Inspiration or defeat: the motivational and evaluative impact of social comparison on dysphoric individuals
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Catherine Majestic (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Kari Eddington
Abstract: People compare themselves to others in order to evaluate their abilities and opinions, yet the literature is mixed on how these social comparisons impact people's emotions, self-evaluation, and motivation. There were two primary aims of the present study. The first aim was to examine the impact of upward social comparisons (i.e., comparing oneself to someone who is believed to be more skilled or more fortunate) on self-evaluation and motivation. The second aim was to examine the influence of dysphoria in the relation between social comparison and both self-evaluation and motivation after partialling out the effects of self-esteem. Undergraduate students varying in levels of dysphoria were asked to read either an impressive student resume (upward comparison) or an average student resume (lateral comparison) prior to answering other- and self-evaluation questions and performing a brief anagram task to assess motivation. We predicted that after partialling out the effects of self-esteem, people who report higher dysphoria will evaluate themselves more negatively following an upward (but not a lateral) comparison than people who report lower dysphoria. We also predicted that after partialling out the effects of self-esteem, people who report higher dysphoria will display less motivation, as evidenced by correctly solving fewer anagrams, following an upward (but not a lateral) comparison than people who report lower dysphoria will. Results did not show a significant interactive effect of dysphoria on either the relation between social comparison and self-evaluation or the relation between social comparison and motivation. However, results did indicate a main effect of self-esteem (ß = .71, p < .001) and comparison (ß = -.13, p < .05) on self-evaluation.
Inspiration or defeat: the motivational and evaluative impact of social comparison on dysphoric individuals
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Created on 5/1/2013
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2013
- Keywords
- Dysphoria, Motivation, Self-Evaluation, Social Comparison
- Subjects
- Social comparison
- Depression, Mental
- Self-perception
- Self-evaluation
- Social psychology