Effects of Goal Difficulty and Expected External Evaluation on Intrinsic Motivation: A Laboratory Study

Abstract

This study examines the effects of goal difficulty and expected external evaluation on individuals' intrinsic motivation. Results show intrinsic motivation to be lowest when individuals cannot attain difficult goals, regardless of whether or not they expect their performance to be evaluated. Individuals exhibited high intrinsic motivation in two conditions: (1) when they attained an easy goal and expected an evaluation and (2) when they attained a difficult goal and expected no evaluation. Implications of these results for future research on intrinsic motivation are discussed.