4-social comparison

Downward social comparison

-Enhances self-esteem -Increases resilience Examples Parents get kids to eat vegetables Cancer patients Your past self?

Upward social comparison

-Fuels aspirations & ambitions -May also be hurtful

Why do we seek the opinions of others?

- We want everyone to like the same things (feel the same way) we do. - Or, to like the same things they do. - Because much of reality is subjective

To whom do we compare ourselves?

-Strangers? -Close others? -Similar others -In-group members Inmates to inmates, guards to guards Age group peers Against peers in specific domains or abilities

What predicts making more social comparisons?

1. "Chronically activated self" High self-consciousness 2. Interpersonal orientation Empathy, sensitivity, interdependence Interest in what makes others "tick" 3. Negative affect, self-uncertainty, low self-esteem, neuroticism

How can we know when someone is making social comparisons?

Awareness may be low. Report may be low. Increases competition Sometimes socially inappropriate Examples: between friends in cancer patients

Social Comparison:

The process through which we compare ourselves with others in order to determine whether our view of social reality is or is not correct. -Leon Festinger

Daryl J. Bem Self-Perception Theory (1972)

What do we do when our feelings and attitudes are uncertain? Understand ourselves as we would anyone else