Understanding reactions to feedback by integrating ideas from symbolic interactionism and cognitive evaluation theory.

The first 2 experiments examined how interpersonal and objective feedback influenced targets' perceptions of performance, ability, and effort. Interpersonal feedback was more influential when objective feedback was intermediate than when it was high or low. Path analyses indicated that reflected appraisals entirely mediated influences of interpersonal feedback on self-perceptions and partially mediated influences of objective feedback on self-perceptions.