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diff --git a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/motivation.html b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/motivation.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..45cca5d --- /dev/null +++ b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/motivation.html @@ -0,0 +1,282 @@ +<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> +<!-- Parent-Version: 1.77 --> +<title>Studies Find Reward Often No Motivator - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> + +<!--#include virtual="/server/gnun/initial-translations-list.html" --> +<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> + +<h2>Studies Find Reward Often No Motivator</h2> + +<h3>Creativity and intrinsic interest diminish if task is done for gain</h3> + +<p> +by <strong>Alfie Kohn</strong> +<br /> +Special to the Boston Globe +<br /> +[Reprinted with permission of the author from the Monday 19 January +1987 Boston Globe.]</p> + +<p> +In the laboratory, rats get Rice Krispies. In the classroom the top +students get A's, and in the factory or office the best workers get +raises. It's an article of faith for most of us that rewards promote +better performance.</p> + +<p> +But a growing body of research suggests that this law is not nearly as +ironclad as was once thought. Psychologists have been finding that +rewards can lower performance levels, especially when the performance +involves creativity.</p> + +<p> +A related series of studies shows that intrinsic interest in a task—the sense that something is worth doing for its own sake—typically declines when someone is rewarded for doing it.</p> + +<p> +If a reward—money, awards, praise, or winning a contest—comes to be seen as the reason one is engaging in an activity, +that activity will be viewed as less enjoyable in its own right.</p> + +<p> +With the exception of some behaviorists who doubt the very existence +of intrinsic motivation, these conclusions are now widely accepted +among psychologists. Taken together, they suggest we may unwittingly +be squelching interest and discouraging innovation among workers, +students and artists.</p> + +<p> +The recognition that rewards can have counter-productive effects is +based on a variety of studies, which have come up with such findings +as these: Young children who are rewarded for drawing are less likely +to draw on their own that are children who draw just for the fun of +it. Teenagers offered rewards for playing word games enjoy the games +less and do not do as well as those who play with no rewards. +Employees who are praised for meeting a manager's expectations suffer +a drop in motivation.</p> + +<p> +Much of the research on creativity and motivation has been performed +by Theresa Amabile, associate professor of psychology at Brandeis +University. In a paper published early last year on her most recent +study, she reported on experiments involving elementary school and +college students. Both groups were asked to make “silly” +collages. The young children were also asked to invent stories.</p> + +<p> +The least-creative projects, as rated by several teachers, were done +by those students who had contracted for rewards. “It may be +that commissioned work will, in general, be less creative than work +that is done out of pure interest,” Amabile said.</p> + +<p> +In 1985, Amabile asked 72 creative writers at Brandeis and at Boston +University to write poetry. Some students then were given a list of +extrinsic (external) reasons for writing, such as impressing teachers, +making money and getting into graduate school, and were asked to think +about their own writing with respect to these reasons. Others were +given a list of intrinsic reasons: the enjoyment of playing with +words, satisfaction from self-expression, and so forth. A third group +was not given any list. All were then asked to do more writing.</p> + +<p> +The results were clear. Students given the extrinsic reasons not only +wrote less creatively than the others, as judged by 12 independent +poets, but the quality of their work dropped significantly. Rewards, +Amabile says, have this destructive effect primarily with creative +tasks, including higher-level problem-solving. “The more +complex the activity, the more it's hurt by extrinsic reward,” +she said.</p> + +<p> +But other research shows that artists are by no means the only ones +affected.</p> + +<p> +In one study, girls in the fifth and sixth grades tutored younger +children much less effectively if they were promised free movie +tickets for teaching well. The study, by James Gabarino, now +president of Chicago's Erikson Institute for Advanced Studies in Child +Development, showed that tutors working for the reward took longer to +communicate ideas, got frustrated more easily, and did a poorer job in +the end than those who were not rewarded.</p> + +<p> +Such findings call into question the widespread belief that money is +an effective and even necessary way to motivate people. They also +challenge the behaviorist assumption that any activity is more likely +to occur if it is rewarded. Amabile says her research +“definitely refutes the notion that creativity can be operantly +conditioned.”</p> + +<p> +But Kenneth McGraw, associate professor of psychology at the +University of Mississippi, cautions that this does not mean +behaviorism itself has been invalidated. “The basic principles +of reinforcement and rewards certainly work, but in a restricted +context” —restricted, that is, to tasks that are not +especially interesting.</p> + +<p> +Researchers offer several explanations for their surprising findings +about rewards and performance.</p> + +<p> +First, rewards encourage people to focus narrowly on a task, to do it +as quickly as possible and to take few risks. “If they feel +that ‘this is something I have to get through to get the +prize,’ they're going to be less creative,” Amabile +said.</p> + +<p> +Second, people come to see themselves as being controlled by the +reward. They feel less autonomous, and this may interfere with +performance. “To the extent one's experience of being +self-determined is limited,” said Richard Ryan, associate +psychology professor at the University of Rochester, “one's +creativity will be reduced as well.”</p> + +<p> +Finally, extrinsic rewards can erode intrinsic interest. People who +see themselves as working for money, approval or competitive success +find their tasks less pleasurable, and therefore do not do them as +well.</p> + +<p> +The last explanation reflects 15 years of work by Ryan's mentor at the +University of Rochester, Edward Deci. In 1971, Deci showed that +“money may work to buy off one's intrinsic motivation for an +activity” on a long-term basis. Ten years later, Deci and his +colleagues demonstrated that trying to best others has the same +effect. Students who competed to solve a puzzle quickly were less +likely than those who were not competing to keep working at it once +the experiment was over.</p> + +<h3 id="sec1">Control plays role</h3> + +<p> +There is general agreement, however, that not all rewards have the +same effect. Offering a flat fee for participating in an experiment— similar to an hourly wage in the workplace—usually +does not reduce intrinsic motivation. It is only when the rewards are +based on performing a given task or doing a good job at it—analogous to piece-rate payment and bonuses, respectively—that +the problem develops.</p> + +<p> +The key, then, lies in how a reward is experienced. If we come to +view ourselves as working to get something, we will no longer find +that activity worth doing in its own right.</p> + +<p> +There is an old joke that nicely illustrates the principle. An +elderly man, harassed by the taunts of neighborhood children, finally +devises a scheme. He offered to pay each child a dollar if they would +all return Tuesday and yell their insults again. They did so eagerly +and received the money, but he told them he could only pay 25 cents on +Wednesday. When they returned, insulted him again and collected their +quarters, he informed them that Thursday's rate would be just a penny. +“Forget it,” they said —and never taunted him +again.</p> + +<h3 id="sec2">Means to an end</h3> + +<p> +In a 1982 study, Stanford psychologist Mark L. Lepper showed that any +task, no matter how enjoyable it once seemed, would be devalued if it +were presented as a means rather than an end. He told a group of +preschoolers they could not engage in one activity they liked until +they first took part in another. Although they had enjoyed both +activities equally, the children came to dislike the task that was a +prerequisite for the other.</p> + +<p> +It should not be surprising that when verbal feedback is experienced +as controlling, the effect on motivation can be similar to that of +payment. In a study of corporate employees, Ryan found that those who +were told, “Good, you're doing as you <em>should</em>” +were “significantly less intrinsically motivated than those who +received feedback informationally.”</p> + +<p> +There's a difference, Ryan says, between saying, “I'm giving you +this reward because I recognize the value of your work” and +“You're getting this reward because you've lived up to my +standards.”</p> + +<p> +A different but related set of problems exists in the case of +creativity. Artists must make a living, of course, but Amabile +emphasizes that “the negative impact on creativity of working +for rewards can be minimized” by playing down the significance +of these rewards and trying not to use them in a controlling way. +Creative work, the research suggests, cannot be forced, but only +allowed to happen.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><em>Alfie Kohn, a Cambridge, MA writer, is the author of “No +Contest: The Case Against Competition,” published by Houghton +Mifflin Co., Boston, MA. ISBN 0-395-39387-6. For more information on +this topic, see the author's website (www.alfiekohn.org) and his book +PUNISHED BY REWARDS (rev. ed., Houghton Mifflin, 1999).</em></p> + +</div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> +<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> +<div id="footer"> +<div class="unprintable"> + +<p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to +<a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. +There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> +the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent +to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> + +<p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, + replace it with the translation of these two: + + We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality + translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. + Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard + to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> + <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> + + <p>For information on coordinating and submitting translations of + our web pages, see <a + href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations + README</a>. --> +Please see the <a +href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations +README</a> for information on coordinating and submitting translations +of this article.</p> +</div> + +<!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to + files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should + be under CC BY-ND 3.0 US. Please do NOT change or remove this + without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first. + Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the + document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the + document was modified, or published. + + If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. + Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying + years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable + year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including + being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). + + There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers + Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> + +<p>Copyright © 1987 Alfie Kohn.</p> + +<p>Verbatim copying and distribution is permitted in any medium +provided this notice is preserved.</p> + +<!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> + +<p class="unprintable">Updated: +<!-- timestamp start --> +$Date: 2014/04/12 12:40:27 $ +<!-- timestamp end --> +</p> +</div> +</div> +</body> +</html> |