The Role of Feedback in Psychological/Emotional Well-Being: A Study on Research Assistants

Abstract

The aim of the study is to examine the role of feedback and intrinsic motivation on research assistants' psychological and emotional well-being. First, an Effective Feedback Scale adapted to sampling was developed through expert opinions, focus group interviews and piloting. Afterwards, a field survey was conducted, and two separate models were tested on the data of 278 research assistants to examine the effect of the feedback received from academic advisors (feedback of academic advisor, FAA) and department heads (feedback of department heads, FDH) with the structural equation modeling approach. It was found that the FDH is more effective than the FAA on the emotional well-being of research assistants in the workplace. The FAA has a greater impact on the psychological well-being and intrinsic motivation of research assistants than the FDH. The effect of feedback received from both groups was significant on intrinsic motivation, which increased both psychological and emotional well-being significantly. In addition, the feedback characteristics that had a positive effect on well-being were identified as allowing dialogue in giving feedback, giving it for development and assistance, its being objective and positive, and including a solution proposal.