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What Motivates Learning? Questions about why people do the things that they do relate to the psychology of motivation, the reasons, thinking, and drives that cause a person to behave in a particular way. We are going to look at motivational theories by thinking about what motivated you to choose to study psychology at university. Why do you study psychology? Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, two professors of psychology from opposite sides of the world (Deci is based in New York in the United States and Ryan in Sydney, Australia) are perhaps the most famous psychologists involved in motivation research. Their research suggests that people can be motivated in two different ways: through intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000). Intrinsic motivation means doing something for its own sake, because it is interesting or enjoyable. Ryan and Deci define it as “doing an activity for its inherent satisfactions” (p56), and they note that curiosity is an important factor in intrinsic motivation. For example, it may be that you choose to study psychology because you find the subject fascinating, and you are curious about human behaviour. Extrinsic motivation means doing something for an external reward, or to achieve a goal. In Ryan and Deci’s words, an activity is done “in order to attain some separable outcome” (p61). So you might study psychology in order to obtain work as a psychologist, perhaps because you aspire to attaining rewards such as social status, or good pay, or because of personal goals, such as a desire to improve mental health in society. So, which is it? Phil Banyard, a psychologist at Nottingham Trent University, who is interested in psychology education in schools and colleges, carried out a survey of 872 students taking A-level psychology courses, and found that 62% of them chose psychology because “it sounded interesting”. This suggests that the majority of the students in his study may have been intrinsically motivated to take psychology (Banyard, 2013). Another UK survey, this time of 75 undergraduate psychology students, by social psychologists Rachel Bromnick and Ava Horowitz (2013), found that 66% of students chose to study psychology because they wanted to “help others”, and they often aspired to work with children or in therapeutic settings. The students’ personal values and desire to make a difference to the world around them were important extrinsic motivators. These two studies suggest that psychology students may be motivated by a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Does this ring true for you?

Activity

Why do you study psychology?

Make a list of all of the reasons that you chose to study psychology at university. Sort your answers into two columns: intrinsically motivated and extrinsically motivated.

Have your reasons stayed the same since you started your university course? Or have they changed to become more intrinsic or more extrinsic?

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