Empirically-oriented psychologists have identified and investigated three cardinal self-evaluation motives (or self-motives) relevant to the development, maintenance, and modification of self-views.
[2] By doing this, people seek to boost the (self-evaluated) positivity of themselves or to decrease its negativity, hence increasing their levels of self-esteem with the aim of having others see them as more socially desirable.
[4] Feedback is sought to increase the accuracy and objectivity of previously formed self-conceptions.
[1] The self-verification motive asserts that what motivates people to engage in the self-evaluation process is the desire to verify their pre-existing self-conceptions,[4] maintaining consistency between their previously formed self-conceptions and any new information that could be important to the self (feedback)[3] By doing this, people get the sense of control and predictability in the social world.
On the other hand, cognitive responses lead to favourable feedback being judged as more accurate, but only in the case of modifiable traits.
[1] The self-assessment motive postulates that people want to have an accurate view of their abilities and personality traits.
[6] Cognitive responses guide the self-verification motive partially depending on their previously formed self-concept.