Passagel
根据以下材料，回答21-25题
Thereare two kinds of motive for engaging in any activity: internal andinstrumental. If a scientist conducts research because she wants to discoverimportant facts about the world, that's an internal motive, since discoveringfacts is inherently related to the activity of research. If she conducts researchbecause she wants to achieve scholarly renown, that's an instrumental motive,since the relation between fame and research is not so inherent. Often, people haveboth for doing things.
What mixof motives--internal or instrumental or both--is most conducive to success? Youmight suppose that a scientist motivated by a desire to discover facts and by adesire to achieve renown will do better work than a scientist motivated by justone of those desires. Surely two motives are better than one. But as we and ourcolleagues argue in a paper newly published in the Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences, instrumental motives are not always an asset and can actuallybe counterproductive to success.
Weanalyzed data drawn from 11320 cadets in nine entering classes at the UnitedStates Military Academy at West Point, all of whom rated how much each of a setof motives influenced their decision to attend the academy. The motivesincluded things like a desire to get a good job later in life and a desire tobe trained as a leader in the United States Army.
How didthe cadets fare years later? How did their progress relate to their originalmotives for attending West Point?
Wefound, unsurprisingly, that the stronger their internal reasons were to attendWest Point, the more likely cadets were to graduate and become commissionedofficers. Also unsurprisingly, cadets with internal motives did better in themilitary (as evidenced by early promotion recommendations)than did thosewithout internal motives and were also more likely to stay in the militaryafter their five years of mandatory service.
Remarkably,cadets with strong internal and strong instrumental motives for attending West Pointperformed worse on every measure than did those with strong internal motivesbut weak instrumental ones. They were less likely to graduate, less outstandingas military officers and less committed to staying in the military.
Ourstudy suggests that efforts should be made to structure activities so thatinstrumental consequences do not become motives. Helping people focus on themeaning and impact of their work, rather than on, say, the financial returns itwill bring, may be the best way to improve not only the quality of their workbut also their financial success.
There isa temptation among educators and instructors to use whatever motivational toolsare available to recruit participants or improve performance. If the desire formilitary excellence and service to country fails to attract all the recruitsthat the Army needs, then perhaps appeals to “money for collegecareer training”or “seeing the world”will do the job. While this strategy may lure
morerecruits, it may also yield worse soldiers. Similarly, for studentsuninterested in learning,financial incentives for good attendance or pizzaparties for high performance may prompt them to participate, but it may resultin less well-educated students.