Personal Values and Intrinsic Motivation in Career Choice

Work, Identity, and the Pursuit of Success

Work is one of the most important parts of the lives of most people within modern societies. As much as almost anything else in our lives, work and our vocational identity define who we are and determine how we live. Success, in and of itself — virtually without reference to the realm in which it is achieved — is pursued and congratulated. Great financial success is one of the most common hopes of the average person, with the particular means of achieving it treated largely as a road to that end. Albert Einstein, among many others, worried that this overemphasis on acquisitive success robbed individuals of the spiritual values and community-mindedness that correspond to genuine satisfaction in life.

Twentieth-century psychologists like Abraham Maslow and Nathaniel Branden, and sociologists like C. Wright Mills, have written extensively about the overemphasis on success rather than on value to others or to society in modern industrialized parts of the world. From the perspective of psychological fulfillment, the acquisitive impulse — or, more generally, extrinsic motivation for achievement — is unlikely to provide lasting contentment. Gandhi, Einstein, Branden, and Mills, among many others, suggest that success that is intrinsically motivated is the only route toward self-actualized, long-term genuine contentment.

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation in Professional Life

In terms of motivation, one can pursue the exact same vocational goal for intrinsic reasons — such as a genuine fascination with the subject matter — or for extrinsic reasons, such as the social status a profession confers. Certain occupations or professional goals can be valuable both intrinsically and extrinsically. In such cases, it is possible to pursue them for reasons that Gandhi, Einstein, Branden, Maslow, and Mills would view positively, or to pursue those same goals for the philosophical antitheses of those reasons.

For a common example, medical schools are filled with students whose motivations for studying medicine differ substantially. Typical intrinsic reasons for enduring the demands of medical residency include a desire to contribute meaningfully to the lives of others in need and a lifelong scientific fascination with biological research. Typical extrinsic reasons include the social status of holding a medical degree, a high salary, and the public markers of professional prestige. The self-determination theory developed by Deci and Ryan provides a useful academic framework for understanding exactly this kind of distinction between internally generated and externally reinforced motivation.

Noble Enterprises and the Complexity of Motivation

It is relatively rare that a person's motivation for becoming a physician is exclusively intrinsic or extrinsic; it is almost always some degree of both. At the extreme ends of the spectrum, however, a single dimension may dominate. Consider Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy, who began that enterprise after YouTube videos he produced for a niece went viral. He left a highly paid position as a hedge-fund analyst to work full-time developing a new and better approach to education. Similarly, Western-trained physicians who leave potentially lucrative professional practices to donate their time, services, and sometimes money in some of the most impoverished regions of the world represent cases where intrinsic motivation appears to prevail.

Yet the issue is more complex than a simple motivational spectrum and classification of professional endeavor. Even the most noble and beneficial enterprises — such as Khan Academy or donating medical services — can also be motivated extrinsically, driven by the admiration they evoke from others rather than primarily by the inherent value they provide. This complication resists any easy moral categorization of professional choices based on their outward appearance alone.

Conclusion: Toward Genuine Contentment

Therein lies the paradox to which Gandhi, Einstein, and Branden in particular refer: namely, that the reason behind the professional choices of individuals determines the character and quality of the choice, from the perspective of psychological contentment, genuine long-term satisfaction, self-actualization, or psychological evolution. Einstein suggested that the preoccupation with acquisitive success was substantially responsible for alienation among individuals in society. Branden argued that high achievement is frequently motivated by a compulsion to overcompensate for low self-esteem rather than being a reflection of high self-esteem, as is commonly assumed.