Moods, Goals, and Measures of Intrinsic Motivation

ABSTRACT

Behavioral and self-report measures of intrinsic task interest were compared in their relationship to measures of momentary mood and long-term motivational orientation across conditions differing in sources of extrinsic motivation. The two measures of task interest did not correlate with each other and had significantly contrasting correlations with moods and life goals. The behavioral measure was related negatively to apparently intrinsic affects and goals and was positively related to fatigue. Relationships were also quite different across conditions. Results support reservations about the equivalence of the two most used types of measures of intrinsic motivation and point to factors that affect them in independent or contrasting ways. The Free Choice Time measure, for example, seems to depend on how treatments affect interest in alternative activities, not just interest in the target activity itself.