Introduction: Motivational climate is the situational structure of goals through which success or failure is judged in the social environment. This study aimed at examining the relationship between perceived motivational climate and intrinsic motivation of medical students. It was hypothesized that perceived mastery climate predicted medical students’ intrinsic motivation positively and perceived performance climate predicted it negatively.
Methods: The design was a cross-sectional study. The Iranian version of two instruments for measuring intrinsic motivation and perceived motivational climate were completed by 232 medical students. In order to identify the predictability relationship between the research variables, structure equation modeling was adopted.
Results: Investigations revealed that perceived mastery climate positively and meaningfully predicted medical students’ intrinsic motivation (0.85). Perceived performance climate negatively predicted medical students’ intrinsic motivation (-0.47).
Conclusion: Building mastery climate in a learning environment promotes medicine students’ intrinsic motivation.