in the workplace today. Mr. Pink speaks of motivation driven by intrinsic rewards. Intrinsic is an outcome that gives personal satisfaction or fulfillment when the task is done well. Autonomy, mastery and purpose are examples of intrinsic rewards that Mr. Pink states are the driving focus of motivation. His talk was focused on autonomy, the urge to direct our own lives. Mr. Pink reviewed companies that has implemented autonomy and it showed that job satisfaction as well as job retention was high. Studies showed that extrinsic rewards only worked when little cognitive ability is required to solve a task. Extrinsic is an award that is based on something tangible, physical or monetary. Since the

Extrinsic motivation refers to the performance of an action to obtain an outcome (Study.com, n. d.). Unlike intrinsic motivation where one performs an action for its own sake, extrinsic motivation is to obtain external reward and is influenced by external factors. This type of motivation is also highly

An external stimulus results in individual’s partaking in activities because there are rewards if they partake or there is a punishment if they do not (Recours, Souville & Griffet, 2004, p. 3). Rather than doing something voluntarily for their enjoyment there is a reason they partake in the activity, for example sporting activities may offer trophies and rewards (Iso-Ahola, 1989,p. 255). This extrinsic reward may motivate individuals to join sporting teams to receive a trophy or reward. Extrinsic rewards can therefore undermine intrinsic motivation by rewarding individuals for something they enjoy doing (Iso-Ahola, 1999, p. 43). Extrinsic motivation can result in the feeling of being controlled and restricted (Iso-Ahola, 1999, p.43). The rewards and sanctions can also affect behaviour, cognitive abilities, creativity and emotions (Iso-Ahola, 1999, p. 43).

Altruism and prosocial behavior are linked with helping others. This can be seen in all aspects of life. For instance, young children helping each other when they fall, adolescents helping each other with schoolwork, and adults helping one another at work. To develop further, prosocial behavior and altruism can first be highly illustrated in children. Children are taught to help one another and this behavior grows with the child to their adulthood; therefore, people are taught to act in a caring manner towards those who need help.

Why do people have the incentive to help others? How does doing such a thing benefit them? Do specific people help more than others, and why? Altruism is identified as the behaviour that benefits others at a personal cost to the performing individual (Wilson, D.S and Dugatkin, L.A, 1992). Altruism can be performed in many diverse ways, and could assist various people that are dealing with many different situations. Prosocial behaviour, however, is acknowledged as the actions that help other people or the entire society as a whole (Twenge, Ciarocco, Baumeister, & Bartels, 2007). In other words, prosocial behaviour could be defined as a way of helping people, that may result in the person who is helping, to personally give up their time, money or any sacrifices to be useful to the opposite person in need. Psychologists have suggested that this particular behaviour may be greater than the associated costs, concerning the human longing to belong to a group. It has also been said that helping accelerates group work and in turn, may be responsible for individuals having vast benefits for the long run (Twenge et al., 2007). Altruism and prosocial behaviour can be seen as the descriptions of helping people. The outcome of this essay will thoroughly explain the background of model of helping behaviour and how these factors are put into practice to make people likely to want to help others, as well as discussing the attributes of the helper and the kind of people who specifically tend

When we study social psychology, we will learn the concept of altruism and egoism. They are a pair of antonym. The definition of altruism is “principle or practice of concern for the welfare of others” and the definition of egoism is “an excessive or exaggerated sense of self-importance.” We can help other people while taking care of ourselves. However, helping others still waste our time and energy. Although a very small help such as telling strangers the direction of places still consume our time. Therefore, helping is a kind of costing and we want the return. Return can be spiritually and materially. For materially return, people will expect substantial return. For example, you help your colleague because you want him to help you when you

Nonetheless, multiple studies corroborate the belief that humans are munificent, often working hard on behalf of others, and, under the right conditions, even harder than they work for themselves (Li & Lee 2010). However, this concept of willing to work harder for the benefit of someone else other than oneself brings to light an interesting point. In Li’s study, the participant chooses to expend more effort to help someone else over himself, only when told a social cost would be incurred for not helping her. This observation is peculiar since intrinsic and extrinsic motivators are considered the main factors that affect prosocial behavior (Zaki, J., & Mitchell, J. P. (2011)). In this case, social opinion influenced the participant in Li's study more than the other two

Rewarding yourself during the process of behavior change, can help maintain that behavior change in the future. Rewards can stimulate positive behavior change. Individuals that gives themselves rewards while in the process of change, helps them keep out of mental ruts that hinder their process (Tucker-Ladd, 1996). When an individual recognized their own achievements, it can boost their self-esteem. Levels of low self-esteem can lead individuals into old or negative habits. Added value to a reward, can make them lost lasting. This can be done by adding meaning, behind the reward an individual gives themselves. Intrinsic rewards, can be longer lasting that extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic rewards help maintain new behaviors as habits, since they

What is intrinsic reward? Intrinsic rewards are psychological rewards that we get from doing meaningful work and performing it well whether in studies or job. It’s actually a type of motivation. There also extrinsic reward. Extrinsic rewards usually financial and tangible. This reward given by manager to employee such as pay raises bonuses and other benefits. It been called “extrinsic reward” because it was external to the work itself and other people control their size whether or not they are granted. Extrinsic reward played a dominant role when work was generally more routine and bureaucratic, and when complying with rules and procedures was paramount. This work usually offered workers few intrinsic rewards, so they use extrinsic

The general theory of altruism is caring about the welfare of others before one’s self, it is an end in itself. Acting altruistically is a necessary development for human evolution as a whole because it gives humans a sense of unity through social connection and an understanding that helping others over oneself will ultimately bring more satisfaction to the group as a whole. Sober and Wilson explain their reasoning for psychological egoism as, all of our ultimate desires are driven by our own self-interest. However, with altruism, there is an inner desire to help others that does not seem to stem from self-interest. According to Sober and Wilson, altruism differs from egoism and hedonism because it does not make a claim for all of our ultimate desires, only a few. As stated, “The thesis of altruism, as we understand it, says that some people at least some of the time have the welfare of others as ends in themselves.” (S&W, 228) This theory is fundamental for illuminating that certain desires may not derive from self-interest opposite to psychological egoism. However, it does not account for all of our desires as egoism does. The importance of altruism develops from its perceived psychology amongst humankind and analyzing the reason why humans in certain situations choose to revere another person’s welfare over their own.

     Intrinsic motivation can be defined as “motivation associated with activities that are their own reward” (Perry 2003). It is motivation that stems from your inner feelings and views which feed your desires to accomplish and perform. Oppositely, extrinsic motivation is “motivation created by external factors such as rewards and punishments” (Perry 2003). When you are extrinsically motivated, you are only performing the task for what you will gain from completion. On the other hand, when we are intrinsically motivated, there is no requirement for external rewards or punishments