Intrinsic Motivational Processes Research Articles

Work Passion and Employee Behavior: In Search of the Intrinsic Motivational Processes

Past organization and management studies have emphasized individual and organizational performance. However, research on employee growth and development is relatively limited, even though findings drawn from positive psychology show that promoting and preserving employee mental health can improve employee performance. The present research follows the argument of positive organizational behavior (POB) to suggest that employee behaviors are determined by underlying intrinsic motivational processes linking employees’ work passion, flow experience, well-being, and positive behavior. The present study has two major goals: first, to examine the dualistic effects of passion on creative workers’ intrinsic motivation processes and behavioral consequences; second, to confirm the mediating role of flow experience and well-being in, as well as their causal relationships with, work passion, flow experience, well-being, and positive behavior (innovative behavior and job performance). The present overarching study consists of two specific studies. Study 1 involves (1) data from 363 creative professionals and (2) a cross-sectional design for testing the proposed model. Study 2 involves (1) two-wave data concerning creative professionals and (2) three cross-lagged tests for examining the causal relationships among variables. Structural equation modeling is employed for testing the hypotheses. The results of the two studies demonstrate that the effects of two kinds of passion differ from each other in relation to differences in time frame. Moreover, the results show that the greater the work passion is in creative workers, the more likely they will be to experience flow, well-being, strong job performance, and innovative behavior. The results also confirm their causal relationships with one another. Lastly, we discuss our findings’ theoretical and practical implications, the study’s limitations, and suggestions for future research.

To Reveal or Not to Reveal? Observation of Social Outcomes Facilitates Reward Processing.

Motivation is a key topic that comprises considerable theoretical and practical implications, and its study is gaining increasing traction in recent years. Employing both behavioral and neural techniques, previous studies examined the extent to which intrinsic and extrinsic motivations collectively shape individual decision making. Investigations found that both processes play indispensable and interactive roles in choice behavior. However, despite its importance, little is known respecting the role of extrinsic social factors in contributing to individual variations in intrinsic motivation. Toward elucidating the role of extrinsic social factors in motivated decision making, the current study implements the stop watch task, combined with hyper-recording electrophysiological measurements. With the electrophysiological toolkit, our goal is to bring to light how extrinsic social signals impact intrinsic motivation and shape the reward processing over success and failure at the succeeding stage. Empirically, we show that, following social outcome presentation, there is an increased divergent feedback-related negativity (FRN), which reflects the failure/success discrepancy at the outcome stage of choice behavior. In summary, this study demonstrates the saliency of social information in intrinsic motivational processes that underpin success-failure outcomes.

Neuroscience of Intrinsic Motivation

Neuroscience of Intrinsic Motivation

Spared internal but impaired external reward prediction error signals in major depressive disorder during reinforcement learning.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) creates debilitating effects on a wide range of cognitive functions, including reinforcement learning (RL). In this study, we sought to assess whether reward processing as such, or alternatively the complex interplay between motivation and reward might potentially account for the abnormal reward-based learning in MDD. A total of 35 treatment resistant MDD patients and 44 age matched healthy controls (HCs) performed a standard probabilistic learning task. RL was titrated using behavioral, computational modeling and event-related brain potentials (ERPs) data. MDD patients showed comparable learning rate compared to HCs. However, they showed decreased lose-shift responses as well as blunted subjective evaluations of the reinforcers used during the task, relative to HCs. Moreover, MDD patients showed normal internal (at the level of error-related negativity, ERN) but abnormal external (at the level of feedback-related negativity, FRN) reward prediction error (RPE) signals during RL, selectively when additional efforts had to be made to establish learning. Collectively, these results lend support to the assumption that MDD does not impair reward processing per se during RL. Instead, it seems to alter the processing of the emotional value of (external) reinforcers during RL, when additional intrinsic motivational processes have to be engaged.

Thematic Issue: Autonomy, Volitional Motivation, and Wellness

Autonomy is the experience of being the author and origin of one’s behavior—the subjective experience that one’s moment-to-moment activity authentically expresses the self and its needs, desires, and intentions. This experience matters in people’s lives, and it matters in important and far-reaching ways, as autonomy functions as motivational support to people’s positive functioning (e.g., engagement, learning, performance, intrinsic motivation) and well-being (e.g., positive affect, vitality, self-esteem, mental health; Ryan & Deci, 2000). Hence, autonomy is now recognized as a core theoretical concept in the study of human motivation and emotion. This special issue of Motivation and Emotion reflects the ascendancy of autonomy as a core theoretical concept, and it continues a 35-year tradition which essentially began with the birth of self-determination theory and Deci’s (1971) publication on how extrinsic rewards affect intrinsic motivational processes. This issue is comprised of a thematic collection of papers drawn from submissions over the past year. They build on this research tradition, and do so by conceptualizing autonomy either as a psychological need, a state-like experience, a marker of high-quality motivation, or an outcome in its own right. What the papers all have in common is their documentation of the fundamental role that autonomy plays in people’s volitional motivation and psychological, emotional, and physical wellness. The first set of papers investigates autonomy as a psychological need to show how its pursuit and satisfaction promotes volition and wellness. Miquelon and Vallerand show how the pursuit of autonomous goals in academic life is associated with both happiness and self-realization, particularly when academic life turns stressful. Vansteenkiste and his coauthors show how autonomy need satisfaction in the

Competence Valuation as a Strategic Intrinsic Motivation Process

This research investigated the strategic use of competence valuation in achievement settings and examined the consequences of implementing this self-enhancement strategy for intrinsic motivation. In two studies, participants reported higher competence valuation following positive feedback; in turn, competence valuation was positively related to intrinsic motivation. Competence valuation mediated the direct relationship between feedback and intrinsic motivation, and this mediation was independent of perceived competence, which also served a mediational function. Study 2 identified the specific nature of the observed effects. Participants receiving positive feedback reported higher competence valuation (and perceived competence), which led to enhanced intrinsic motivation; the reciprocal processes were not operative for those receiving negative feedback.

Relation between intrinsic motivation and boredom in leisure time

Abstract The present investigation replicated and extended an earlier finding of the negative relation between intrinsic motivation in leisure behavior and boredom in leisure time (Iso‐Ahola & Weissinger, 1987). Secondary analysis of data from 474 college undergraduates was used to construct a regression model of boredom. Results indicate that the self‐determination component of intrinsic leisure motivation explained the greatest portion of boredom variance (R = .38). Other variables entering the regression equation, in descending order of variance explained: competence, leisure ethic, age, and leisure repertoire (total R2 = .52). Gender was not a significant predictor of boredom in leisure time. Results suggest that boredom in leisure time is usefully conceptualized as a disruption of the intrinsic motivation process.

Intrinsic motivation in competition: The intervening role of four individual differences following objective competence information

The individual differences of need for achievement, anxiety (plus resultant achievement motivation), locus of control, and gender were explored to determine their intervening role in intrinsic motivational processes following objective competence information. In two experiments, participants were either allowed to win or were made to lose a puzzle-solving contest against a same-gender confederate with the success/failure experience via the competitive outcome serving as the objective source of competence information. In Experiment 1, outcome, locus of control, and the resultant achievement motivation × outcome interaction predicted level of intrinsic motivation, thereby substantiating the claim that individual differences are important in the prediction of intrinsic motivation. Experiment 2 tested the impact of each individual difference on intrinsic motivation-relevant moderating processes (performance expectancy, actual and perceived performance, and affect) to highlight the processes by which individual differences function to impact level of intrinsic motivation. It was shown that need for achievement affected level of intrinsic motivation through the high achievers' favorably biased performance expectancy and heightened positive affect, and, after losing, through both a favorable actual and perceived performance relative to low achievers, High anxiety impacted level of intrinsic motivation by depreciating performance expectancy and actual performance relative to low levels of anxiety. For locus of control, internals showed a higher level of intrinsic motivation than externals via a more favorable performance expectancy and, after winning, via greater positive affect and a more successful perceived performance appraisal.

Intrinsic Motivation and instruction: conflicting Views on the Role of Motivational Processes in Computer-Based Education

Microcomputers offer unique opportunities for systematic variations in the presentation of educational materials and for research concerning the social, motivational, and academic consequences of these different variations. This paper explores one set of theoretical controversies and policy debates that has been stimulated by this new technology for instruction. It is argued that conflicting views concerning the role of intrinsic motivational processes in instruction underlie differences of opinion concerning the relative costs and benefits of instructional games and discovery-learning environments, the expected impact of different styles of teaching, and the merits of alternative strategies for the design of detailed tutorial interactions.