(2010-12-15) Newport Extrinsic Motivation Can Work

Cal Newport says Extrinsic Motivation can work. Richard Ryan and Edward Deci then present a continuum of extrinsic motivation. On one end is what they call external regulation of motivation. This is where you do work only to avoid a punishment or achieve a reward. Not surprisingly, this is not a sustainable strategy... On the other end of this continuum, however, is integrated regulation. When you experience this type of regulation, you’re still doing work for reasons outside of the work itself, but two other properties now also hold: your reasons for the task match your deeply-held values; and your approach to the task is self-determined, not something someone imposed on you.

To develop integrated regulation of your motivation for your school work (Educating Kids), you need to satisfy the two properties described above.