How current feedback and chronic effectiveness influence motivation: everything to gain versus everything to lose

Abstract

We found that the effects on subsequent motivation of success and failure feedback are moderated by the extent to which individuals have been previously successful in promotion self- regulation (achieving their ideals) and prevention self- regulation (meeting their oughts). Specifically, we found that the more individuals are ideal congruent, the more their performance increases over time following success than failure feedback, whereas the more individuals are ought congruent, the more their performance increases over time following failure than success feedback. These findings have implications for research on the effects of feedback on motivation, as well as for the motivational significance of the expressions, ‘everything to gain’ and ‘everything to lose’. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.