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Play and Intrinsic Rewards: a Reply To

Csikszentmihalyi

Article in Journal of Humanistic Psychology · July 1976

DOI: 10.1177/002216787601600312

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Play and Intrinsic Rewards: a Reply To Csikszentmihalyi

Journal of Humanistic Psychology 1976 16: 83
DOI: 10.1177/002216787601600312

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PLAY AND INTRINSIC REWARDS:
A REPLY TO CSIKSZENTMIHALYI

LYNN BARNETT received her bachelor’s degree with a major

in clinical psychology and minor in mathematics and computer
science at the University of Illinois. She became interested in the
study of the theoretical nature of children’s play while a grad-
uate student pursuing a master’s degree in leisure studies. For
the past several years she has extensively researched current
arousal-seeking models, adopting an information-processing
explanation for children’s playful behavior. Ms. Barnett is cur-
rently completing her doctoral work examining the relationship
between learning and problem solving in preschool children’s
play behavior. She is currently teaching a research methods course on the undergraduate
level and a theories of play class on the graduate level. She has spoken at various confer-
ences discussing theoretical formulations of play and their implications and is currently

preparing several publications providing data on theoretical models and methodological

techniques in the study of play.

Definitions of intrinsic motivation have historically evolved along two

lines. Early thought viewed play from an activity-based perspective as
compensatory or restorative from work, play being defined as any activity
engaged in during nonwork, or free time (Groos, 1898; Gulick, 1902;
Patrick, 1916). This concept provided little descriptive power because
activities could not be categorized along other comparative dimensions,
nor could all leisure time activities so defined be considered &dquo;fun&dquo; or

&dquo;enjoyable&dquo; per se. As a recent alternative it has been suggested play be

regarded from the player’s perspective; that is, any activity initiated for
the sheer enjoyment or intrinsic reward presented to the individual should
define the activity as playful (Ellis, 1973; Millar, 1968; Reilly, 1974).
Theorists have differed in ascribing characteristics to feelings of intrinsic
reward, ranging from deriving feelings of mastery and competence
(White, 1959), skill acquisition (Sylva, 1974), and exploratory learning
(Reilly, 1974), from the engagement in the activity. Although differing in
assigning labels to the feelings of enjoyment derived during a playful
activity, the agreement here seems to be in focusing attention on the
player’s reasons for initiating the activity rather than on the activity itself.
Play is thus defined as the initiation of a response which is intrinsically
rewarding for the individual, the process itself presenting enjoyment and
resulting in feelings of satisfaction. This perspective presents a useful
approach in differentiating between intrinsically motivated, or playful

J. Humanistic Psychology Vol 16, No 3, Summer 1976 83

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84

activities, and extrinsically motivated, or task-oriented activities. The

former can be characterized by the means or process while the latter refers
to the goal or outcome. In this way, we can think of the distinction between
extrinsic and intrinsic motivation as lying along a continuum with activ-
ities initiated to achieve an external reward on one end and those moti-
vated by the pleasure derived by the individual at the other extreme. This
notion that play be best described by the intention of the &dquo;player&dquo; is also
useful in circumscribing observations that certain aspects of work can
often be &dquo;playful&dquo; and that play often seems like &dquo;serious business.&dquo;
1. Csikszentmihalyi’s (1975) flow model seems to be contradictory in dis-
tinguishing play as an activity from play as a function of the state of mind
of the participant. Flow is defined initially as an enjoyable sensation but is
later described as being wholly dependent on flow activities. Quoting
Csikszentmihalyi, flow activities are &dquo;those structured systems of action
which usually help to produce flow experiences [p. 55].&dquo; If we follow this
line of thinking, it is suggested here that activities can be characterized by
some unidimensional criteria as &dquo;flow-producing&dquo; (i.e., intrinsically moti-

vating). Thus, we need not consider the perception of the participant, but
rather we can assume that anyone engaging in that activity is playing.) In
suggesting implications which can be drawn from the flow model, the
author suggests several practical settings (e.g., job and school contexts) be
restructured to provide flow activities. &dquo;These considerations suggest that
it is possible to order structured activities and situations in terms of
whether they are more or less intrinsically rewarding, depending on the
intensity of flow they allow a person to experience [p. 60].&dquo; The alternative
I would like to present is that structured settings be modified to allow the
individual the opportunity to interact in whatever manner is intrinsically
rewarding to himself, rather than to structure activities within the setting
to conform to what one individual feels would be enjoyable to others (see
Gramza, 1971, 1972).
At other points in his article, Csikzentmihalyi attributes intrinsic moti-
vation to the perception of the individual. He relents in the above argu-
ment in suggesting that &dquo;personality differences probably result in differ-
ential responsiveness to flow activities [p. 61].&dquo; In outlining the flow model
the author states that the objective nature of the activity itself is not
enough to characterize a person as being &dquo;in flow,&dquo; but rather the subjec-
tive evaluation of the individual must be considered.
I find further argument with some of the elements of the flow experi-
ences presented. In discussing the interaction of action and awareness as a
crucial variable indicating the onset of flow, the author states that &dquo;flow is

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 85

difficult to maintain for any length of time without at least momentary

interruptions.&dquo; Any naive observer of children’s play, or that of adults for
that matter, could describe the long and continuous durations of activity
sometimes with only one object. (This has been found in animal play also.
See Beach, 1945; Berlyne, 1960; Harlow, Harlow, & Meyer, 1950). At a
later point in the article, Csikszentmihalyi writes that nonflow states are
also difficult to sustain for any appreciable length. How then, does this
element become a meaningful way to distinguish between flow and
nonflow activities?
2. Flow activities are described as most frequently appearing in activities
which present clearly defined boundaries and rules for action. If this were
true, we should see very little play in preschool children. Piaget (1932)
discusses the nature of rules in games as a context in which to examine the
development of morality in the child. According to Piaget’s formulation,
an appreciation and strict adherence to rules is not shown in children until
about the age of eight. Before this age, children progress from no restric-
tions in their playful interactions with others (egocentricity) to the recog-
nition of rules but amenable to the child’s own modifications without
justification.
3. In elaborating further on game structure, Csikszentmihalyi writes,
&dquo;... rules alone are not always enough to get a person involved with the
game. Hence the structure of games provides motivational elements which
will draw the player into play [p. 48].&dquo; The suggestion here is that there
exists an extrinsically based motivational cause, or at least reasons exter-
nal to the individual which induce participation. This seems to defy the
whole notion of intrinsic motivation presumed to motivate the individual
to participate in an activity. Again the assumption appears that the activity
itself defines the characterization of it as playful, rather than the motive of
the player.
4. A further element of a flow experience is described as &dquo;loss of ego [p.
49].&dquo; Although it might seem to be a semantic argument, might I suggest
that instead this element be termed &dquo;ego-ful&dquo; if we conform to current
thinking that an intrinsically motivating activity is one initiated for the
individual’s own pleasure, one engaged in for the unique sense of enjoy-
ment it offers to the individual.
5. On a more theoretical level, the model presented is merely a restate-
ment, and less elegantly so, of optimal arousal theories (Hebb, 1955;
Helson, 1959; Lueba, 1955) and their application to play behavior as
stimulus- or arousal-seeking activity (Barnett, 1974; Ellis, 1969, 1973).
Within this framework play is presumed to be motivated by the need to

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86

maintain an optimal level of stimulation, or in Schultz’s (1965) term a

sensoristatic drive. Rather than varying states of stimulation being de-
pendent on either the objective challenges presented by the setting, or on
the level of skill development of the individual, a more general classifica-
tion is to view it as a function of varying degrees of informational uncer-
tainty (Berlyne, 1960; Hunt, 1963). The use of terms such as anxiety,
worry, and boredom place unnecessary limitations on the resultant states
of being sub- or supra-optimally aroused.
6. Finally, may I take issue with one of the latter parts of a statement
expressed in the paper, &dquo;... Most people need some inducement to parti-
cipate in flow activities, at least at the beginning, before they learn to be
sensitive to intrinsic rewards [p. 48].&dquo; Although there is little data to
suggest that play is genetically determined (although Maddi [1961] and
others argue that play be most appropriately considered a personality
dimension) there is no data to my knowledge to suggest either that play is
environmentally learned. In fact, the observation that infants play sug-
gests some discrepancy to this statement. It would seem a more useful
starting point to assume that the ability to play is in actuality innate rather
than to assume it is not and place qualitiative value judgments on the
typology of play as the child develops.
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