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How did that make you feel when the guy in front of you did not donate money, but you did? You felt awesome. But, while you are still absorbingly food you overheard, the cashier asking the women behind you if she would like to donate money to the Children’s Memorial Hospital and the person says yes would like to donate 20 dollars. What would your reaction be if you only donated 5 dollars and the women behind you donated 20 dollars? In my response paper, I will be explaining what the social comparison theory is. Leon Festering, a psychologist, first proposed the theory of social imprison in 1954.
Social comparison theory is the idea that we learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people (Ransom, 137). He believed that we participated in this comparison process as a way of forming a standard by which we can make precise evaluations of ourselves. As an example in the beginning when you were in line and the cashier asked the person in front weather or not they would like to donate some money to the Children’s Memorial Hospital they said no. You compared yourself to that man that he wasn’t nice or generous but by saying yes to the ashier you felt better than the man in front of you.
There are two types of social comparison upward comparison and downward comparison. Upward comparison means comparing ourselves to people who are better than we are on a particular trait or experience, and downward social comparison is comparing ourselves to people who are worse than we are on a particular trait or ability (Arson, 139). For example, the nursing program at Saint Xavier University is very competitive to get into you start comparing yourself to other students in chemistry class who are also attempting to get into the urging program as you.
You compare your TAT test score among a classmate who is very bright and has excelled in all their Saint Xavier classes and understand that you have a higher score than that classmate you are experiencing upward social comparison. On the other hand, if you compare yourself to someone who rarely attends the class and you compare your TAT test score with, and you find out they have the same score as you this is called downward social comparison. In conclusion, I believe social comparison happens in our everyday life.