Locus of Control in Motivation Pt3
Deci and Ryan (1985) suggest that there are four approaches to intrinsic motivation: free choice, interest, challenge and ‘needs’. These needs include ‘relatedness’, ‘competence’ and ‘self-determination’. This suggests that if a change or behaviour is of the person’s choice, is interesting, is a challenge, and meets one or more of these needs, the person is more likely to be motivated than not. All of these are areas that can be examined by the hypnotist and client together, and maximised.
Extrinsic motivation is that which is external to the process and is most typically seen as rewards. Deci and Ryan interestingly suggest that increasing extrinsic motivation is not necessarily a good thing as it can lead to a decrease in intrinsic motivation. This fact was backed up by research conducted with school children. The children were divided into three groups to play with brightly coloured pens; one group were told they would be rewarded (and were), the second group were told nothing, but were also rewarded, and the third did not receive an award. The experiment showed that the children who had been told they would be rewarded for playing with, subsequently played with them significantly less than the other children. This shows that it is the expectation of reward that can be an issue.
