On Knowing When to Engage: How Activation of Self-motives Moderates the Relationship between Self-esteem and Task Performance

Evidence of a relationship between self-esteem and performance has been inconclusive; this suggests that there are additional factors moderating this relationship. One such factor could be self-motives. The present study investigated the effect of activating these motives on performance in participants of varying levels of self-esteem. Two studies were conducted to test the effect of self-assessment motive (Study 1) and self-enhancement or self-improvement motives (Study 2) on the aforementioned relationship. Results showed that self-esteem was related to performance only when execution of the task was relevant to the fulfillment of self-motives. Self-esteem turned out to be unrelated to performance in the control groups that received no motive activation. Thus, this study provides evidence of the moderating effect of self-motives on the relationship between self-esteem and performance, with potential of other classes of factors to be investigated in further studies.