PSYCH 104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Psych
Document Summary
Self comparison theory: we learn about our abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves with other people. We socially compare when there is no objective standard to measure ourselves against. Downward social comparison: comparing yourself to someone who is worse than you. The worse-off someone can be a past self. We feel good when making a dsc only if we don"t feel vulnerable to the worse-off person"s negative outcomes (we don"t think the situation could happen to us) Upward social comparison: comparing yourself to someone who is better than you. Usually makes us feel worse about ourselves (e. g. threatens our self-esteem. Can be motivating if we"re focused on our actual or usual self (vs. our. I am not currently as good as my hero, but if i strive to be, maybe i can achieve their level of success. I can never be as good as my hero.
