Competence and the overjustification effect: A developmental study.

Abstract

This study examined the conditions under which information regarding competence would mitigate the negative side effects of rewards on the intrinsic interest of preschool and middle elementary school children. Children engaging in a task of high initial interest anticipated a reward made contingent either upon meeting a standard based on absolute performance level or upon task engagement alone, or they were not rewarded. In addition, they were provided with direct information concerning competence presented in terms of social comparison. The pattern of results indicated that the preschool children were primarily affected by information about meeting the absolute standard but not the social comparison information. That is, the overjuslihcation effect did not occur when attaining a reward was made contingent on meeting an absolute standard of performance. In contrast, social comparison information superseded the effect of the contingency of the reward on subsequent interest in the target task for the older children. These findings suggest the importance of research from a developmental perspective for attempts to delineate the conditions under which rewards may avert the undermining of intrinsic interest.A number of researchers have demonstrated that offering a reward to a person for engaging in an otherwise enjoyable activity will undermine that person's subsequent interest in that activity when the reward is discontinued-a phenomenon typically explained by means of an attributional analysis (Bern, 1972;Nisbett & Valins, 1971) and termed the overjustification effect (Lepper, Greene, & Nisbett, 1973). That is, if the justification for having undertaken an interesting task is perceived to be an overly sufficient reason for task engagement (e.g., an extrinsic incentive), the person would then infer that behavior was motivated by the reward itself rather than by enjoyment, thereby decreasingThe authors are grateful to Mark Lepper, Michael Ross, Thane Pittman, and Nina Fcldman for many helpful suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper, and to Jeanne Courlright, Barbara Hoyler, and Paget Gross for their invaluable assistance in collecting the data.Requests for reprints should be sent to Diane N.

The effects of rewarder familiarity and differential reward preference on intrinsic motivation

“…Following the procedure of previous investigators (Boggiano & Ruble, 1979;Lepper et al, 1973), a log transformation, Y = log transformation, Y = 10g(Y + 1), on the number of seconds spent with the book and the number of words read was performed to produce homogeneity of variance (Winer, 1971) . Preliminary analyses revealed that the main and interaction effects for sex of experimenter, sex of subject, and grade of subject were all nonsignificant on the intrinsic-motivation measures.…”

“…Tampa,FL 33620. 1975) , a salient reward can be perceived as informational or controlling. Furthermore , competence information in the form of social comparison can mitigate the controlling aspects of contingent reward procedures and reduce the probability of producing an undermining effect (Boggiano & Ruble, 1979).…”

Human-Technology Interaction: Evaluations of Spontaneous Engaged Speech

“…Positive feedback enhances intrinsic motivation, but only when individuals feel responsible for the competent performance. Negative feedback undermines intrinsic motivation (Boggiano & Ruble, 1979). If the ability is present and motivation is high enough, only a small trigger is necessary to activate a certain behavior (see Figure 1).…”

Teacher-Students Relationship. The Significance to Decreasing Dropout Rates and Motivation for Change

“…A person needs external and social incentives, and although they are not enough as motivators, they can help in the construction of the perception of self-efficacy. A positive incentive promotes interest during task performance and enhances self-efficacy (Boggiano & Ruble, 1979;Ross, 1976). The more a reward refers to competence, the more interest is generated (Enzle & Ross, 1978), and if there is interest, there is motivation, meaning the external incentive arouses an internal one.…”