Department of Psychology.
Booth School of Business, University of Chicago.
Psychol Rev. 2018 Mar;125(2):165-182. doi: 10.1037/rev0000095.
The term intrinsic motivation refers to an activity being seen as its own end. Accordingly, we conceptualize intrinsic motivation (IM) as (perceived) means-ends fusion and define an intrinsicality continuum reflecting the degree to which such fusion is experienced. Our means-ends fusion (MEF) theory assumes four major antecedents of activity-goal fusion: (a) repeated pairing of the activity and the goal, (b) uniqueness of the activity-goal connection, (c) perceived similarity between the activity and its goal, and (d) temporal immediacy of goal attainment following the activity. MEF theory further identifies two major consequences of the activity-goal fusion (i.e., manifestations of intrinsic motivation): (a) perceived instrumentality of the activity to goal attainment and consequent activity engagement, and (b) goal-related affective experience of the activity. Empirical evidence for MEF theory comes from diverse fields of psychological inquiry, including animal learning, brain research, and social cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record
内在动机是指将某项活动视为自身的目的。因此，我们将内在动机（IM）概念化为（感知到的）手段-目的融合，并定义了一个内在连续性反映了这种融合的程度。我们的手段-目的融合（MEF）理论假设活动-目标融合的四个主要前提：（a）活动和目标的重复配对，（b）活动-目标连接的独特性，（c）活动和其目标之间感知到的相似性，以及（d）活动之后目标实现的时间紧迫性。MEF 理论进一步确定了活动-目标融合的两个主要后果（即内在动机的表现）：（a）活动对目标实现的感知工具性以及随之而来的活动参与，以及（b）与目标相关的活动的情感体验。MEF 理论的实证证据来自心理学探究的不同领域，包括动物学习、大脑研究和社会认知。
