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4 - Comparing oneself over time: the temporal dimension in social comparison

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

By
Sandrine Redersdorff  and
Serge Guimond
Edited by
Serge Guimond
Sandrine Redersdorff
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale et Cognitive (CNRS), Université Blaise Pascal Clermont-Ferrand France
Serge Guimond
Affiliation:
Professor of Psychology, Université Blaise Pascal Clermont-Ferrand France
Serge Guimond
Affiliation:
Université de Clermont-Ferrand II (Université Blaise Pascal), France
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Summary

“The knowledge of some other part of the stream, past or future, near or remote, is always mixed in with our knowledge of the present”

James (1890/1950)

The temporal dimension of our life, as suggested by James (1890), appears to be an important key to understand and examine the present. Nonetheless, in presenting his theory, Festinger (1954) described the process of social comparison without taking into account the temporal dimension. Several years later, Albert (1977) pointed out that a theory of temporal comparison could be developed along the same line as that developed on social comparison. Albert's (1977) theory of comparison processes is a temporal translation of social comparison theory, in which processes that occur between different individuals at one point in time are assumed to apply to a single person comparing himself or herself at various points in time. The role of temporal comparison has received far less empirical attention than that of social comparison (Wedell and Parducci, 2000). Yet, recent research suggests that temporal comparison may often be more important psychologically than social comparison. Is it really the case? Is it possible to distinguish empirically processes of temporal and social comparisons, or are they always inter-related? What type of temporal comparisons are important, comparisons with the past or comparisons with the future? In order to start answering these questions, this chapter provides an overview of existing research on temporal-self comparison. We begin with the problem of defining a process of temporal comparison.

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Social Comparison and Social Psychology
Understanding Cognition, Intergroup Relations, and Culture
 , pp. 76 - 96
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

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