Baranek Experiment Psychology

Moreover, the goals attained through intrinsic motivation, inside and outside the classroom, are, in turn, more rewarding to students because they make the learning process more pleasurable by tapping into the student's personal interests. When a student is intrinsically motivated to do well in a particular class or subject, he or she will be more inclined to put in hard work and effort into attaining his or her academic goal. Accomplishing those goals and desires will inevitably trigger the reward system, and the chemical dopamine will disperse throughout the body, resulting in feelings of pleasure, joy, and satisfaction (Bergland). Students that feel some sense of accomplishment after attaining their desired goal are more likely to set further …show more content…
Meanwhile, the group who was not paid kept on solving the puzzles presented to them, even after the experiment was over because they were said to have found the puzzles intrinsically interesting. Therefore, Deci argued that the group who had been paid to solve puzzles might have found the puzzles intrinsically interesting as well, but the monetary reward (extrinsic motivator) had reduced the students’ intrinsic interest (qtd. in Baranek). Thus, in a similar way, students who only receive a temporary spur of happiness are less likely to be satisfied with their academic goals. The likeness of those same students to continue to be involved in learning, and they may potentially even lose hope in their studies. If a student is not happy learning or does not enjoy school may drop, than how can teachers expect that student to be motivated to do well academically. Before any student to be fully dedicated to his or her studies, a student must first be intrinsically motivated and engaged enough to where he or she eventually enjoys learning and sees it more as entertainment than laborious …show more content…
The survey showed that only one percent of the one-hundred students surveyed found that classrooms were “Extremely motivating” while fifteen percent found that classrooms were “Not motivating at all.” A question seen later in the same survey asking about students enrollment in Honor and AP level courses showed that fifty-five percent reponsed that they participated in “Niether Honors or AP level courses” (De La Cruz). Clearly, this shows a connection between a student's lack of motivation leading to the student only participating in entry level course that never go beyond the regular or advanced