Date of Graduation

Spring 2017

Degree

Master of Science in Psychology

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

Michelle Visio

Abstract

Performance feedback is an important part of employee development. Performance feedback is often administered incorrectly which can be damaging to the employee. Self-compassion training is proposed as a means to mitigate the negative effects associated with receiving damaging performance feedback. Self-compassion priming was used as a method to increase feedback acceptance among individuals with perfectionistic tendencies. Participants (n = 938) were given a measure of perfectionism and then asked to complete a proofreading task containing either a self-compassion prime or a neutral topic. Positive and negative feedback was randomly assigned. Participants then filled out an internal self-compassion measure as well as a feedback acceptance measure. A moderated moderation analysis was conducted to determine if self-compassion priming increased the level of self-compassion among individuals with perfectionistic tendencies and, thus, increased feedback acceptance. No significant effects were found for self-compassion priming as a moderator. However, reported self-compassion level was approaching significance as a moderator in increasing negative feedback acceptance. Findings suggest that future research could focus on a long term self-compassion training intervention as a means to increase feedback acceptance among individuals with perfectionistic tendencies.

Keywords

perfectionism, self-compassion, feedback acceptance, priming, MTURK

Subject Categories

Psychology

Copyright

© Alise Sue Ellen Kottman

Open Access

Included in

Psychology Commons

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