Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation

Need help preparing for the Psych/Soc section of the MCAT? MedSchoolCoach expert, Ken Tao, will teach everything you need to know about intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation. Watch this video to get all the MCAT study tips you need to do well on the psychology section of the exam!

Motivation is typically defined as the desire or willingness to exert mental or physical effort toward a goal. Since motivation is a key component of success, both biologically and culturally, it is important to be able to categorize and classify different kinds of and sources of motivations. One of the key distinctions made in this effort is how people are motivated.

Extrinsic/Intrinsic Motivation

One way we categorize this difference is by whether the motivation is intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is an incentive to engage in a specific activity that derives from personal enjoyment, satisfaction, or feeling of achievement. Looking at motivation in an academic context, this could be applied to a student who takes a particular class or reads a personal book because of her own interest in the field or her own curiosity and desire to learn. This is in contrast to extrinsic motivation, which is an external incentive to engage in a specific activity to obtain a reward or avoid a punishment. Continuing in an academic setting, this would apply to a student who is studying for an exam or taking a class in order to gain a degree, or attain entry into a specific field, or maintain a scholarship.

At times, these motivational sources can be a little harder to differentiate. Consider a student that is asked to represent her school in a spelling bee. Even though the student dislikes competing in public, she agrees to do it because if she did not participate, she would feel guilty for not representing her school. So, consider: is this intrinsic or extrinsic motivation? Is the motivating source external or internal? Now, at first glance, this may sound internal, as she is motivated by an internal feeling (guilt) over not participating. However, that guilt is itself rooted in an externally applied source (the school asking her), so this would still be classified as extrinsic. In general, when trying to separate intrinsic from extrinsic motivators, remember that intrinsic motivation is doing something from personal interest, or for oneself, while extrinsic motivation is performing the same action for some external purpose.

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