The Effect Of Social Comparison Feedback On Self-Evaluation Motive In The Collaborative Context

According to the SCENT model,self-evaluation is a fundamental aspect of human nature.There exists five kinds of self-evaluation motives of human's,including self-advancement,self-protection,self-improvement,self-assessment and self-verification.Individuals will adopt different sources of information to satisfy this motives.Specially,social comparison information is a universal way to access this kinds of information.The research consists of two experiments.On the basic of previous study,experiment 1revised and validated the Scale of Self-evaluation,and added two dimensions : selfassessment motive and self-verification motive,which is in line with the theory of SCENT.Experiment 1 also explored the effect of feedback valence on the self-evaluation motives preliminaryly.In experiment 2,200 undergraduates participated in this study,and the study had a 2(feedback valence: positive vs.negative)× 2(social comparison feedback: concrete vs.vague)between subjects factorial design to explore the effects of feedback valence and the concrete or vague social comparison target on five kinds of self-evaluation motives in collaborative context.Besides,experiment 2 also explored how feedback valence influence emotion(pride,fear,hostility,guilty,alertness)that are associated with self-evaluation,and self-advancement,self-protection,self-improvement,self-assessment and self-verification were considered as mediators,and social comparison feedback as moderator.The results of the study indicate that:Positive feedback can arose more self-evaluation motives.Concrete social comparison feedback can stir more self-improvement motive than vague social comparison feedback.Feedback valence with social comparison feedback have interaction effect on self-protection motive.self-improvement motive and self-verification motive.Specifically,positive feedback with concrete social comparison feedback arose moreself-protection motive;negative feedback with concrete social comparison feedback boosted more self-improvement motive;positive feedback with vague social comparison feedback arose more self-verification.Self-advancement motive mediated the relationship between feedback valence and pride emotion;and concrete and vague social comparison feedback moderated this indirect effect;self-protection motive mediated the relationship between feedback valence and fear emotion;and concrete and vague social comparison feedback moderated this indirect effect;social comparison target moderated the mediation effect of self-improvement on feedback valence and hostility emotion;self-assessment motive mediated the relationship between feedback valence and guilty.As compared with man,woman responded more strongly to the valence of feedback in terms of evoked self-advancement motive,pride and self-protection motive;whereas for man feedback valence generated more stronger effect on self-improvement motive than woman;man were more easily evoked self-verification motive than woman especially after they received vague social comparison feedback.