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Maximizing the Effectiveness of Negative Feedback Through Mindfulness

Thoebes, Gina Phelps
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7772-016X
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1731283479301191

Abstract Details

2024, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, Psychology-Industrial/Organizational.
Negative feedback, when done right, can be a powerful learning and performance enhancing tool. Yet, despite the inherent instrumental value in negative feedback, negative feedback interventions are not always effective. Building off existing research on the feedback appraisal process, I asserted that negative feedback being perceived as a threat gets in the way of people being able to learn and grow from negative feedback. By elaborating on existing process models of feedback, I identified the anticipation stage as a key point during which these threat perceptions may be impacted. Specifically, I theorized that two antecedents, a recipient’s anxiety and self-enhancement motive, at this stage will influence how much the negative feedback message is appraised as a threat. Further, I asserted that these threat-related cognitions and affect may be minimized by the experience of state mindfulness. Practicing mindfulness prior to receiving a negative feedback message may help a feedback recipient perceive less threat from the feedback, enhancing their ability to learn and grow from the feedback. I theorized that being in a more mindful state prior to receiving feedback will lead to less experienced anxiety and ego-driven motives, facilitating more positive feedback reactions. The main purpose of this dissertation was to test if a short-dose virtually administered mindfulness induction could be leveraged to improve people’s reaction to negative feedback. An experiment was designed and conducted to test if a short-dose virtually administered mindfulness intervention can enhance the effectiveness of negative feedback. Results provided preliminary support for the ability of a short-dose virtually administered mindfulness induction to positively impact people’s motivation to use feedback to improve. Participants who participated in the mindfulness induction prior to feedback showed more motivation to use the feedback to improve in the next round. Unfortunately, the mindfulness induction worked for some, but not all, of the participants in the mindfulness condition, limiting the results of the induction found beyond this effect. However, exploratory analyses that when people successfully cultivated mindfulness, there were additional benefits beyond increased motivation. Participants who successfully cultivated a state of mindfulness through the mindfulness induction experienced less anxiety, and through these reductions in anxiety, experienced less affective response to the perception of threat. This finding provides support for the assertion that mindfulness may help reduce the amount of threat perceived from a negative feedback message. Support was also found for the assertion that state anxiety and momentary self-enhancement motives in the anticipation stage of feedback play a key role in feedback processes. Both state anxiety and self-enhancement motives experienced prior to feedback impacted people’s affective and cognitive feedback reactions. Several unexpected findings were found in this study, including the potential positive impact that state anxiety and self-enhancement motives can play in the feedback process. The effects of the mindfulness induction of feedback processes were also more complex than anticipated, highlighting many fruitful avenues for future research.
James Diefendorff (Advisor)
328 p.
Psychology; Quantitative Psychology
Mindfulness; Feedback; self-evaluation motives; anxiety; reactions; effectiveness

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Thoebes, G. P. (2024). Maximizing the Effectiveness of Negative Feedback Through Mindfulness [Doctoral dissertation, University of Akron]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1731283479301191

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Thoebes, Gina. Maximizing the Effectiveness of Negative Feedback Through Mindfulness. 2024. University of Akron, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1731283479301191.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Thoebes, Gina. "Maximizing the Effectiveness of Negative Feedback Through Mindfulness." Doctoral dissertation, University of Akron, 2024. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1731283479301191

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

akron1731283479301191
16
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This open access ETD is published by University of Akron and OhioLINK.