Operational Definitions
Intrinsic motivation has been operation
defined in various ways, although
there have been two measures that have been most often used. Basic
experimental research (e.g., Deci, 1971) has rested primarily on a behavioral
measure of intrinsic motivation called the ‘‘free choice’’ measure. In experiments
using this measure participants are exposed to a task under varying
conditions (e.g., getting a reward or not). Following this period, the experimenter
tells participants they will not be asked to work with the target task
any further, and they are then left alone in the experimental room with the
target task as well as various distractor activities. They thus have a period
of ‘‘free choice’’ about whether to return to the activity, and it is assumed
that, if there is no extrinsic reason to do the task (e.g., no reward and no
approval), then the more time they spend with the target task, the more intrinsically
motivated they are for that task. This measure has been the mainstay
through which the dynamics of intrinsic motivation have been experimentally
studied.