Several researchers and theorists contend that students with intrinsic reasons for performing well in academic pursuits have greater motivations to succeed than do students with less autonomous reasons for successful academic participation, such as extrinsic rewards. Both students who fear failure and students who seek perfection may perform poorly on academic tasks because negative concerns compromise their motivations to participate. Thus, developing effective interventions to deal with academic motivation by students cannot rely on a "one size fits all" approach.
Other researchers and theorists, however, contend that extrinsic rewards tend to stimulate intrinsic motivations in all organizational environments (including academic organizations). Support for this approach to understanding the association between extrinsic rewards and intrinsic motivations is especially strong in relation to the applicability of the relationship to employer-employee relationships, where monetary gain is viewed as being one of the strongest extrinsic rewards stimuli for employees' intrinsic motivation. There exists greater disagreement with respect to the character of the relationship between extrinsic rewards and intrinsic motivations in academic environments.
Deci, Koestner, and Ryan (1999) performed a meta-analysis from which they concluded that extrinsic rewards undermine, to a substantial extent, the intrinsic motivations of students in academic environments. This finding followed an earlier study by Cameron and Pierce (1994) that led to a conclusion that any negative effects associated with extrinsic rewards that do occur are both limited and easily avoidable.
As might have been anticipated, Cameron (2001) responded to the conclusions drawn by Deci, Koestner, and Ryan (1999) that also included a contention that the Cameron and Pierce (1994) study was seriously flawed. In the response by Cameron (2001) she contended that no inherent...