My Hobby for Relaxing is Stressing Me Out?
The Overjustification effect explains the loss of motivation to do an activity we enjoy after being given a reward for it (Lepper et al., 1973). Deci and Ryan (1985) describe intrinsic motivation is the desire to perform a task for the enjoyment it gives us, and extrinsic motivation is the desire to perform a task as a means of obtaining something outside of ourselves, such as money, or status. When we are rewarded for performing a task we already enjoy, that intrinsic motivation is replaced with extrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Lepper et al., 1973). If we receive a reward that we didn’t expect, it won’t affect our intrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Lepper et al., 1973). In Lepper et al.’s (1973) experiment, children were given markers to draw with. Lepper and his colleagues created three groups: kids who would be notified that they would get an award for using the markers, kids who would not be notified about an award and later receive one, and kids who...