scholarly journals Social comparison effects on academic self-concepts – Which peers matter most?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malte Jansen ◽  
Zsófia Boda ◽  
Georg Lorenz
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Socioeconomic Background ◽  
Social Selection ◽  
Selection Effects ◽  
Comparison Theory ◽  
Self Development ◽  
Specific Setting ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Class Average

Social comparisons with peers are important sources of self development during adolescence. Many previous studies showed that to form their academic self-concepts (ASC), students contrast their achievement with the average of their class or school (the Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect, BFLPE). Based on social comparison theory, however, we would expect some peers to be more likely social comparison targets because they are more visible or students perceive them as similar to themselves. In this study, we used sociometric data to analyze which peers play the most important role for social comparison effects on ASC. We examined how the average achievement of friends, study partners, popular peers as well as same-gender and same-ethnic peers affect the general ASC and how these effects compare to the effect of classroom average achievement. The study was based on a German longitudinal sample of 2,438 students from 117 school classes that were followed from Grade 9 to 10. As a novelty in ASC research, we applied methods for longitudinal social network analysis. . Our results do not confirm substantial incremental effects of specific peers, while class average achievement showed a stable negative effect (the BFLPE). In addition, we could provide evidence for social selection effects based on ASC. Controlling for endogenous network processes and similarity in achievement, gender, socioeconomic background, and ethnicity, students were more likely to select peers with similar ASCs as friends. We conclude that classrooms provide a specific setting that imposes social comparisons with the “generalized peer” rather than with specific subgroups of peers.

The effects of coworkers' development idiosyncratic deals on employees' cooperation intention

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Xiaoyan Zhang ◽  
Wenbing Wu ◽  
Yihua Zhang ◽  
Hui Deng ◽  
Yuanyuan Lan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Equity Theory ◽  
Task Interdependence ◽  
Idiosyncratic Deals ◽  
Comparison Theory ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
And Task

Idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) are individualized agreements of a nonstandard nature negotiated between employers and employees regarding employment terms, which are regarded as being beneficial for the organization. On the bases of social comparison theory and equity theory, we hypothesized that witnessing the development i-deals of their coworkers would trigger employees' feeling of unfairness, causing lower cooperation intention. We further hypothesized that perceived future i-deals and task interdependence would play moderating roles in this reduction. Participants were 284 employees in China. The results show that feelings of unfairness mediated the relationship between witnessing development i-deals and the witnesses' cooperation intention. The positive relationship between witnessing development i-deals and feelings of unfairness was weaker when employees perceived a stronger possibility of themselves obtaining a future i-deal, and a high level of task interdependence weakened the negative effect of feelings of unfairness on employees' cooperation intention.

Elderly Wellbeing and the Psychology of Social Comparison

1994 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol A. Sherrard
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Professional Group ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Comparison Theory ◽  
Physical Decline ◽  
Class Differences ◽  
Manual Group ◽  
Gender And Health ◽  
Significant Class

ABSTRACTTwenty-two elderly retired people were interviewed for their beliefs about the sources of wellbeing in old age. Manual and Professional social class responses were compared, controlling for age, gender and health status. Respondents' free discourse was characterised by spontaneous social comparisons of the self with other people. In Social Comparison Theory, these serve as a means of self-assessment or wellbeing-enhance-ment. The comparison statements were analysed by Direction, Target, Dimension, and Wellbeing Yield. Significant class differences were apparent. Both groups compared Downward with others on the Dimensions of ageing, longevity, keeping active, security, and money. The Manual group derived less wellbeing from their Downward comparisons, many of which focused on entitlement to money benefits. The Professional group made more Upward comparisons, focusing on the younger self as Target, and yielding neutral or negative wellbeing. The predominant Upward Dimensions were perceived cognitive and physical condition. The Professionals tended to rationalise cognitive decline, but neither group showed psychological defence against physical decline, using social comparison as a means to objective self-assessment rather than self-enhancement.

Consistency in Choice of Social Referent

2000 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 925-934 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chung-Leung Luk ◽  
Wendy W. N. Wan ◽  
Julian C. L. Lai
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
University Students ◽  
Social Comparison ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Social Comparison Theory ◽  
Full Time ◽  
School Students ◽  
Comparison Theory ◽  
Part Time

Similarity has been an important but ill-defined concept in social comparison theory. For social comparisons of competence, similarity should be defined within the same evaluative social context, for example, the same school for students or the same workplace for workers. 104 postsecondary school students, 96 full-time university students, and 81 part-time mature university students were recruited to participate in this study. They filled out a questionnaire to indicate whether they compared themselves with each of 11 categories of social referent in each of 10 domains of competence. Comparers preferred to choose those in the same evaluative social context as referents for social comparisons in domains of competence, and their comparisons with dissimilar others were rare. This preference was consistent across the three different samples.

WHEN DOWNWARD COMPARISON PRODUCES NEGATIVE AFFECT: THE SENSE OF CONTROL AS A MODERATOR

2001 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 427-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Michinov
Keyword(s):  
Negative Affect ◽  
Social Comparison ◽  
Individual Difference ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Sense Of Control ◽  
Affective Reactions ◽  
Comparison Theory ◽  
Difference Factor ◽  
Downward Comparison ◽  
The Relationship

It has been assumed that engaging in upward or downward comparison can either improve or deteriorate affect, depending on the amount of control individuals feel they have over the comparison dimension. The main goal of the present study was to determine whether an individual difference factor such as the sense of control can moderate the relationship between social comparison and affect. The results showed that for downward comparison, the lower the participants scored on the sense of control, the higher the negative affect they experienced. Unexpectedly, the sense of control was unrelated to affect in upward comparison. Additional results indicated that identification with the comparison targets had an impact on negative affect. This study provides evidence that the sense of control may be useful in understanding affective reactions to social comparisons. The theoretical implications in downward comparison theory are discussed.

Looking Up and Ahead

2019 ◽  
pp. 52-76
Author(s):  
Jerry Suls ◽  
Ladd Wheeler
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Major Focus ◽  
Comparison Theory ◽  
Original Theory ◽  
Proxy Model ◽  
Self Knowledge

This chapter describes how integrating attribution processes with social comparison theory resolves some long-standing ambiguities about the role of similarity and motives in Festinger’s original theory. The Goethals and Darley attributional reformulation, which clarified some of these ambiguities, is first described, along with a brief survey of empirical evidence. Then, the proxy model of ability comparison and the triadic model of opinion comparison, which expand on the attributional reformulation, are reviewed. A major focus of proxy and the triadic theories is identifying the specific questions social comparisons can answer: “Can I do X?”, “Am I correct about X?”, “Do I like or agree with X?”, and “Will I like X?” A central theme is that the tendency to compare to those who perform better or ahead of us (i.e., tried “X” before we did) is adaptive. This approach leads us to the conclusion that motives for self-knowledge and for self-enhancement, which have long been considered to be opposing motives, are intertwined.

scholarly journals Idealized Female Beauty, Social Comparisons, and Awareness Intervention Material

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 188-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Arendt ◽  
Christina Peter ◽  
Julia Beck
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Disordered Eating ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Media Effect ◽  
Ideal Self ◽  
Female Beauty ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Artificial Nature ◽  
The Ideal

Abstract. Previous research indicates that exposure to the idealized thin media standard of female beauty can contribute to body dissatisfaction, negative self-perception, depressed mood, and disordered eating. Importantly, studies have revealed that social comparison processes underlie this negative media effect: Women routinely compare themselves with the encountered mass-mediated thin ideals, which, in turn, elicits negative consequences. While there are a multitude of studies on this topic, little is known about how this negative effect can be counteracted. We tested whether watching an awareness intervention video highlighting the artificial nature of mass-mediated idealized female beauty reduces social comparison processes in a subsequent situation. As a replication of previous research, we found that exposure to the awareness intervention material reduced social comparison processes. Supplementary analysis revealed that this effect was mediated through a change in the ideal self: Watching the awareness material elicited a more realistic perception of the specific body that individuals ideally wanted to possess. This more realistic ideal-self standard, in turn, reduced social comparison processes.

scholarly journals (How Much) Do Temporal Social Comparisons Matter?

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (5) ◽  
pp. 314-319
Author(s):  
Roman Briker ◽  
Frank Walter
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Small Sample Size ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Complete Understanding ◽  
Temporal Perspective ◽  
Comparison Theory ◽  
Significance Levels ◽  
Salient Dimension ◽  
Over Time

Abstract. Moving beyond static perspectives in social comparison theory, Reh and colleagues (2018) provided initial evidence for the relevance of “temporal social comparisons” (i.e., comparing one’s own with others’ past development over time on a salient dimension). Although this research has received wide attention, the study illustrating the authors’ basic rationale (Study 1a) suffered from a small sample size, and its results did not reach conventional significance levels. Thus, we provide a direct, preregistered, and high-powered replication of this study. Our results corroborate the original conclusions, indicating that unfavorable temporal social comparisons evoke social undermining in more (but not less) competitive contexts. These findings reiterate the importance of a dynamic, temporal perspective for a complete understanding of social comparison processes.

It’s All Relative: A Team-Based Social Comparison Model for Self-Evaluations of Effectiveness

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-395
Author(s):  
Jaclyn A. Margolis ◽  
Scott B. Dust
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Organizational Context ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Target Selection ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Comparison Process ◽  
Comparison Theory ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Social Comparison Process

We apply social comparison theory (SCT) to the organizational context and develop a model explicating the social comparison process that occurs within organizational teams. In doing so, we highlight how individual, team, and managerial factors influence this process. First, we discuss how task-related (e.g., functional background and experience) and demographic-related (e.g., age, gender, and race) team characteristics affect social comparison target selection (i.e., the team as a whole, a subgroup, or a specific individual) and further explain the impact of metacognitive capacities on this referent selection process. Next, we explore how team norms of collaboration versus competition affect whether employees assimilate or contrast, respectively, during social comparisons. Subsequently, we highlight how managers influence the proposed social comparison process. Finally, we discuss how social comparisons can be productive or unproductive for team members’ organization-based self-esteem (OBSE). We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of our model and offering avenues for future research.

Envy and Social Comparison

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels van de Ven ◽  
Marcel Zeelenberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Past Work ◽  
Good Fortune ◽  
Malicious Envy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Upward Social Comparison

Upward social comparison can give rise to the emotion of envy: the pain caused by the good fortune of others. We explain what envy is, and what the possible function of envy is to an organism experiencing it. We provide an overview of past work on envy, the distinction between two subtypes (benign and malicious envy), possible antecedents of envy, possible consequences of envy, and the responses to being envied by others. In each of these areas there are clear links to research on social comparison, and research on envy has greatly benefitted from insights from the social comparison literature. Given the surge in research on envy in the last decade, we hope that the findings on envy can also inspire those investigating social comparisons.

The causal relationship between envy and depression: A cross-lagged regression analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (12) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Xinsheng Jiang ◽  
Jinyu Wang
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Social Comparison ◽  
Causal Relationship ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Gender Effect ◽  
Comparison Theory ◽  
Treatment Of Depression ◽  
Nonclinical Sample ◽  
Upward Social Comparison ◽  
The Relationship

The causal relationship between envy and depression is currently far from clear. We conducted a cross-lagged regression analysis of data on envy and depression, obtained from a nonclinical sample of 260 undergraduate students at two time points spaced 14 months apart. From the perspective of social comparison theory, the results show that although after 14 months envy positively predicted depression, depression did not predict envy. The envy–depression relationship is, thus, a unidirectional causality. In addition, there was no overall gender effect on the relationship between envy and depression. Our finding of the effect of upward social comparison on the envy–depression relationship provides guidance for the treatment of depression in clinical practice.

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