The Ups and Downs of Thinking About a Successful Other: Self Construals and the Consequences of Social Comparisons

We hypothesized that the consequences of upward social comparisons are mediated by independent versus interdependent content of self-construals. Independent self-construals emphasize personal uniqueness; thus comparison to an outstanding other should undermine one's sense of uniqueness and lower current self-evaluations. Conversely, interdependent self-construals focus on interpersonal connectedness. Hence, interdependent individuals should be able to bask in the reflected success of a personally relevant other in an upward comparison task, thus increasing self-evaluations. In a study involving 66 US undergraduates the latter predictions were supported. The psychological dimension of interdependence predicted differential outcomes of upward social comparisons, but this was not the case for the dimension of independence. Also, differential consequences of social comparison were more pronounced for current self-evaluations than for participants' possible selves. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[1]  Joel Ager,et al.  A Socially Contextualized Model of African American Identity: Possible Selves and School Persistence , 1995 .

[2]  H. Markus,et al.  The Sociocultural Self , 1993 .

[3]  T. Singelis,et al.  The Measurement of Independent and Interdependent Self-Construals , 1994 .

[4]  S. Cross,et al.  The relational-interdependent self-construal and relationships. , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[5]  Norbert Schwarz,et al.  Constructing reality and its alternatives: an inclusion/ exclusion model of assimilation and contrast effects in social judgment , 1992 .

[6]  A. Buunk.  Social comparison and occupational stress: the identification-contrast model , 1997 .

[7]  L. Festinger.  A Theory of Social Comparison Processes , 1954 .

[8]  Robert Bontempo,et al.  Translation Fidelity of Psychological Scales , 1993 .

[9]  Shelley E. Taylor,et al.  The affective consequences of social comparison: either direction has its ups and downs. , 1990, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[10]  Z. Kunda,et al.  Superstars and me : Predicting the impact of role models on the self , 1997 .

[11]  M. Gelfand,et al.  Horizontal and Vertical Dimensions of Individualism and Collectivism: A Theoretical and Measurement Refinement , 1995 .

[12]  S. E. Taylor,et al.  Social comparison activity under threat: downward evaluation and upward contacts. , 1989, Psychological review.

[13]  H. Markus,et al.  Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. , 1991 .

[14]  A. Tesser.  Reproductions Supplied by Edrs Are the Best That Can Be Made * * from the Original Document. toward a Self-evaluation Maintenance Model of Social Behavior* , 2007 .

[15]  R. Cialdini,et al.  Basking in Reflected Glory: Three (Football) Field Studies , 1976 .

[16]  B. Major,et al.  Responses to upward and downward social comparisons: The impact of esteem-relevance and perceived control , 1991 .

[17]  D. Oyserman.  The lens of personhood: Viewing the self and others in a multicultural society. , 1993 .

[18]  M. Brewer,et al.  Self-evaluation effects of interpersonal versus intergroup social comparison. , 1994, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[19]  H. Markus.  Self-schemata and processing information about the self. , 1977 .

[20]  R. Collins.  For Better or Worse: The Impact of Upward Social Comparison on Self-Evaluations , 1996 .

[21]  F. Strack,et al.  The "relative self": informational and judgmental consequences of comparative self-evaluation. , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[22]  S. Cross,et al.  Models of the self: self-construals and gender. , 1997, Psychological bulletin.

[23]  C. I. Hovland,et al.  Social Judgment: Assimilation and Contrast Effects in Communication and Attitude Change , 1981 .

[24]  K. Gergen,et al.  Social comparison, self-consistency, and the concept of self. , 1970, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[25]  L. L. Martin,et al.  Set/reset: use and disuse of concepts in impression formation. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[26]  J. Richards,et al.  When Gulliver travels : social context, psychological closeness, and self-appraisals , 1992 .

[27]  A. Tesser,et al.  Emotion in social comparison and reflection processes. , 1991 .

[28]  D T Gilbert,et al.  When comparisons arise. , 1995, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[29]  B. Pelham,et al.  The waxing and waning of the social self: Assimilation and contrast in social comparison. , 1995 .