Profiles of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations in Elementary School: A Longitudinal Analysis

The authors used a person-centered, longitudinal approach to identify and evaluate naturally occurring combinations of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations among 490 third- through fifth-grade students. Cluster analysis revealed 3 groups, characterized by high levels of both motivations (high quantity): high intrinsic motivation but low extrinsic motivation (primarily intrinsic) and low intrinsic motivation but high extrinsic motivation...