Autonomy is our human need to perceive that we have choices

Routh Address
11 March 2024 

In 1949, Harry Harlow, a Psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin, conducted a two-week experiment with eight rhesus monkeys. The researchers designed a simple mechanical puzzle that required three steps: pulling out a vertical pin, undoing a hook, and lifting a hinged cover. While easy for humans, it posed a greater challenge for the average monkey.

The puzzles were placed in the monkeys’ cages to observe their reactions and assess their problem-solving abilities. Surprisingly, the monkeys spontaneously engaged with the puzzles, demonstrating focus, determination, and even enjoyment. By days 13 and 14 of the experiment, the primates had become highly skilled at solving the puzzles.

Nobody had taught the monkeys how to remove the pin, slide the hook, and open the cover. Even more importantly, nobody had rewarded them with food, affection, or even quiet applause when they were successful.


Harry Harlow’s monkeys engaged with puzzles that were just left with them, rather like a jigsaw left out on a table. They weren’t made to solve the puzzles, they weren’t rewarded for doing so, they appeared to fiddle with them and then eventually solve the puzzles simply because they were curious and found them interesting. I should add that you will have your own views regarding the rights and wrongs of using monkeys for experiments like that.

I wonder how many of us leapt out of bed this morning, filled with enthusiasm at the prospect of another day at school…another day to learn more and to perform even better than last week. Reflecting on the last piece of prep we completed, perhaps yesterday, I wonder how many of us found it so interesting that we spent extra time on it, read a bit more about the particular topic and wondered what would be covered next lesson.

On the contrary, how many of us, when given a task to complete do so well enough, but, if we’re honest, a high priority is simply to get the job done and move onto something more interesting.

Coming back to the monkeys and their puzzles, before 1949, scientists thought that there were essentially two motives to drive the behaviour of primates:

The first was biological drive: humans and other animals seek to satisfy their hunger, drink to quench their thirst, reproduce, and so on. But that wasn’t what was happening in Harry Harlow’s experiment. Solving the puzzle didn’t lead to food, water, or meet any other biological need.

But that was OK because psychologists had long accepted that there was a second main driver of behaviour. If biological motivations are internal, this second drive is external: it comes from rewards and punishments, often known as carrots and sticks. But this didn’t account for the monkeys’ performance either. No one was encouraging or rewarding the monkeys for solving the puzzle, rather they chose to engage with it voluntarily.

So, if it wasn’t food, thirst or some other natural influence…nor was it carrot or stick, what was it that drove the monkeys to solve the puzzle?

To answer the question, Harlow offered a new theory—which amounted to a third drive: The performance of the task, he said, provided intrinsic reward. In other words, the monkeys solved the puzzles simply because they found it gratifying to solve the puzzles. They enjoyed it. The intrinsic motivation, the joy of the task was its own reward.

Clearly, we are not rhesus monkeys, but all of this is important as we try to find what motivates us and indeed, find ways to motivate others. As some of you may have read, the science of human motivation tells us that alongside those biological imperatives (food, water, etc) and extrinsic (carrot/stick) motivations, people are motivated to satisfy three psychological needs: autonomy, relatedness, and competence:

• Autonomy is our human need to perceive that we have choices. We need to feel that what we are doing is because we have decided to do it – not simply that we have been made to do it.

• Secondly, relatedness is our need to care for and be cared about by others. It is our need to feel connected to others without concerns about ulterior motives. It is our need to feel that we are contributing to something greater than ourselves. So, for example for teachers, this is a hugely powerful motivation. We want to feel that we are making a difference, a positive difference, by influencing young lives for the better.

• And finally: competence: the feeling that comes when we can successfully do our job, solve problems, become good at something…just like those monkeys felt about their puzzles.

So, to state the obvious, all of us perform better when we are motivated to do our very best, and we are mainly motivated to do that not by others or by reward, but because we gain satisfaction from what we are doing. So find joy in the tasks we have to do; see the purpose, see the challenge and in time, you will see success. And, as regards those of you who are thinking about future subject, university or career choices – choose to do the things you love and which are interesting, because if you do, you’re likely to do achieve the most you can.