The Self-Perception Theory vs. a Dynamic Learning Model

Otto Swank ()

No 06-092/1, Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute

Abstract: Several economists have directed our attention to a finding in the social psychological literature that extrinsic motivation may undermine intrinsic motivation. The self-perception (SP) theory developed by Bem (1972) explains this finding. The crux of this theory is that people remember their past decisions and the extrinsic rewards they received, but they do not recall their intrinsic motives. In this paper I show that the SP theory can be modeled as a variant of a conventional dynamic learning (DL) model. A comparison between the assumptions underlying the SP model and the DL model shows that the SP model could be relevant in a wide variety of educational contexts. However, the SP model seems ls relevant than the DL model in other contexts.

Keywords: Self-Perception Theory; Dynamic Learning; Incentives; Intrinsic Motivation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D82 D83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-10-11
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://papers.tinbergen.nl/06092.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tin:wpaper:20060092

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tinbergen Office +31 (0)10-4088900 ().