Effects of negative feedback focus and moral emotion proneness on self-efficacy beliefs, performance outcomes, and predictions

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the combined effects of feedback receiver’s moral emotion proneness characteristic and negative feedback content, namely selffocused and process-focused feedback on the receiver’s level of self-efficacy beliefs, performance outcomes and predictions in a sample of 120 Bogazici University students. Participants performed in two different tasks and those in the self-focused feedback and proces-focused feedback manipulation groups received a bogus negative feedback on their first performance in between the two tasks. All participants reported their level of self-efficacy related to each task and they made pre-task and global performance predictions. TOSCA scale was used to assess participants’ moral emotion proneness characteristics, namely their level of shameproneness and guilt-proneness. The results of the study did not reveal any combined effect of feedback receiver’s moral emotion proneness characteristic and negative feedback content, and therefore none of the hypotheses of the study were supported. Participants’ self-efficacy beliefs did not change following negative feedback. A main effect of feedback type on performance outcomes demonstrating the benefits of processfocused feedback in improving feedback receiver’s performance was found. The results of the analyses also pointed out to a main effect of feedback type on participants’ global predictions. Those who received either self-focused or processfocused feedback lowered their global estimates of their performances significantly more than those who did not receive any feedback.