External
Rewards
Psychologists take opposing views of how external
rewards, from warm praise to cold cash, affect motivation and creativity.
Behaviorists, who study the relation between actions and their consequences,
argue that rewards can improve performance at work and school. Cognitive (认识学派的)
researchers, who study various aspects of mental life, maintain that rewards
often destroy creativity by encouraging dependence on approval and gifts from
others.
The latter view has gained many supporters, especially
among educators. But the careful use of small monetary (金钱的) rewards sparks
creativity in grade-school children, suggesting that properly presented
inducements (刺激) indeed aid inventiveness, according to a study in the June
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
"If kids know
they’re working for a reward and can focus on a relatively challenging task,
they show the most creativity," says Robert Eisenberger of the University of
Delaware in New York. "But it’s easy to kill creativity by giving rewards for
poor performance or creating too much anticipation for rewards."
A teacher who continually draws attention to rewards or who hands out high
grades for ordinary achievement ends up with uninspired students, Eisenberger
holds. As an example of the latter point, he notes growing efforts at major
universities to tighten grading standards and restore failing grades.
In earlier grades, the use of socalled token economies, in which students
handle challenging problems and receive performancebased points toward valued
rewards, shows promise in raising effort and creativity, the Delaware
psychologist claims. |
