The effects of evaluative context on performance: The roles of social and self-evaluations

In this study it was proposed that evaluative situations influence individual performance by raising concerns about self- and social evaluations. When an individual performs a task, the individual’s performance may be subject to 2 types of evaluation: self-evaluation and evaluation by others. Often, the basis of evaluation is the performance of others, i.e., social comparison. In such cases, an individual may increase performance to protect self- and social-esteem. Further, the individual’s sensitivity to esteem threats, as measured by identity orientation, may moderate the performance increase. In this study performance was examined in 2 evaluative situations: peer groups and goal setting. Experimental results support the proposed theory in the case of peer evaluations. Regarding goals, results suggest that self-evaluation may not contribute to performance increases associated with goal setting.