Effects of self-efficacy and positive feedback on positive emotion and task performance

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that people with high self-efficacy displayed high performance when they receive negative feedback on the task. Recently, studies suggested that positive emotion was important for task performance. However, the relation between self-efficacy and positive emotion for task performance is unclear. We focused on the role of positive emotion and clarify the effect of self-efficacy and positive feedback on two different types of task performances. Thirty-one undergraduates were divided into high self-efficacy (HSE) and low self-efficacy (LSE) groups according to their scores on a generalized self-efficacy questionnaire. Participants in each group were randomly assigned to either positive feedback (PF) or neutral feedback (NF) conditions consisting of four conditions (HSE&PF, HSE&NF, LSE&PF, and LSE&NF). Participants started either one of the two tasks (the puzzle and the finding wrong words). After finishing the first trial performance of the first task, they received manipulated feedback about their performance and then filled a questionnaire about evaluating emotional (positive and negative) and cognitive aspects (e.g., task-specific self-efficacy, goal scores). Participants repeated this trial four times in each task. The result analyzed by three-way ANOVA showed that subjects under the PF condition obtained higher scores on all positive emotions compared with those under the NF condition in both tasks. Furthermore, those under the LSE&PF condition obtained higher performance, albeit only on the puzzle task. This finding suggests that PF may affect performance through positive emotion but depends on how high self-efficacy is and what type of tasks there are to perform.