External vs. Internal Motivations

Yesterday's class went well. It's clear to me that I need to have some further instruction on the neural science part of the curriculum; I'm only working with the barest wisp of understanding of that complex dynamic. However, I am confident that I can get more clear on it with time and the right person explaining it to me. Having tried to teach it, I can see much more clearly where my own gaps are. Part of the curriculum dealt with the leverage that is required when using behavioral interventions such as a token economy or a response cost method. The concept of degree of interest as a source of motivation is really important because people with AD/HD and other brain function challenges struggle with finding motivation and keeping it over time. Interest can wax and wane according to the chemistry in the brain, the diminishing value of something that was once of interest but through repetition of use has become less valuable (ie; boring), or for more complex and harder to read reasons.

Here is what interests me: in my life, I have no end of things about which I am passionate and interested. They are topics and issues I spend time on, in learning about, thinking about, discussing, and, in some cases writing about. They are not all magical motivators for me. Sometimes something of interest was not ever available as a motivator. I've found external motivation (in a positive way as opposed to negative--shame, punishment, loss of reputation) to be extremely unreliable. I wonder about this. Why are so many things I find pleasurable and interesting not a source of motivation to me? Is this what we see play out with a lot of children for whom the reward in one of the previously mentioned behavioral strategies becomes singularly focused on the inadequacy of the reward? Or the ever shifting value assigned to those external rewards? Why are some children so much more easily able to be motivated by rewards and others (like myself both in childhood and in adulthood) find the reward system a temporary distraction from their otherwise very internal negotiations about what they want to do/need to do/ are willing to do.

I'll write more on this later. This is just my first brain dump on external motivations.