This study examined the effects of giving performance feedback in an administrative or developmental format on subsequent performance, affect, and attributions for performance. Administrative feedback led to improvements in accuracy but not in speed, whereas developmental feedback led to improvements in speed but not in accuracy. This improved speed of performance on the primary task, after developmental feedback was accompanied by improved performance on a secondary task, suggested that developmental feedback led to a general increase in motivation. Combining both types of feedback did not improve or reduce performance, but it did lead to less favorable emotional reactions than receiving either type of feedback separately. In addition, conveying negative feedback in a developmental manner did not damage "supervisory-subordinate" relations and led to some reductions in defensive attributions for failure.