Advantages and Disadvantages of Motivation

Motivation in any and all disciplines of life is a driving factor in whether one will be successful or not. Ormrod (2008), purports that motivation has a positive effect on people's behavior and is revealed in the following principles:
• Motivation increases an individual energy and the intensity of their activity level.
• Motivation affects the choices people makes and propels the individual toward specific goals.
• Motivation promotes personal initiative, persistence in the face of difficulty and recommencing a task after interruptions.
• Motivation promotes cognitive engagement and affects learning strategies and comprehension (Ormrod, 2008, p. 453).

• Extrinsic motivation can promote learning (Ormrod, 2008, p. 485).
• Extrinsically motivated students tend to apply minimum behavioral and cognitive efforts to a task successfully (Ormrod, 2008, p. 454).
• Extrinsically motivated students will cease to perform when incentive are withdrawn or ceases (Ormrod, 2008, p. 454).

"Intrinsic motivation has numerous advantages over extrinsic motivation" (Ormrod, 2008, p.454). Many students are intrinsically and extrinsically motivated simultaneously (McLean, 2006). Most people are motivated by different things. Learners who are intrinsically motivated are more apt to:
• Take the initiative and engage in task without coaxing or persuasion.
• Be cognitively engaged in the task.
• Assume more difficult and challenging part of a task.
• Exhibit creativity.
• Never give up after failure.
• Receive pleasure and excitement from activities.
• Frequently employs self-evaluative standards.
• Search for chances to practice new tasks.
• "Achieve at high levels" ( Ormrod, 2008, p. 454).

References:
Mclean, A. (2006). Motivation. Retrieved on April 12, 2010, from http://www.centreforconfidence.co.uk/pp/overview.php?=c2lkPTEx.

Ormrod, J. E. (2008). Human learning (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall.