Entrepreneurship Development and Communication Skills

5.1.3 Motivation concepts

Intrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation that is driven by an interest or enjoyment in the task itself, and exists within the individual rather than relying on any external pressure. Intrinsic motivation has been studied by social and educational psychologists since the early 1970s. Research has found that it is usually associated with high educational achievement and enjoyment by students evaluation theory. Students are likely to be intrinsically motivated if they:

· Attribute their educational results to factors under their own control (e.g., the effort expended),

· Believe that they can be effective agents in reaching desired goals (i.e. the results are not determined by luck),

· Are interested in mastering a topic, rather than just rote-learning to achieve good grades.

Intrinsic motivation and the 16 basic desires theory

Starting from studies involving more than 6,000 people, Professor Steven Reiss has proposed a theory that find 16 basic desires that guide nearly all human behavior. The 16 basic desires that motivate our actions and define our personalities as:

1. Acceptance 
2. Curiosity
3. Eating 
4. Family 
5. Honor
6. Idealism
7. Independence
8. Order
9. Physical activity 
10. Power
11. Romance
12. Saving
13. Social contact 
14. Status 
15. Tranquility
16.  Vengeance

In this model, people differ in these basic desires. These basic desires represent intrinsic desires that directly motivate a person's behavior, and not aimed at indirectly satisfying other desires. People may also be motivated by non-basic desires, but in this case this does not relate to deep motivation, or only as a means to achieve other basic desires.

Extrinsic motivation

Extrinsic motivation comes from outside of the individual. Common extrinsic motivations are rewards like money and grades, coercion and threat of punishment. Competition is, in general, extrinsic because it encourages the performer to win and beat others, not to enjoy the intrinsic rewards of the activity. A crowd cheering on the individual and trophies are also extrinsic incentives.