Negative Feedback That Is Inconsistent With Academic Self-Concept Prolongs the Stress Response to Academic Challenges

• In Event: Noncognitive Correlates of Stress and Resilience Among Students and Teachers

Abstract

In the present study, heart rate recovery from a mental arithmetic task was examined after participants received bogus performance-related feedback that could be consistent or inconsistent with their academic self-concept about mental arithmetic skills. That way, participants' beliefs about their own performance in the task were experimentally manipulated. Recovery of heart rate was examined ten minutes after the task. The results indicate that negative performance-related feedback may prolong psychophysiological responses to stressful conditions, in particular when the feedback is inconsistent with the domain-specific self-concept. The results have implications for instructors: Unrealistically positive self-concepts may dispose people to perseverative cognition when exposed to performance situations. Instead, the acquisition of a realistic self-concept and proper interpretation and appraisal of feedback may help.

Authors

• Sigrid Wimmer, University of Graz

• Manuela Paechter, University of Graz

• Ilona Papousek, Karl-Franzens-University Graz

• Helmut Karl Lackner, University of Graz