CARROTS, STICKS, AND STOPS
RE-EXAMINING MOTIVATION
Claire Dorotik LMFT

           
            “Focus on the reward.” You’ve heard this before. “Keep your eye on the prize.” You’ve heard that one too. But do these idioms actually work? In the world of motivation, it’s all about the carrot and the stick. Motivation gurus tell you that if you create rewards for yourself, you’ll be more motivated. Building off of the operant behavioral conditioning principles made famous by B.F. Skinner, the father of behavioral theory, these beliefs have led many business leaders, managers, coaches and teachers to turn to rewards exclusively to get people moving. According to Skinner, changing behavior depends on using a stimulus designed to create a new behavior. For those of us who want to run faster or longer, the stimulus we use is always the reward we give ourselves after a long hard run.
            However, studies as far back as 1949 contradict that this actually works in our favor. Harry F. Harlow, a psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin was the first to discover that there are reasons beyond rewards that animals and people do things. At the time, the accepted understanding of human behavior was confined to two basic drives: one for survival, and one for reward. Humans were thought to ensure their survival demands first, and then were motivated to act in ways that led to a reward.
            When Harlow set about to test this theory, he presented rhesus monkeys with a small puzzle to solve. The puzzle consisted of a small door with a latch that required removing one pin, sliding another and lifting the latch, a three step process. Harlow’s idea was to first socialize the monkeys to the puzzle and then present them with small rewards for any one of the steps that would lead to successful solution of the puzzle. Yet in the time that Harlow was allowing the monkeys to become familiar with the puzzle, they began to solve it on their own, without reward. The closer they got to the solution, the more interested they became. Within forty-five minutes, every monkey had solved the puzzle. Fascinated, Harlow presented them with another puzzle. Again, the monkeys immediately began to master the puzzle. Solving this one faster than the first, Harlow presented them with another puzzle. The monkeys became so interested in solving the puzzles Harlow put in front of them, that soon they were cracking them within five minutes. Amazingly, the monkeys did all of this without a single reward.
            Rethinking things, Harlow concluded that there must be another drive. The monkeys seemed to be motivated by a need to learn. Like survival, this was an internal factor. Harlow dubbed this drive “intrinsic motivation.” He described it as a desire to explore our own unique skills and abilities, find creative solutions, and learn new information. This drive, unlike the other two drives, was for it’s own sake. Where the survival drive is about a desire to ensure survival, and the reward drive is about a desire to get a reward, intrinsic motivation is about an internal need to learn. 
Surprisingly, when Harlow tested this form of motivation against the more accepted form of motivation by using rewards, the monkeys solved the puzzles less quickly. At the time, unfortunately, Harlow was admonished for his ideas and gave up the research.
            It wasn’t until 1969 that another researcher, Edward Deci, tested Harlow’s ideas. A then graduate student at Carnegie Mellon, Deci used two groups of people and rubix cube puzzles to study the differences between external and internal motivation. Both groups were brought into a room and seated at table that had three magazines, seven cube puzzles, and a rubix cube. The participants were to re-create each puzzle using the rubix cube. After each successful solution, Deci took the puzzle off the table and the participant was to start on the next one. After the third puzzle, however, Deci told the participant that he would need to leave the room to input his results into a computer in order to proceed. He then left the room for eight minutes and observed the participant’s behavior through a one-way mirror. This entire procedure was done three times, with one subtle difference. Where rewards were never mentioned to group A over the course of the three trials, on trial two, group B was told that they would be paid six dollars for each successful puzzle solution. On trial three, however, group B was then told that they would not be paid for the solved puzzles as Deci had run out of money. Watching the participant’s behavior through the one-way mirror, Deci discovered something interesting. On the first trial, both groups played with the puzzles for an average of four minutes before reading the magazines. On trial two, after being told they would be paid for puzzle solutions, group B played with the puzzles for an average of six minutes, while group A remained the same (four minute average). However, the results on trial three surprised Deci. While group A’s play time remained consistent at four minutes, group B’s play time decreased to an average of 60 seconds. The addition, and subsequent withdrawal, of an external reward actually had a negative effect on behavior. From this study, Deci ascertained that the use of extrinsic rewards tend to decrease intrinsic motivation.
            So if rewards don’t work, you ask, what does? Well, if we accept that the carrot and stick principle is outdated, then we must re-examine our current understanding of motivation. We must look for other reasons to endure that grueling ten miles of hilly trail than the burger we might be promising ourselves at the end (for more on this, see the sidebar, “mapping out motivation”). After all, we know that there are a whole lot more reasons to run than simply the prize at the end of the race.

SIDEBAR

THE SIDE EFFECTS OF CARROTS AND STICKS

In his new book Drive, author Daniel Pink explains that there are seven core principles explaining just how extrinsic motivation (rewards) decreases intrinsic motivation. According to Pink, they are:

  • Extrinsic rewards tend to decrease intrinsic motivation. Because the focus of the activity is on attaining a reward, as oppose to the value of the activity itself, rewards get in the way of finding internal reasons for performing a behavior.
  • Extrinsic rewards diminish performance. As seen in the studies above, rewards decrease performance. Basically rewards turn play into work.
  • Extrinsic rewards curb creativity. When the focus is on finishing the activity as quickly as possible in order to get the reward, the sense of creativity is lost. Using creativity to find novel solutions to complex problems leads to skill development and an increased sense of mastery, two very important components of motivation.
  • Extrinsic rewards decrease good behavior. When the focus of an activity is on the reward that will follow, the tendency for impatience, anger and frustration increase.
  • Extrinsic rewards encourage unethical behavior, such as cheating. Again, focusing on the reward leads to an “anything goes” approach to getting the reward.
  • Extrinsic rewards increase the risk of addiction. The reward itself can become addicting, especially when the focus is solely on the reward, and the intrinsic value of the activity is lost.
  • Extrinsic rewards promote short term, not long-term focus. As long as the reward is present, the desired behavior will continue, however, once the reward is removed, the behavior will cease. Long-term behavior change requires a long-term focus beyond the immediate reward.

           
SIDEBAR
MAPPING OUT MOTIVATION

            In order to enhance motivation we need three things: Mastery, Autonomy and Purpose (MAP). Think of them as your motivational roadmap.

  • Autonomy: defined as personal independence, autonomy allows us to have a choice in the things we do.
  • Mastery: defined as expert knowledge or outstanding ability, mastery is also about a feeling of control when doing something.
  • Purpose: defined as the reason for which something exists, or for which it has been made or done, purpose denotes connection of your actions to something greater than yourself.

 

Claire Dorotik, M.A. is a licensed marriage and family therapist specializing in trauma, weight loss, eating disorders, addictions, and dual diagnosis. Claire utilizes equine facilitated psychotherapy from a psychoanalytic perspective to offer clients a unique method to understand themselves. She is currently the clinical therapist at Live In Fitness Enterprise, a residential bootcamp in Marina Del Rey, California.  Claire has written extensively on the topics of the psychology of weight loss, food and substance addictions, and trauma. Further information on Claire can be found at www.clairedorotik.com.