The Role of Self-Esteem and Self-Efficacy in Detecting Responses to Feedback

Our research on the relationships between individual differences, feedback seeking, and reactions to feedback sought to identify and clarify the existing state of knowledge concerning these relationships. We identified five individual difference variables that have historically been included in empirical feedback studies. These are self-esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control, achievement need, and tolerance for ambiguity. Within the identified research, feedback-related responses were classified into five categories affective reactions to feedback e.g., satisfaction with the feedback, cognitive reactions to feedback e.g., perceived accuracy, feedback monitoring i.e., using indirect methods such as observing others to gain some performance information, feedback seeking i.e., asking others for feedback, and other behaviors often including performance following the receipt of feedback. The results of this investigation are summarized in Appendices A through E. In each appendix, the relationship between an individual difference and the responses given above are outlined. More specifically, the results for self-esteem are contained in Appendix A, for self-efficacy in Appendix B, for locus of control in appendix C, for tolerance for ambiguity in Appendix D, and need for achievement in Appendix E.