Extrinsic vs Intrinsic Motivation

I learned something pretty interesting from Social Psychology class today. 

The study was on 12 year-old children who were asked to play with markers. (yeah, I don't know what's the deal with markers. But I guess they don't know what's the deal with  bags either.) They were divided into three groups: control, certificate-aware group, and certificate-unaware group. The researchers measured the length of time the kids played with markers. 

http://www.ripleys.com/weird/files/2013/01/marker-installations-heike-weber-9.jpg

1) Control group was not told anything in particular and were just left alone to play with markers.

2) Certificate-Aware group was told that at the end of the session, they will be given certificate for having played with markers. Probably marker-efficiency certificate, or something. How cool.

3) Certificate-Unaware group was not told about certificate but were given them anyways at the end.


Guess which group(s) played the longest with the markers? 


They found out that Certificate-Aware group played the shortest with markers.



* The implication of the study:

Here, certificate stands for extrinsic motivation, which means motivation that comes outside from oneself.
Intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, would be motivation that comes from within, in this case, pleasure of playing with markers. 

Thus, this study shows that when we do something for the sake of external reward, instead of our own joy, we quickly lose interest. 

http://stellachua.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Motivation.jpg

Does this mean that getting a job for money and for pleasure cannot converge into a midpoint?

I don't know, to me, it sounds like it, and honestly, it's rather depressing. As people always say, you can't be too idealistic nor realistic. 

Then, what should I live for? Probably the answer's already out there. But maybe I'm just too inclined to stability and safety to look in that direction for now, wherever that may be.