The notion of intrinsic motivation is one of the subtler concepts in the literature of the social sciences. Too often, the carrot-and-stick economics of extrinsic motivation dominates due to the prestigious role of Economics among the social sciences. Yet, intrinsic motivation plays an important role in education, management, social work, and most any other human activity beyond the crudest forms of physical labor. This paper reviews some of the classic authors and literature on the subtleties of intrinsic motivation in the human activities where a presumed ‘helper’ (teacher, manager, social worker, etc.) are working with a certain class of ‘doers’ (students, workers, clients, etc.).
Keywords: Intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, autonomy-compatible assistance, locus of control, atrophy effect