UNDERSTANDING REACTIONS TO FEEDBACK BY INTEGRATING IDEAS FROM SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM AND COGNITIVE EVALUATION THEORY

The first 2 experiments examined how interpersonal and objective feedback influenced targets' perceptions of performance, ability, and effort. Interpersonal feedback was more influential when objective feedback was intermediate than when it was high or low. Path analyses indicated that reflected appraisals entirely mediated influences of interpersonal feedback on self-perceptions and partially mediated influences of objective feedback on self-perceptions. The 3rd experiment presented targets with high or low evaluations of ability and effort and intermediate objective feedback. Ability feedback and objective feedback influenced self-perceptions of ability and intrinsic interest. Effort feedback influenced only self-perceptions of effort. Links among feedback, reflected appraisals, self-perceptions, intrinsic interest, and performance-related behaviors confirmed predictions of symbolic interactionism and cognitive evaluation theory.