Intrinsic Motivation in Higher Education

The study supported our hypothesis that intrinsic motivation has a positive effect on engagement among higher education students. The results also showed that amotivation was a stronger predictor of disengagement than extrinsic motivation. The self-determination theory defines amotivation as a pessimistic impact of motivation, where individuals exhibit unregulated and unintentional behaviors due to feelings of failure, low expectations, or lack of interest. The study also found that intrinsic motivation predicts lower stress levels, while amotivation predicts high stress levels and poor adaptation to university tasks.

The study partly has supported our hypothesis, the results showed intrinsic motivation has an
positive effect on engagement amongst higher education students. Our study also predicted that
extrinsic motivation is unrelated and amotivation is negatively related to engagement, our results
showed that amotivation was a stronger predictor compared to extrinsic motivation.
The self-determination theory of Deci and Ryan (1991) refers amotivation as a pessimistic impact of
motivation. People who have reported high levels of amotivation tend to have behaviours that are
unregulated and unintentional. These behaviours occurs from different feelings such as not being
able to accomplish an activity successful, also they are not expecting and yield a desired outcome or
not valuing a activity (Ryan, 2000).
Baker (2004) has studied that the influence of motivation alignment on different aspects this
include stress, psychological ill health and performance in second year university students. This
study also predicted that only intrinsic motivation predict lower stress, while amotivation predicted
high levels of stress meaning that students had poor modifications to the university task and lastly
extrinsic motivation showed that there is no relationship to any outcomes. The hypothesis of the
our study has been supported to this previous research of Baker (2004).
Bailey and Phillips. (2015) suggested that students who lacks motivation tend to struggle meeting
the social and emotional challenges at university. Although some researchers has implied that
amotivation may be accountable students with mental health, the study suggests that poor mental
health may be an ineffective assimilation and adjustment to the emotional and social aspects of
engaging at university.