Assessment of abilities, opinions, and overall feelings of self-worth, are commonly acknowledged to be influenced by how ones’ attributes compare with those of other people. In contemporary social psychology, this process is known as social comparison or interpersonal comparison. Originally published in 1991, this volume presents the most recent developments in this field of study at the time. As described in the chapters the theory has gone through several iterations, taken on new problems and research paradigms, and reached out to other social-psychological areas of study. Some of this research addresses questions that are logical extensions of Festinger’s theory; some consider questions that derive from entirely different ways of construing the comparison process from Festinger’s original approach. Although all questions are not settled, the work presented here shows how far the original social comparison theory has evolved and suggests where the next insights are likely to be found. Today it can be read in its historical contex
Contributors. Introduction. Part I: General Models of Social Comparison 1. A Brief History of Social Comparison Theory Ladd Wheeler 2. Serving Self-Relevant Goals Through Social Comparison Joanne V. Wood and Kathryn L. Taylor 3. Similarity and Self-Esteem in Downward Comparison Thomas Ashby Wills 4. Changing Patterns of Comparative Behavior as Skills Are Acquired: A Functional Model of Self-Evaluation Diane N. Ruble and Karin S. Frey 5. Emotion in Social Comparison and Reflection Processes Abraham Tesser Part II: Social Cognition and Social Comparison 6. The Uniqueness Bias: Studies of Constructive Social Comparison George R. Goethals, David M. Messick and Scott T. Allison 7. Social Projection and Attitudinal Certainty Norman Miller, Sharon Gross and Rolf Holtz 8. Self-Esteem and Intergroup Comparisons: Toward a Theory of Collective Self-Esteem Riia Luhtanen and Jennifer Crocker Part III: Specific Models of Comparison 9. Responses to Upward and Downward Social Comparisons: The Impact of Esteem-Relevance and Perceived Control Brenda Major, Maria Testa and Wayne H. Bylsma 10. Social Comparison Processes in Envy and Jealousy Peter Salovey 11. When Social Comparison Goes Awry: The Case of Pluralistic Ignorance Dale T. Miller and Cathy McFarland Part IV: Applied Models of Social Comparison 12. Downward Comparison and Coping with Threat Frederick X. Gibbons and Meg Gerrard 13. Comparisons, Justice, and the Internment of Japanese-Americans Donna Nagata and Faye Crosby 14. Social Comparison and Coping with Major Medical Problems Glenn Affleck and Howard Tennen Part V 15. Commentary: Neo-Social Comparison Theory and Beyond Thomas Ashby Wills and Jerry Suls. Author Index. Subject Index.
Jerry Suls and Thomas Ashby Wills.
