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Wednesday, February 2, 2011

GOALS, VALUES AND THE EFFECTS OF REWARD

GOALS, VALUES AND THE EFFECTS OF REWARD
Two people with similar encoding styles and expectancies may behave differently because they have different personal values. Subjective values are viewed as acting as a) motivating stimuli and b) incentives. Our actions are often the result of intrinsic motivation, related to personal preferences and values. Deci and Ryan (1985) made the distinction between i) selfdetermined and ii) controlled actions. Self-determined actions have some intrinsic interest or value to the individual, whereas controlled actions satisfy external pressures or demands, or are done to gain some form of payment. Many studies have shown that offering reward for certain tasks actually decreases people’s motivation to perform those tasks (e.g. Deci & Ryan, 1985). Related to this finding, Deci (1975) distinguished between two aspects of reward – controlling and informational. A reward that has a controlling aspect might make people feel their efforts are not self-determined. Reward that has an informational aspect can have two consequenc es – it may make people feel they have high levels of competence, which in turn increases motivation, or it may make them feel they are only engaging in the activity for reward, which decreases motivation.

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