Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Introduction: social comparison processes and levels of analysis
- Part 1 Cognition: comparison processes within and between individuals
- Part 2 Intergroup relations: comparison processes within and between groups
- Part 3 Culture: comparison processes within and across cultures
- Author index
- Subject index
- References
Introduction: social comparison processes and levels of analysis
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 October 2009
Edited by
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Introduction: social comparison processes and levels of analysis
- Part 1 Cognition: comparison processes within and between individuals
- Part 2 Intergroup relations: comparison processes within and between groups
- Part 3 Culture: comparison processes within and across cultures
- Author index
- Subject index
- References
Summary
“I do not know how far I differ from other people. That is another memoir writer's difficulty. Yet to describe oneself truly one must have some standard of comparison; was I clever, stupid, good looking, ugly, passionate, cold –? Owing partly to the fact that I was never at school, never competed in any way with children of my own age, I have never been able to compare my gifts and defects with other people's”
(Virginia Woolf, A sketch of the past, autobiographical writings of 1939)Fifty years ago, Festinger (1954) published a Theory of social comparison processes. Today, thirty-five social and cognitive psychologists who share a common interest in comparison processes combined their efforts to make this new book on the same topic a reality. Few theories in social psychology have stood the test of time as successfully as the theory of social comparison. Even today, major theoretical and empirical papers on social comparison processes are being published in the best scientific journals (for example, Buunk and Ybema, 2003; Markman and McMullen, 2003; Mugny, Butera, Quiamzade, Dragulescu and Tomei, 2003; Mussweiler, 2003; Spears, Gordijn, Dijksterhuis and Stapel, 2004; Stapel and Suls, 2004 and many others). How can one explain the tremendous amount of research that continues to investigate the psychological role of social comparison? What makes social comparison so important? These questions will be answered in the following chapters.
However, this book is not “only” about social comparison. It is also about social psychology.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Social Comparison and Social PsychologyUnderstanding Cognition, Intergroup Relations, and Culture, pp. 1 - 12Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005
References
and (1994). Self-evaluation effects of interpersonal versus intergroup social comparison. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 268–275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (2003). Feeling bad, but satisfied: The effects of upward and downward comparison upon mood and marital satisfaction. British Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 613–628.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (1989). Social stigma and self-esteem: The self protective properties of stigma. Psychological Review, 96, 608–630.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1986). Levels of explanation in social psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Forsyth, D. R. (2000). Social comparison and influence in groups. In and (eds.), Handbook of social comparison: Theory and research (pp. 81–104). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1999). Individual differences in social comparison: Development and validation of a measure of social comparison orientation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 129–142.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , and (2002). What's wrong with cross-cultural comparisons of subjective likert scales? The reference-group effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 903–918.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (2004). Personality and culture revisited: Linking traits and dimensions of culture. Cross-cultural Research, 38, 52–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hogg, M. A. (2000). Social identity and social comparison. In and (eds.), Handbook of social comparison: Theory and research (pp. 401–422). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1994). The role of stereotyping in system-justification and the production of false consciousness. British Journal of Social Psychology, 33, 1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1974). Social differentiation and social originality. European Journal of Social Psychology, 4, 17–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Long, K. and Spears, R. (1997). The self-esteem hypothesis revisited: Differentiation and the disaffected. In , , , and (eds.), The social psychology of stereotyping and group life (pp. 296–317). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
and (2003). A reflection and evaluation model of comparative thinking. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 7, 244–267.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , and (1993). Social psychology in cross-cultural perspective. New York: W. H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Monteil, J.-M. (1998). Contexte social et performances scolaires: Vers une théorie du feed-back de comparaison sociale. In , , and (eds.), 20 ans de psychologie sociale expérimentale francophone (pp. 151–187). Grenoble: Presses Universitaires de Grenoble.Google Scholar
and (1999). Social context and cognitive performance: Towards a social psychology of cognition. London: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
, , and (1994). Back to the future: Social psychological research on groups. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 30, 527–555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , , and (2003). Comparaisons sociales des compétences et dynamique d'influence sociale dans les tâches d'aptitudes. L'Année Psychologique, 104, 469–496.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2003). Comparison processes and social judgment: Mechanisms and consequences. Psychological Review, 110, 472–489.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(2003). The geography of thought: How Asians and Westerners think differently and why. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.Google Scholar
Pettigrew, T. F. (2002). Summing up: Relative deprivation as a key social psychological concept. In and (eds.), Relative deprivation: Specification, development and integration (pp. 351–373). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
and (2003). Impact des comparaisons ascendantes et descendantes sur l'estime de soi: importance de l'identité mise en jeu. L'Année Psychologique, 104, 411–444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and (2000). The intersection of self-evaluation maintenance and social identity theories: Intragroup judgment in interpersonal and intergroup contexts. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 1598–1606.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, E. R. (1993). Social identity and social emotions: Towards new conceptualizations of prejudice. In and (eds.), Affect, cognition and stereotyping (pp. 297–315). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
, , , and (2004). Reaction in action: Intergroup contrast in automatic behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 605–616.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (2004). Method matters: Effects of explicit versus implicit social comparisons on activation, behavior, and self-views. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 860–875.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Suls, J. (1986). Comparison processes in relative deprivation: A life-span analysis. In , , and (eds.), Relative deprivation and social comparison: The Ontario Symposium (pp. 95–116), Volume IV. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
and (eds.) (1977). Social comparison processes: Theoretical and empirical perspectives. Washington, DC: Hemisphere.Google Scholar
, and (eds.) (2000). Handbook of social comparison: Theory and research. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (eds.) (1991). Social comparison. Contemporary theory and research. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Tajfel, H. (1972). La catégorisation sociale. In (ed.), Introduction à la psychologie sociale (Volume I). Paris: Larousse.Google Scholar
(1974). Social identity and intergroup behavior. Social Science Information, 13, 65–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tajfel, H. and Turner, J. C. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behaviour. In and (eds.), Psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 7–24). Chicago: Nelson-Hall.Google Scholar
, , and (1989). Social comparison in an intergoup context. The Journal of Social Psychology, 129, 499–515.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1975). Social comparison and social identity: some prospects for intergroup behaviour. European Journal of Social Psychology, 5, 5–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , , and (1987). Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
, , , and (1994). Self and collective: Cognition and social context. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 454–463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wheeler, L. (2000). Individual differences in social comparison. In and (eds.), Handbook of social comparison: Theory and research (pp. 141–158). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woolf, V. (1976). A sketch of the past. In (ed.), Virginia Woolf–Moments of beings. Unpublished autobiographical writings (pp. 64–137). New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Zajonc, B. (1980). Cognition and social cognition: A historical perspective. In (ed.), Retrospections on social psychology (pp. 180–204). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
- 1
- Cited by