The Effect of Negative Feedback on Motivation: A Meta-Analytic Investigation

• In Event: Promising Scholarship in Education: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

Although the most prominent view in psychological theory has been that negative feedback should generally have a detrimental impact on motivation, competing perspectives and caveats on this prominent view have suggested that negative feedback may sometimes have neutral or even positive effects on motivation. In fact, theory and research have pointed to a number of factors that may influence the direction and size of the effect, including the type and mode of feedback, task characteristics, and the characteristics of the feedback receiver and giver. Considerable research on this topic has accumulated over the last 40 years, but the evidence regarding both the overall effects of negative feedback on motivation, as well as the role of various moderators has been mixed or inconclusive. Given the uncertainty regarding the nature of negative feedback’s influence on motivation, a quantitative synthesis of research is needed. In particular, a research synthesis, including a meta-analysis, will provide an opportunity to examine both the direction and magnitude of the overall effect of negative feedback and provide a means for systematically reviewing the role of various moderating factors across all past research in an attempt to explain why variations in findings exist. A meta-analysis examining the effect of negative feedback on intrinsic motivation will serve to inform both psychological theory, as well as policy and practice across a variety of contexts. Given that individual motivation is both a desirable outcome in its own right and has been linked with other adaptive outcomes such as improved learning, performance, and well-being (Ryan & Deci, 2000), a nuanced understanding of how negative feedback may affect motivation is critical for making recommendations for supporting adaptive human functioning and development in classroom learning. Two research syntheses have analyzed the effects of positive feedback on motivation (Deci, Koesnter, & Ryan, 1999; Henderlong & Lepper, 2002), but a synthesis on the influence of negative feedback on motivation has yet to be conducted.
According to self-determination theory, Ryan and Deci (2000) posited that fundamental needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness underlie motivation; when these three needs are met, motivation will be enhanced. One of these needs, competence, is often determined by evaluative information or feedback given to an individual. Many studies have examined the differential effects of feedback sign on motivation (e.g., Epstein & Harackiewicz, 1992); however, the evidence regarding negative feedback and motivation is mixed. Although researchers have found that negative feedback decreases motivation (e.g., Deci & Cascio, 1972), other studies have suggested no change or even an increase in motivation after receiving negative feedback (e.g., Anderson & Rodin, 1989).

Author

• Carlton Jing Fong, The University of Texas - Austin