PSYC 471 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Edward L. Deci, Motivation, Intrinsic Activity

• School: McGill University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 471
• Professor: Richard Koestner

Document Summary

Our natural interest in exploring things that we"re curious about and extending our abilities as well as capacities. We are evolutionarily wired this way because it helps us learn. Edward deci --> the fundamental q: self-determination theory, looks at flow (even though he doesn"t personally use the term) but from the other angle: The fastest growing and second most influential motivation theory. Why do people stop pursuing activities that formerly seemed to be highly self-rewarding: koestner attended university of rochester and took courses with deci, defined intrinsic motivation as: The natural propensity to engage one"s interest and exercise one"s capacities. "doing something for its own sake" --> you read a book volitionally. If you"re intrinsically motivated you"ll pursue challenges or things that are more complex: now, we do things for some instrumental purpose. By the time koestner was 35-40 he had stopped reading for fun, even though it made him a better person and he felt that.