Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Social comparison'
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Buhrmann, Oswald G. "The comparison conundrum, social and counterfactual comparisons." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape10/PQDD_0003/MQ42133.pdf.
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Bloom, Dorian L. "Social Comparison Transitivity." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1340036626.
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Pond, Richard Shepherd. "Sharing Social Pain: Social Comparison and Affiliation After Social Exclusion." W&M ScholarWorks, 2008. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539626572.
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Santos, Nomara. "Asperger's disorder and social phobia : a comparison of social functioning." Honors in the Major Thesis, University of Central Florida, 2009. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETH/id/1324.
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This item is only available in print in the UCF Libraries. If this is your Honors Thesis, you can help us make it available online for use by researchers around the world by following the instructions on the distribution consent form at http://library.ucf.edu/Systems/DigitalInitiatives/DigitalCollections/InternetDistributionConsentAgreementForm.pdf You may also contact the project coordinator, Kerri Bottorff, at kerri.bottorff@ucf.edu for more information.Bachelors
Sciences
Psychology
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Hemphill, Kenneth John. "Social comparison and coping with multiple sclerosis." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/28234.
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One hundred forty-three people with multiple sclerosis participated in the present study, which was an attempt to extend findings in the social comparison literature. The main goals were to investigate 1) the effects of time since diagnosis and functional status on social comparisons and mental health, and 2) affective consequences subsequent to comparisons with others. To attain the former objective, respondents were divided into three groups. Group one consisted of respondents who had been diagnosed with MS less than three years ago. Group two participants included people who had been diagnosed between five and ten years ago, matched on a case-by-case basis to group one respondents on functional status (a measure of physical disability). Group three was comprised of those who had also been diagnosed five to ten years prior, with more extreme cases of the disease than respondents in groups one and two. In contrast to downward comparison theory (which would predict that groups one and three would be most likely to downwardly compare and least likely to upwardly compare due to their greater threat), there were no differences between groups on frequencies of comparing with worse off others. Moreover, participants in group three were slightly more likely to make comparisons with better off others than respondents in groups one and two.
In the overall sample, an interesting pattern of associations emerged between social comparisons, affective consequences, and a variety of other measures. Low levels of self-esteem and high levels of depression were positively correlated with making upward comparisons, yet were unassociated with downward comparisons. Optimism was unrelated to either. People lower on self-esteem and higher on depression were more likely to report feeling worse subsequent to comparing with others (especially better off others), yet were no more or less likely to report feeling better than their counterparts. Respondents higher on optimism were more likely to report feeling better subsequent to comparing with others, yet were no more or less likely to report feeling worse than those lower on optimism.
Overall, respondents reported feeling better more often than worse when comparing both upward and downward. Respondents were asked about social comparisons on two dimensions: physical condition and coping ability. Downward comparisons were correlated with more extreme affect (made respondents feel both better and worse) on the physical condition than coping dimension, presumably because of increased salience, impact of forced comparisons, perceived controllability, and distortability of information. Consistent with the notion that downward comparisons are not regarded as socially acceptable yet have important psychological implications, perceived appropriateness of making comparisons was unassociated with upward comparisons, yet positively correlated with downward comparisons. Additionally, appropriateness was positively related to feeling good when comparing downward but not upward. As a whole, the findings support the notion that social comparisons are not intrinsically positive or negative, and demonstrate the importance of considering dimensions of comparison. Corroborating previous research, respondents demonstrated a positivity bias, that is, they believed they were doing better than others with MS, they downwardly compared more than they upwardly compared, and they reported feeling better after making comparisons more than they felt worse. Hence, both downward and upward comparisons seem to be used to attain psychological benefit, although respondents lower on self-esteem and higher on depression are more likely to report negative affective consequences.Arts, Faculty of
Psychology, Department of
Graduate
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Montano, Kierstin. "Pluralistic ignorance, social comparison, and body satisfaction." Connect to resource, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1811/32016.
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Roazzi, A. "Children's cognitive skills : A social class comparison." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.235101.
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Schaal, Heather Lynn. "CROSS - PROFESSIONAL COMPARISON OF SOCIAL WORK BURNOUT." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2018. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/654.
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Burnout in the social work field is becoming increasingly common due to the emotional intensity of the client-social worker relationship and job demands. Research has shown that burnout has detrimental effects not only on the social worker themselves but on clients and agencies as well. Limited research exists examining which professional setting of social work experiences the highest level of burnout. This study used secondary data collected by, Dr. Lizano in 2016 from the 4thAnnual California State University, San Bernardino BASW and MSW Field Instructor Training. A quantitative method was used to analyze which setting of social work (child welfare, mental health, medical, and educational) has the highest level of burnout. Findings from this study suggest there is a relationship between mental health social workers experiencing burnout compared to the other fields of social work. Specifically, depersonalization was the only dimension of job burnout that had significant findings among mental health social workers. This study has implications on both the micro and macro level of social work. Being able to identity which setting of social work is suffering the most from burnout is crucial to develop preventative measures for social worker well-being.
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NAMIKAWA, Tsutomu, and 努. 並川. "継時的比較および社会的比較が現在の自己評価に与える影響について." 名古屋大学大学院教育発達科学研究科, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2237/16142.
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Braslow, Matthew. "The role of attainability in upward social comparison." The Ohio State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1366845219.
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Uhlir, Janet L. "Social Comparison and Self-Presentation on Social Media as Predictors of Depressive Symptoms." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2016. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/756.
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Social media, an online arena for social behaviors such as self-presentation and social comparison, may have effects on users’ mood and mental health. Favorably presenting oneself is linked to positive outcomes such as higher self-esteem, whereas social comparison, in general and specifically upward social comparison to higher-performing others, is related to feelings of inadequacy, envy, and depression. Social comparison may explain the “Facebook depression effect,” acting as a mediator between time spent on social media and depressive symptoms. A correlational study is proposed that will ask 200 participants to report their time spent on various social media sites, self-presentation of themselves and their “friends,” social comparison orientation, and depressive symptoms. Expected findings are that time spent on social media and the degree of others’ perceived self-presentation will each be positively correlated with depression, and these relationships will be mediated by social comparison. This study will demonstrate that people feel depressed when they spend time on social media because they are frequently exposed to the self-enhancing images of others, which provides an opportunity for negative social comparison.
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White, Grace Angela. "Implications of relationship social comparison tendencies among dating and married individuals." Diss., University of Iowa, 2010. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/905.
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The current study examines the construct of relationship social comparison orientation, which deals with an individual's propensity to compare his or her romantic relationship to that of others' romantic relationships on various dimensions, in both dating and married samples. The study also examines the role of relationship uncertainty and self uncertainty as an inducement or precondition to relationship comparison tendencies in both groups. 204 married individuals were recruited through The University of Iowa employee pool and 270 dating individuals were recruited to participate using the Elementary Psychology research pool. Dating and married individuals completed questionnaires related to relationship social comparison orientation, general social comparison orientation, and personality traits. A subset of married individuals' spouses also completed questionnaires to report as informants on their partners' relationship comparison tendencies, general social comparison orientation and personality.
Findings show that married individuals report higher levels of relationship and self certainty and satisfaction than dating individuals. Factor analyses of the Relationship Social Comparison Measure (RSCM; Smith LeBeau & Buckingham, 2008) and relationship comparison tendencies items produced an interpretable and replicable three factor structure, in both samples, of: 1) general relational comparisons, 2) relational comparisons with positive affect and 3) relational comparisons with negative affect. Dating individuals reported more frequent engagement in general relational comparisons and relational comparisons with negative affect. General relational comparisons and negative affect relational comparisons factor scales were significantly, negatively associated with satisfaction in both dating and married samples; in contrast, however, general social comparison orientation was unrelated to satisfaction. Findings, additionally, show significant convergence on self-reported and spouse ratings of personality, in the married sample, for Big 5 traits as well as for relational comparison tendencies and general social comparison orientation. Positive affect relational comparisons were found to have a small positive association with satisfaction, suggesting that some comparison processes are not maladaptive and may serve to bolster relationship functioning.
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Blomgren, Julia. "”Duger jag?” En studie på mödrars jämförelser på sociala medier och upplevda tilltro." Thesis, Örebro universitet, Institutionen för juridik, psykologi och socialt arbete, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-93155.
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Denna studie undersöker hur mödrars sociala jämförelser påverkar deras upplevda tilltro till att hantera specifika situationer inom föräldrarollen. Därtill undersöker studien om det är skillnad på att jämföra sig uppåtgående eller nedåtgående. Studiens urval består av 205 mödrar med barn i åldrarna 0-5 år, boendes i Sverige. Data har samlats in online och offline vid två tidpunkter (T1 och T2) med ett års mellanrum. Resultatet visar att sociala jämförelser inte påverkar mödrars upplevda tilltro i sig, specifikt uppåtgående jämförelser gör det. En spekulativ förklaring till resultatet är att sociala jämförelser kan ha en effekt på mödrars upplevda tilltro för stunden medans uppåtgående jämförelser påverkar långsiktigt.The purpose of the study was to examine how mothers social comparison affect their believed self-efficacy managing specific situations within the parental role. Furthermore, the study has included a distinct difference between upward social comparison and downward social comparison to further emphasize the different outcomes of the two. The sample was based on 205 mothers with children ranging from ages 0-5 all based in Sweden. Data for the study was collected during two different occasions (T1 & T2) with a one year span in between them. The result showed in general, social comparison does not affect mothers believed self-efficacy per se, upward comparison do. A speculative explanation to the result is that social comparisons might have an effect on mothers self-efficacy in the moment while upward comparison have a long term effect.
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Aspiras, Olivia G. "Comparative Thought and Physical Activity: Using Social and Temporal Comparison to Change and Maintain Behaviors." University of Toledo / OhioLINK, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1563292587371754.
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Neugebauer, Josephine [Verfasser], and Kai [Akademischer Betreuer] Sassenberg. "When social comparisons are (dys-)functional : The influence of social comparisons, knowledge awareness, and comparison motivation in collaborative learning / Josephine Neugebauer ; Betreuer: Kai Sassenberg." Tübingen : Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen, 2016. http://d-nb.info/1165309505/34.
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Shao, Zhou Ying. "Exploring Chinese males' perspective on body image, social comparison and social support." Thesis, University of Macau, 2012. http://umaclib3.umac.mo/record=b2589388.
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Davis, Maura Schoen. "A comparison of three social emotional screening instruments /." view abstract or download file of text, 2002. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p3055682.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002.Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 172-188). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.
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Madenberg, Steven Michael. "Source and Time of Social Cue Delivery: A Social Comparison Approach to Social Information Processing." W&M ScholarWorks, 1986. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539625369.
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Areskoug, Henrik, and Lina Olofsson. "Sociala Mediers skeva bild av verkligheten och dess konsekvenser. : En korrelationsstudie mellan gymnasieelevers användande av Sociala Medier, Social jämförelse och Självkänsla." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för psykologi (PSY), 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-49374.
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Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka sambanden samt eventuella könsskillnader mellan Social Jämförelse, Självkänsla och användande av Sociala Medier hos gymnasieelever . Enkäter delades ut till 127 elever på en skola i södra Sverige. Eleverna ombads besvara frågor om användningen av Sociala Medier samt uppskatta deras Självkänsla som bygger på Rosenberg self-esteem scale och deras upplevda grad av Social Jämförelse som baserades på en förkortad version (Schneider & Schupp, 2013) av the Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure (Buunk & Gibbons, 1999). Resultatet visade signifikanta samband samt könsskillnader mellan användning av Sociala Medier, Social Jämförelse och Självkänsla. Det visade sig att elever som spenderade mer tid på Sociala Medier och hade högre grad av Social Jämförelse tenderade att ha lägre Självkänsla. Kvinnor tenderade även spendera mer tid på Sociala Medier, ha högre grad av Social Jämförelse och lägre grad av Självkänsla än männen. I linje med Findahl och Davidsson (2015) studie fanns det tendenser till att Sociala Medier ökat men att aktiviteten minskar. I vår studie tenderade eleverna att lägga ut uppdateringar när positiva händelser hade skett eller bilder på Selfies och vänner samt bilder som redigerats. Detta skulle kunna bidra till en allvarligt skev bild av verkligheten som kan leda till negativa effekter (som lägre självskänsla). Mot bakgrund av resultaten bör fördjupade undersökningar kring Sociala Mediers och Social Jämförelses inverkan på vårt välmående utredas.The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between Social Media use, Self-esteem and Social Comparison. Questionnaires were distributed to 127 pupils at a school in southern Sweden. Students were asked to answer questions about the use of social media and assess their self-esteem based on Rosenberg self-esteem scale and their perceived level of social comparison that was based on a shortened version (Schneider & Schupp, 2013) of the Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure (Buunk & Gibbons, 1999 ). The results showed significant relationships, and also gender differences in the use of social media, social comparison and self-esteem. The study showed that students who spent more time on social media and had greater social comparison tended to have lower self-esteem. Women also tended to spend more time on social media, have greater social comparison and lower levels of self-esteem than men. The study confirmed Findahl och Davidsson (2015), showing that social media is increasing, but that the activity decreases. Students tended to only post positive events or images on Selfies and friends as well as images edited. This could contribute to a serious distortion that can lead to negative effects (such as lower self-esteem). Given the results, we propose that future studies focus on in-depth research about social media impact on our wellbeing and how modern social comparison works.
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Aldridge, Fiona Jane Psychology Faculty of Science UNSW. "The role of idealised image features in determining post-exposure body image and social comparisons." Publisher:University of New South Wales. Psychology, 2008. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/41373.
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This research examined the role that idealised image characteristics have in determining post-exposure body image and amount of self-reported social comparisons. This was tested by exposing female undergraduate students to media-portrayed idealised images that varied in their level of relevance, salience, or attainability. A negative impact of these images was indicated by greater post-exposure body dissatisfaction and body size estimation inaccuracy. In contrast, a positive impact was considered to have occurred when body dissatisfaction decreased and body size estimation was more accurate. If the images had a neutral impact on body image, one would expect little difference between groups or over time. A further aim was to determine whether a higher level of trait tendency to compare was related to more negative responding at post-exposure. In addition, thin ideal internalisation and restraint were examined as possible moderators. Studies 1, 2a, 2b, and 3 indicated that idealised image relevance and salience had little differential impact on post-exposure body image. That is, exposure to thin idealised images, irrespective of the salience and relevance manipulations, resulted in similar post-exposure body dissatisfaction and body size estimation. In contrast to this, the attainability of the image seemed to influence post-exposure responding, at least in terms of body size estimation (Study 4). Higher trait tendency to compare was associated with a greater amount of self-reported comparison with the images, but had little impact on body image. Surprisingly, these results were not moderated by thin ideal internalisation or restraint. The role of individual differences was explored with additional analyses in Study 5, which revealed that, when the power is sufficient, thin ideal internalisation, restraint, and self-reported comparisons with the images predicted post-exposure body dissatisfaction, but not body size estimation. Overall, this program of research suggests that idealised image features do not play a vital differential role in determining post-exposure body image, unless it is the body itself that is being manipulated. Results from this research support the idea that the mere presence of an idealised body is sufficient to activate negative responses, and there was little, if any, evidence for the occurrence of positive responses. These findings are discussed in terms of social comparison and schema theory, and in terms of their practical implications.
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Boxall, Matthew. "Social comparison and a defensive social mentality : an evolutionary perspective of group living." Thesis, University of Leicester, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31312.
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Evolutionary psychology is becoming an area of increasing interest for understanding and explaining human cognition, emotion and behaviour. One key area of this field relates to our heritage of social living and the impact that this has upon our inherited psychological makeup. The study aimed to consider the relationship between a number of variables related to this area guided by a basic theoretical model derived from the literature. The variables considered were social comparisons, two types of social anxiety, submissive behaviour and paranoid social cognitions. The study used a correlational design on a clinical group (N=31) and non-clinical comparison group (N=27) of subjects. A between groups analysis was also undertaken. For the clinical group social comparisons were found to be significantly correlated with scrutiny social anxiety. In turn scrutiny social anxiety was found to be significantly correlated with both paranoid social cognitions and submissive behaviour. For the comparison group, no significant correlations were found between social comparison and the other variables. However, social scrutiny anxiety was again found to significantly correlate with paranoid social cognitions and submissive behaviour. Between group analyses showed highly significant differences between the groups on all variables measured. The results for the clinical group broadly supported the model put forward whilst this was not the case for the comparison group. The clinical group results indicated that where individuals took on a more subordinate role they would also assume a more competitive and defensive posture in their interactions with others. This was considered to form the basis of an evolutionary prepared set of responses that facilitate group living in the context of social hierarchies. The differing results obtained for the comparison group were discussed as were the clinical and wider implications of the findings.
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Salley, Christina G. "SOCIAL COGNITION AMONG CHILDREN WITH CANCER AND COMPARISON PEERS." The Ohio State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1235006035.
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Hsu, Lorena. "Social norms, social self-efficacy and perceived social status in the expression of social anxiety : a cross-national comparison." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/21931.
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Previous research has consistently shown that Asian-heritage individuals report higher levels of social anxiety compared to their European-heritage counterparts. The goal of this study was to examine whether culturally-influenced social standards, social self-efficacy, and perceived social status account for elevated reports of social anxiety in East Asian-heritage (EAH) individuals. Drawing from cognitive and evolutionary models of social anxiety, two competing hypotheses that encompassed these social contextual variables were tested to explain ethnic differences in social anxiety: the Asian socialization hypothesis proposed that higher self-reported social anxiety in EAH individuals are related to their greater exposure to East Asian cultural values, while the cultural discrepancy hypothesis posited that Asian-Western differences in social anxiety are associated with the bicultural experience of cultural and/or ethnic discrepancy with mainstream Western culture.
In a cross-national sample of East Asian- and European-heritage students living in Canada (Ns = 280 and 103, respectively) and East Asian students living in Korea and China (N = 309), participants completed self-report questionnaires that measured social anxiety, depression, and social contextual factors (i.e., cultural norms, social self-efficacy, and perceived social status). Measures of acculturation and self-construal were also included to confirm that the groups differed on cultural values. Planned contrast analyses demonstrated relatively strong support for the cultural discrepancy hypothesis, in which bicultural East Asian groups (i.e., 1st- and 2nd-generation EAH individuals) reported greater social anxiety and depression, as well as lower initiation social self-efficacy and perceived social status compared to members of unicultural groups (i.e., European-heritage and overseas East Asian groups). However, social self-efficacy and perceived social status did not appear to mediate the elevated social anxiety levels in bicultural East Asians. Findings showed limited support for the Asian socialization hypothesis.
Overall, the results suggest that higher reports of social anxiety in bicultural East Asians may be associated with the experience of cultural and ethnic discrepancy with Western mainstream culture, and conceptualized as a part of the experience of acculturative and/or bicultural stress. Findings from this study suggest that the role of cultural discrepancy in elevated social anxiety warrants further investigation using longitudinal or experimental designs.
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Johnson, Camille Su-Lin. "The motivational consequences of upward comparison." Connect to resource, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1117514659.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio State University, 2005.Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xiii, 112 p.; also includes graphics. Includes bibliographical references (p. 87-90). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center
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van, den Berg Patricia. "Self-schema and social comparison explanations of body dissatisfaction." [Tampa, Fla.] : University of South Florida, 2005. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/SFE0001281.
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Rauch, Dietmar. "Institutional fragmentation and social service variations : A Scandinavian comparison." Doctoral thesis, Umeå : Department of Sociology, Umeå University, 2005. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-612.
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Wehrens, Maria Johanna Petronella Wilhelmina. "How did YOU do? social comparison in secondary education /." [S.l. : [Groningen : s.n.] ; University Library Groningen] [Host], 2008. http://irs.ub.rug.nl/ppn/.
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Melrose, Karen L. "Social comparison and health-related judgement and decision making." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2016. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/80144/.
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The six studies presented in this thesis investigated the extent to which people compare to others when making a range of health-related judgements and decisions and aimed to identify the cognitive mechanisms used in this comparison process. A key question was whether biases found in specific judgements and decisions, such as deciding to seek help when it is not needed or not seeking help when it is needed, could be explained by social comparison effects. It was found that participants compared to others using rank-based strategies when making judgements and decisions about mental and physical health symptoms and when judging their health in general (Study 1, 2 and 4). Social comparison effects were generally small to medium in size (average Cohen's f2 = 0.09, range = 0.01-0.39). Health-related help-seeking accuracy was associated with how participants believed their experience of symptoms compared to that of others. Participants were four times more likely to seek help when it was not needed if they believed that they experienced symptoms more frequently than others, and two to three times more likely not to seek help when it was needed if they believed that they experienced symptoms less frequently than others (Study 1). However, participants' beliefs about how their sleep compared to that of others had little influence on their sleep-related judgement and decision-making (Study 3). There was no evidence that participants' beliefs about how much support they received relative to others was associated with perceptions of this support (Study 5 and 6). The findings have implications for the development of both interventions that may improve accuracy in health help-seeking decisions and social norms-based interventions, the measurement of comparison effects, self-rated health and social support, social comparison theory, and models of symptom appraisal and health-related help-seeking.
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Van, den Berg Patricia. "Self-Schema And Social Comparison Explanations of Body Dissatisfaction." Scholar Commons, 2005. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/892.
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The current study was an investigation of the self-schema and social comparison theories of the development of body dissatisfaction. Social comparison stimuli, consisting of photographs of women, were piloted and selected to form 3 stimuli sets: upward comparison, downward comparison, and no comparison. A priming manipulation consisting of an imagery exercise intended to prime participants appearance self-schema was also piloted. Participants completed state measures of body image and mood at pretest, were given the priming manipulation and the social comparison stimuli, then completed posttest measures of mood and body image, as well as providing demographic information. Results indicated no significant interaction between priming and social comparison and no significant main effect for priming. However, there was a significant effect of social comparison, such that those in the downward comparison condition showed decreased body dissatisfaction and negative mood. Results are discussed in the context of self-schema theory and social comparison, and suggestions are given for future research that might further shed light on these topics.
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Li, Lianjun. "The impacts of social comparison information on physical activity." Diss., University of Iowa, 2019. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/6985.
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My dissertation focuses on changes in health-related behavior in react to information-based intervention. The first chapter analyzes the results of a field experiment to investigate the effects of comparative information on the daily number of steps taken of adults. The second chapter further explores the effects using qualitative analysis. The third chapter intends to offer explanations in the mechanisms of the results from the first chapter.
My first chapter uncovers how patterns in the daily number of steps of adults are affected by information that compares one with unknown peers. I conducted a field experiment that used fitness trackers to collect daily and minute-by-minute data on the total number of steps an individual takes in a day. Participants were randomized into a group that was provided with comparison information and a group that did not receive such information. I examined whether individuals in the two groups behaved differently during and after the intervention period. I find no clear evidence of an aggregate impact of social norms on the daily number of steps taken. However, I find individuals who are not overweight or nor married or cohabiting are more likely to be influenced by social norms. Greater treatment effects are found among individuals whose number of steps that are at the tails of the distribution curve.
My second chapter reports the results of the textual data from the survey in the field experiment. I present dominant themes that emerged from answers to the open-ended essay questions in the survey. The results support that health concern, body image, appearance, psychological factors, peers and friends are major motives for being physically active. For participation in the study specifically, text messages that contain comparative information produced some improvement of the exercise level. However, participants also requested more interactions with peers, additional information provision, rewards for reaching goals. The results imply external incentives play a smaller role in promoting daily number of steps.
In the third chapter, I conduct a survey experimentation to test the effectiveness of informing descriptive social norms and types of text messages in predictions about health-related behaviors. First, I investigate if errors in beliefs about activity levels exist and I find no evidence of over- or under-confidence in one’s own activity levels. Further analysis provide preliminary evidence of negative effects of informedness in predictions about one’s own behavior. However, the intention-to-treat effects of comparative information are unclear. The data provide evidence in favor of the correlation between first-order personal beliefs, not higher-order normative beliefs, in predicting an increase number of steps taken in response to intervention with text messages.
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Mullin, Alice C. "#Comparison: An Examination of Social Comparison Orientation on Instagram as It Relates to Self-Esteem and State Anxiety." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2017. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1043.
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The purpose of this study was to examine social comparison orientation on Instagram as it relates to self-esteem and state anxiety. One hundred and ninety-six young adults (ages 18-30) who use Instagram at least once a week completed scales measuring social comparison orientation, self-esteem, and state anxiety before being randomly assigned to one of two Instagram feed conditions—one that displayed non-celebrity photos and the other that displayed celebrity photos. Participants were then post-tested using the same self-esteem and state anxiety scales. Information about Instagram use, information about participants’ feelings toward the feeds, and demographic characteristics were also collected. It was expected that participants with high social comparison orientations (SCOs) would experience greater decreases in self-esteem and greater increases in state anxiety than participants with low SCOs across both conditions. Additionally, it was expected that all participants, regardless of SCO, would experience a greater decrease in self-esteem and a greater increase in state anxiety after looking at photos of non-celebrities in comparison to looking at photos of celebrities. Findings were insignificant, indicating that using Instagram may not be detrimental to mental wellbeing. A second follow-up experiment found a relationship between SCO and state anxiety, with higher SCO being related to a greater decrease in anxiety.
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WATANABE, Hiroshi, Yiping ZHANG, Niwako SUGIMURA, and Hidetoki ISHII. "An Investigation of the Cross-Cultural Comparability of Social Skills." 名古屋大学大学院教育発達科学研究科, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2237/16110.
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Pullen, Sansfacon Annie Marie. "Statutory social work, the voluntary sector and social action settings : a comparison of ethics." Thesis, De Montfort University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2086/4912.
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For decades, ethical issues have been seen as a problem throughout the social work profession, not just in the UK but also internationally. In the English context, the Care Standards Act 2000, which led to the establishment of the General Social Care Council, aimed to protect service users, employers and social workers/social care practitioners through the publication of codes of practice. As Strom-Gottfried and 0'Aprix (2006) have noted, however, the plethora of codes of ethics and codes of conduct have failed to address explicitly the issues faced by those regulated by them. Consequently, the actual situation in England remains the same: practitioners work in difficult situations that frequently result in ethical dilemmas, yet the guidance fails to address the actual complexity of the situations in which practitioners find themselves. The aim of this research was to investigate the expenences of practitioners In England working for statutory social services in comparison with those of practitioners from social action organisations and who work for the voluntary sector, in relation to their conduct, ethics and professional values. The methodological framework was based on Grounded Theory. The data were collected VIa focus groups, semi-structured interviews, semi-structured questionnaires and vignette-based interviews. Constant comparisons were made between sectors during the data analysis. The research was validated by intertriangulation and by communicative validation. The concept of power remained the sole category of the Grounded Theory process once the research had reached saturation. The key conclusion was that, by adopting a Foucaultian perspective, the "organisational context of work" is an expression of the power relationships that influence the ethical decision-making of social workers and social care practitioners. The concept of virtue ethics was introduced in the discussion of the data to counteract the effect of power felt by social workers and social care practitioners. The research concluded by proposing ways of incorporating the findings into the teaching of social work at the higher educational level and among qualified practitioners, emphasising the concept of practical reasoning (MacIntyre 1999) at the collective level.
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Arenth, Patricia McSweeney. "Exploring the use of social comparison by individuals recovering from traumatic brain injury." Columbus, OH : Ohio State University, 2003. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1058809047.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003.Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains x, 78 p. : ill. Includes abstract and vita. Advisors: Lyle D. Schmidt and John D. Corrigan, Dept. of Psychology. Includes bibliographical references (p. 74-78).
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Garofalo, Giovanni J. "The Effects of Social Comparisons on Happiness in a Motivational Context." Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1216330486.
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Vogel, Erin A. "The Influence of Social and Temporal Comparison on Health-Relevant Self-Perceptions." University of Toledo / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1493130303918794.
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Bruchmann, Kathryn Irene Gaetz. "Exploring the implications of construal level for social comparison theory." Diss., University of Iowa, 2013. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/1555.
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This dissertation examines the relationship between two social psychological theories: Social Comparison Theory (Festinger, 1954) and Construal Level Theory (Liberman & Trope, 1998). More specifically, this research assesses how a person's level of mental abstraction (i.e., construal level) might influence the way social comparison information from individuals or aggregates is used to form self-evaluations. Typically, comparison information from individuals (versus information about aggregates) is given disproportionate weight when forming self-evaluations; in other words, there is a "local" (i.e., individual) dominance effect in the utilization of social comparison information (e.g., Zell & Alicke, 2010). It is predicted that with greater mental abstraction (i.e., higher construal level), this tendency will be reversed, and instead comparison information from aggregates will be relied upon more when evaluating the self. In other words, abstract mindsets (versus concrete mindsets) should result in a "global" (i.e., aggregate) dominance effect in the weighting of social comparison information.
Six studies examine the influence of construal level on the use of aggregate versus individual social comparison information. Two pilot studies provide initial evidence that abstract mindsets lead to a global dominance effect. The generalizability of these effects is tested by providing comparison feedback on different tasks (Study 1 and Study 4), testing the influence of different construal mindset manipulations (Study 2), as well as manipulating the psychological distance (an antecedent of construal level; e.g., Trope and Liberman, 2003) of social comparison targets (Studies 3 - 4). Additionally, the relative weighting of individual versus aggregate comparison targets is directly tested by comparing self-evaluations with only aggregate comparison information, and with both aggregate and individual comparison information (Study 2 and Study 4).
Results across all studies indicate that while social comparisons with better off or worse off targets typically result in robust effects, evidence of local dominance and effects of construal manipulations are much more subtle. Theoretical implications for Social Comparison Theory and Construal Level Theory and practical implications are discussed.
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Li, Connie. "The effects of self-relevance of the comparison dimensions and social comparison orientation on consumers' purchase behavior." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2010. https://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_ra/1167.
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Sterling, Christopher M. "A TALE OF TWO ENVYS: A SOCIAL NETWORK PERSPECTIVE ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF WORKPLACE SOCIAL COMPARISON." UKnowledge, 2013. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/management_etds/5.
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My dissertation examines how individuals respond to workplace social comparisons. I measure the explicit set of referent others that individuals compare themselves against in order to evaluate their own level of performance. I examine how the social context of these comparisons impact discretionary performance related behaviors by examining how an individual’s position within a social network and the structural characteristics of an individual’s reference group influences the experience of discrete emotions. Specifically, I examine how malicious envy and benign envy mediate the relationship between social comparison and workplace behavior in a field setting. Results indicate that social network structure plays a significant role in motivating both productive and counterproductive responses to social comparison. Whether or not an employee responds to upward social comparisons by increasing their own work effort or engaging in deviant behavior is influenced by the experience of benign and malicious envy, which is in turn influencedby the network structure of reference groups. Furthermore, social network position plays a moderating role in the occurrence of workplace deviance by either enhancing or limiting the opportunities an employee has to engage in deviant behavior.
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Ranby, Erik. "A comparison of clustering techniques for short social text messages." Thesis, KTH, Skolan för datavetenskap och kommunikation (CSC), 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-196735.
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The amount of social text messages authored each day is huge and the information contained within is potentially very valuable. Software that can cluster and thereby help analyze these messages would consequently be helpful. This thesis explores several ways of clustering social text messages. Two algorithms and several setups with these algorithms have been tested and evaluated with the same data as input. Based on these evaluations, a comparison has been conducted in order to answer the question which algorithm setup is best suited for the task. The two clustering algorithms that have been the main subjects for the comparison are K-means and agglomerative hierarchical. All setups were run with 3-grams as well as with only single words as features. The evaluation measures used were intra-cluster distance, inter-cluster distance and silhouette value. Intra-cluster distance is the distance between data points in the same cluster while inter-cluster is the distance between the clusters. Silhouette value is another more general evaluation measure that is often used to estimate the quality of a clustering. The results showed that if running time is a high priority, using K-means without 3-grams is preferred. On the other hand, if the quality of the clusters is important and performance is less so, introducing 3-grams together with any of the two algorithms will suit your needs better.Mängden sociala textmeddelanden som skrivs varje dag är enorm och informationen i dessa kan vara mycket värdefull. Mjukvara som kan klustra och på så sätt analysera dessa meddelanden kan därmed vara användbar. Denna avhandling utforskar flera sätt att klustra sociala textmeddelanden. Två algoritmer och flera konfigureringar med dessa algoritmer har testats och utvärderats med samma indata. Baserat på dessa utvärderingar har en jämförelse utförts för att kunna svara på frågan vilken av dessa konfigureringar som är bäst anpassad för sitt syfte. De två klustringsalgoritmerna som i första hand har jämförts är K-means och agglomerative hierarchical. Alla konfigureringar kördes både med och utan 3-gram som komplement till endast enstaka ord. Utvärderingsmetoderna som användes var intra-cluster distance, inter-cluster distance och silhouette value. Intra-cluster distance är avståndet mellan datapunkterna i samma kluster medan inter-cluster distance är avståndet mellan de olika klustrena. Silhouette value är annan, mer generell, utvärderingsmetod som ofta används för att uppskatta kvaliten på en klustring. Resultaten visade att K-means utan 3-gram är att föredra om kravet på körningstid inte är högst prioriterat. Å andra sidan, om kvaliten på klustringen är viktigare än prestandan på algoritmen, så bör 3-gram användas tillsammans med vilken som av de två algoritmerna.
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Oliver, Leola Lanette. "Linking self-concept, social comparison and academic achievement in preadolescents." Thesis, Pepperdine University, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3556876.
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A wide body of literature exists on the relationship between childhood and adolescent self-concept and achievement (Molloy, Gest, & Rulison, 2011; Trautwein, Ludtke, Marsh, & Nagy, 2009); however, few studies explore the extent to which other socio-psychological processes interact with these 2 variables. Many studies point to parent and teacher feedback as critical factors in the development of self-evaluative processes in children, but there is an absence of literature exploring the extent to which perceptions of peer achievement and social interactions may predict self-concept (Altermatt, Pomerantz, Ruble, Frey, & Greulich, 2002). A growing number of theorists assert that the self-concept/achievement relationship must be examined within the context of the social environment (Guay, Boivin, & Hodges, 1999; Rogers, Smith, & Coleman, 1978). What is yet to be explored with more in-depth analysis, however, is whether a relationship exists between children's perception of themselves and the level of performance exhibited by their peers (Guay et al., 1999). In an effort to shed light on this subject the present study seeks to identify any correlation between self-concept, social comparison processes, and academic achievement through the lens of the following theoretical constructs: (a) Self-Concept and Self-Theory; (b) Social-Comparison Theory; and (c) Achievement Goal and (d) Social Identity Theories.
Social comparison theory and its role in self-evaluation were first promulgated in the 1950s. This theory proposes that individuals seek accurate appraisals of self and engage in comparison to others in the absence of objective feedback (Festinger, 1954). Finally, achievement is explored in connection with achievement goal theory and in context with social identity theory. Achievement goal theory holds that individuals possess an awareness of their abilities and, as a result, adopt relative goal theories associated with achievement behaviors.
Each of the foregoing theoretical constructs has implications for an enlarged focus on the development of childhood self-concept, socialization processes and their relationship to academic achievement. This study will add to a growing body of literature exploring potential links between peer social comparison processes, global and academic self-concept, and achievement.
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Krayer, Anne. "Body Image in Adolescence : The Influence of Social Comparison Processes." Thesis, Bangor University, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.506492.
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Fleischacker, Michael J. "A qualitative-quantitative social science comparison of two community workshops." Virtual Press, 1997. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1061977.
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This study has contributed to two areas of growing interest and involvement: the knowledge base of public participation in community workshops for design practitioners and Muncie's White River project.Two community workshops were conducted and compared to study their processes and end results. All variables were constant between both workshops with the exception of a video, When the Wind Stops by Dianne Haak and Bernard Wilets, shown at the beginning of only one workshop. The group dynamics of the workshops were reviewed to understand their influence. It was determined that group size, persons conducting the workshops, the video, and the composition of the participants all affected the workshops' process and results.Focusing on the proposed White River Corridor Greenway, participants generated 183 ideas for increasing use and extending ownership of the river to the community. Participants produced 51 benefits, 85 potential physical development, and 47 programs and activities for improving connections to the creation and use of the river greenway.Department of Landscape Architecture
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Johnson, Kimberly Robyn. "Adult attachment, social comparison, romantic relationship experience, and well-being." Thesis, Heriot-Watt University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10399/2602.
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A review of the adult attachment literature revealed previous research findings to demonstrate attachment-based baseline differences in the well-being factor of life satisfaction but not to consider moderating factors nor fluctuations in life satisfaction experience. Furthermore, social cognitive processes highlighted within the subjective well-being literature, namely those captured within social comparison theory, have rarely been examined within an adult attachment perspective. The current thesis sought to address these gaps through investigating the predictive influences of moderating and mediating factors in associations between adult attachment and well-being. Across 5 studies, individuals’ relationship experiences (namely relationship status, satisfaction, and status-changing events), social comparison tendencies (both within general and relationship- and partner-specific contexts), and social-comparison ranking perceptions were each examined. Findings revealed that relationship experiences indeed appeared to moderate individuals’ attachment-based feelings of subjective well-being, with greater anxiety in particular suggestive of more maladaptive cognitive and affective experience (Study 1). Social comparison tendencies, both general and interpersonally-oriented, were also identified to differ on the basis of anxiety and avoidance, with adverse comparison habits found to partially mediate associations between anxiety and both life satisfaction and self-esteem (Studies 2 and 4). Lastly, attachment-based differences in social-ranking perceptions were identified (Study 5), with anxiety found to interact with relationship status while an interaction between anxiety, ranking perceptions and relationship length as predictor of life satisfaction was found to be approaching significance.
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Saints, Lorraine Hildebrand. "The effects of social comparison on uncertainty and self-esteem /." The Ohio State University, 1988. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487595712157297.
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Mylonopoulou, V. (Vasiliki). "MAD:designing social comparison features in health behaviour change technological interventions." Doctoral thesis, Oulun yliopisto, 2019. http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:9789526222851.
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Abstract Health behaviour change is challenging and is addressed by the international community. Many people try to effect change for a healthier lifestyle, but they find it difficult to sustain their new habits. Today, technological applications support people who want to change their behaviour, oftentimes by utilising social influence: The influence of others on one’s behaviour. Social influence consists of different aspects, the particularities of which are often neglected in design. This thesis focusses on the design of the social comparison aspect of social influence. Social comparison psychology supports the view that when facing a lack of objective measurements, people tend to compare themselves to others who are similar to them for self-evaluation, self-enhancement, self-prediction, and coping. In psychology, social comparison theory has shown great potential in the aforementioned areas as well as challenges regarding its application. In the design of technology, social comparison theory has been utilised but lacks extensive exploration. In this thesis, four perspectives are considered to better understand social comparison in design: Existing designs, designers’ perspective, healthcare professionals’ perspective, and user research for social comparison. The four perspectives are explored using qualitative methodologies and through design science research. The knowledge took the form of a Multiple-perspective Approach Design (MAD) for social comparison features in technology that supports health behaviour change. MAD aims to support designers when working with social comparison in health behaviour change, by presenting social comparison potentials and challenges informed by the different perspectives. MAD builds upon the knowledge transferred from the field of psychology regarding social comparison and on the research conducted to understand the four perspectives of social comparisonTiivistelmä Terveyskäyttäytymisen muutos on haastavaa ja sitä käsittelee kansainvälinen yhteisö. Monet ihmiset yrittävät tehdä muutoksia kohti terveellisempiä elämäntapoja, mutta heidän on vaikea ylläpitää uusia tapojaan. Tänä päivänä teknologiset sovellukset tukevat ihmisiä, jotka haluavat muuttaa käyttäytymistään, usein hyödyntämällä sosiaalista vaikutusta: toisten vaikutusta omaan käyttäytymiseen. Sosiaalinen vaikutus koostuu erilaisista näkökulmista, joiden erityispiirteitä on usein laiminlyöty suunnittelussa. Tässä opinnäytetyössä keskitytään sosiaalisen vertailun näkökulman suunnitteluun sosiaalisessa vaikutuksessa. Sosiaalisen vertailun psykologia tukee näkemystä siitä, että objektiivisten mittausten puuttuessa, ihmiset pyrkivät vertaamaan itseään muihin, jotka ovat samankaltaisia, itsearvioinnin, itsensä vahvistamisen, itsearvioinnin ja selviytymisen kannalta. Psykologiassa sosiaalisen vertailun teoria on osoittanut potentiaalinsa edellä mainituilla aloilla, mutta sen soveltamiseen liittyy haasteita. Sosiaalisen vertailun teoriaa on hyödynnetty teknologian suunnittelussa, mutta laaja-alaisempi tutkimus aiheesta on puutteellista. Tässä opinnäytetyössä tarkastellaan neljää näkökulmaa ymmärtämään paremmin sosiaalista vertailua suunnittelussa: Olemassa olevat mallit, suunnittelijoiden näkökulma, terveydenhuollon ammattilaisten näkökulma ja käyttäjätutkimus sosiaaliseen vertailuun. Näitä neljää näkökulmaa tutkitaan käyttämällä laadullisia tutkimusmenetelmiä ja suunnittelutieteellistä tutkimusta. Kerätyn tiedon perusteella muodostettiin monia toimijoita tarkasteleva lähestymistapa suunnitteluun (MAD), joka koskee sosiaalisen vertailun ominaisuuksia teknologiassa, joka tukee terveyskäyttäytymisen muutosta. MAD pyrkii tukemaan suunnittelijoita, jotka työskentelevät sosiaalisen vertailun parissa terveyskäyttäytymisen muutoksessa, esittämällä sosiaalisen vertailun mahdollisuuksia ja haasteita, joita on kerätty eri näkökulmista. MAD perustuu psykologian alalta kerättyyn tietämykseen sosiaalista vertailusta ja toteutettuun tutkimukseen, joka on tehty sosiaalisen vertailun neljän näkökulman ymmärtämiseksi
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Saunders, Jessica Faye. "Social Comparison in Eating Disorder Recovery: A Mixed-Methodological Approach." FIU Digital Commons, 2018. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3818.
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This dissertation examines social comparison tendencies in young women during eating disorder (ED) recovery. Study one drew on a photo-elicitation method (“PhotoVoice”) and semi-structured interviews to examine this relation. Thirty U.S. women, ages 18-35, in self-defined recovery from disordered eating, used photography to capture personally-meaningful social and cultural influences on their recovery. Participants then shared these photographs with the research team and described them in detail. Photographs and interviews were examined for social comparisons using thematic analysis, and two broad categories emerged: recovery-promoting and recovery-hindering comparisons. The presence of both “upward” and “downward” comparisons that both support and hinder recovery suggests that social comparisons during the recovery process are more nuanced than previously known.
Study two drew from this qualitative data to revise and validate an existing measure of food and body comparisons for women in ED recovery. Women from across the U.S. (n = 183) completed measures of body, eating, and exercise social comparison general comparison orientation, and body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in one online session. After removing four items based on prior research and theory, the revised model fit the data well. Results suggest that body, eating, and exercise social comparisons continue to correlate with body dissatisfaction and disordered eating during recovery, but there are nuances in the content of the comparisons. Study three used this revised measure of social comparison to examine how the interrelations among thin ideal internalization, social comparison, and disordered eating outcomes vary throughout the disorder and recovery processes. An additional 78 women with an active ED, and 178 healthy-control women completed the above-mentioned measures, along with a measure of thin-ideal internalization. Multi-group path analysis showed that the relations among these constructs change between disordered eating and recovery.
Study four drew from the same interviews explored in study one, returning to the interviews and photographs to highlight the key areas of potential change for clinicians and policymakers. Participant responses clustered into six themes: healthcare practice and access, health insurance reform, education, objectification of the female body, and mental health stigma. Direct suggestions and implications are discussed.
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Shaw, Jo. "Social Skills Comparison of Online and Traditional High School Students." ScholarWorks, 2015. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/1659.
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Online education has evolved over the last 18 years as technology continues to advance. Starting at age 5, children are able to forego traditional classrooms and begin attending school from a computer in their homes. Research has not identified significant academic differences between traditional and online schools; however, there is limited research on differences in social competency in these settings. Bandura's social learning theory was used as a framework to compare social competency skills in traditional (n = 113) and online (n = 28) high school students living in Pennsylvania using the Social Skills Inventory (SSI). Participants were recruited using a private research consulting company. When comparing overall SSI scores of online and traditional students using an ANOVA, a significant difference was found (p = .04), with traditional students scoring significantly higher in social skills than online students. However, ANCOVA analyses showed that after controlling for age and years enrolled in each school setting, there were no significant differences in SSI between the two groups (p = .08, and .09 respectively). These results should be interpreted with caution due to the disparate group sizes. It remains unclear if online school students are socially impaired compared to their peers in traditional brick and mortar schools; however, no such differences were identified in this research. The findings of this study may impact social change by serving as a pilot to inspire the development of new measures and identify a need for future studies. A longitudinal study may provide more insight about social development in online school students. In addition, development of a measure that encompasses modern socialization and variables that are applicable to all school aged children could assist with more clearly identifying any relation between school type and social development.
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Farsides, Thomas Lycan. "Self-esteem, social comparison and discrimination : a reappraisal and development of Tajfel's social identity theory." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 1996. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/82/.
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Six main empirical studies are reported. Study 1 employed the "thinkaloud" procedure in the minimal group paradigm (MGP) and concludes that social categorization is insufficient to cause social identity or intergroup discrimination, and that no theoretical explanation of minimal group behaviour is adequate to explain the variety of strategies employed within that paradigm. Study 2 employed both "Tajfel matrices" and new "allocation grids" in the MGP and concludes that two distinct forms of intergroup discrimination need to be distinguished: one which maximizes in-group profit consistent with positive in-group distinctiveness, and another which maximizes positive in-group distinctiveness by accompanying in-group profit with out-group derogation. In Study 3 subjects completed three sets of Tajfel matrices in the MGP: individually, in "sub-groups" , then again individually. Mean intergroup discriminatory behaviour polarized and mean intergroup equitable behaviour depolarized between the first and the latter two conditions. The best account of the results was concluded to be a normative one. Study 4 demonstrated that the self-esteem hypothesis within social identity theory (SIT) is best tested using a state measure of specific social identity contingent self-esteem and concludes that this hypothesis has to date been both inadequately formulated and inadequately tested. Study 5 compared predictions from SIT with those from Tesser's self-evaluation maintenance model concerning the consequences of social comparison outcomes and concludes that a modified version of the former theory is best able to account for the results obtained at both group and individual levels of comparison. Study 6 investigated a host of issues within SIT and concludes that the theory is too simplistic in respect of many of its key notions and propositions. A general discussion argues that a modified version of SIT can be developed which improves on Tajfel's "original" social identity theory by more adequately specifying the processes by which group phenomena are manifest.
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Walker, Mary. "Social networking sites, body image and well-being : the roles of social comparison and compassion." Thesis, University of Hull, 2018. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:16585.
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This portfolio thesis comprises three parts: a systematic literature review, a quantitative empirical paper and supporting appendices. Part One is a systematic review of the literature regarding the role that social comparison plays in the relationship of social networking site use and wellbeing. This review builds upon evidence suggesting that social network site use impacts positively and negatively upon well-being, aiming to understand possible underlying processes. The psychological impacts of social comparison on social networking sites are also considered in the empirical investigation presented in the paper in Part Two. The empirical study focuses specifically upon appearance comparisons made when using social networking sites and considers the impacts upon body satisfaction. Furthermore, the empirical paper considers whether compassion is protective against the negative impacts on body image of appearance comparison when social networking. The empirical study used quantitative methodology and questionnaire data from social network site users to explore these relationships. Part Three comprises of appendices, including reflective and epistemological statements.