SELF-VERSUS OTHER-REWARD ADMINISTRATION AND INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

Intrinsic motivation research has produced conflicting findings about self- and other-administered reward contingencies. Although some studies show that selfadministration can prevent the typically detrimental effects of task-contingent rewards, a prominent study in the literature yielded evidence that self-administration undermines intrinsic motivation. A conceptual and procedural analysis of these studies led us to propose that a critical factor in determining whether selfadministration of rewards protects or undermines intrinsic motivation is the clarity of the behavior standards that people believe they must meet in order to receive their rewards. We hypothesized that ambiguous behavior standards coupled with self-administration of rewards would reduce intrinsic motivation whereas clear standards coupled with self-administration of rewards would maintain high preexisting levels of intrinsic motivation. Adult subjects participated in a study comprised of a 2 (ambiguous vs unambiguous standards) × 2 (self- vs other-administered reward) factorial design and a nonrewarded control group. The results of the experiment fully supported our predictions. © 1991.