Predictors and Consequences of Children’s Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivational Orientations: A Developmental Perspective

Jennifer Henderlong Corpus

In ancient times scholars worked for their own improvement; nowadays they seek only to win the approval of others. –Confucius, Analects 14.24 (551-479 BCE) Work can be done, as Confucius suggests, as a means to an end (an extrinsically motivated pursuit) or as an end in itself (an intrinsically motivated pursuit). In the academic domain, intrinsic motivation, relative to extrinsic motivation, is associated with a host of adaptive behaviors, such as challenge seeking and involvement in school. However, research consistently reveals that children’s levels of intrinsic – but not extrinsic – motivation dissipate as they progress through the elementary- and middle-school years. The current project seeks to identify the constellation of beliefs and goals that enable some children to maintain an intrinsic orientation while their peers are showing substantial declines in intrinsic motivation. Using a cross-sequential design with two time points, I am investigating the relationship between children’s intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations and their beliefs about the malleability of intelligence, personal achievement goals, perceived goal emphasis of their teachers, and performance outcomes. Establishing a framework of inter-related motivational concepts will point to potential precursors, consequences, and correlates of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, which could then be tested via experimentation.

About Jennifer Henderlong Corpus

Jennifer Henderlong Corpus is currently an assistant professor of psychology at Reed College, where she teaches courses in developmental psychology and human motivation. She received her B.A. in psychology from the University of Michigan and her M.A. and Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Stanford University, where her dissertation work was supported by the Spencer Foundation. Prior to joining the faculty at Reed College in 2001, she was a NIMH postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research interests include intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, praise and reward systems, and children’s self-regulation of motivation, each of which she examines from a developmental perspective. She has published in the Journal of Educational Psychology, Contemporary Educational Psychology, Human Development, and Psychological Bulletin.