Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation Across College Rank
Alyssa Murphy, Jessica Oliveri, Mickeal Pugh Jr.
Introduction
•
•
•
Research shows college seniors
are more academically motivated
than underclassmen.
Studies also show that college
seniors value things differently
than when they were freshmen.
The purpose of this study was to
examine if intrinsic motivation
would increase and extrinsic
motivation would decrease as
students progressed through
college.
Results
•
Conclusion
As seen in the Figure, there was no
statistically significant difference in
intrinsic, F (3,85) = 0.53, p = .666, and
extrinsic, F (3,85) = 0.51, p = .676,
motivation across the college classes.
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•
Figure: Mean Rating of Intrinsic and Extrinsic
Motivation Across College Classes
7
Participants (N = 86, 11 seniors, 17
juniors, 31 sophomores, 27 freshmen)
who volunteered to participate for
partial course credit rated 5 intrinsic
and 5 extrinsic motivation statements
on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to
7 (strongly agree).
Levels of Motivation
Extrinsic
Method
References
Intrinsic
6.5
6
•
5.5
5
•
4.5
4
•
3.5
3
Freshmen
Sophomore
Junior
College Classes
Senior
The results did not support our
hypothesis. Specifically, results did
not show differences in intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation across college
classes.
These data show that, despite internal
and external value differences
between college seniors and
freshmen, levels of intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation do not change as
students progress through college.
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Sheldon, K.M. (2005). Positive value change
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