Research in social comparison conducted with male subjects, strangers, and acquaintances has shown that unfavourable comparisons between highly similar individuals result in a negative self-evaluation, dissatisfaction, and decreased liking for the comparison other. Two studies were conducted on comparisons between 16-18 year-old female friends who perceived each other as high or middle in similarity in order to test the generality of these findings for close friends. Subjects were given false feedback on a test of maturity and told that they were at level 4 out of 8 while their friend was at level 6. The first study indicated that social comparisons between highly similar, close friends resulted in less satisfaction, but in a more positive self-evaluation and no change in liking for the partner. A strong correlation was also found to exist between similarity and quality of friendship. It was hypothesised that this may account for the differences in comparisons between friends and strangers. The second study looked at high and low quality of friendship in addition to similarity and allowed subjects to interact with their partners. It was found that High-quality friends evaluated themselves more positively after the comparison and experienced an increase in satisfaction and liking for their partner who was found to be very supportive. The opposite was found for Low-quality friendships. This research establishes the nature of the relationship as a critical variable in social comparison research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.74322 |
| Date | January 1989 |
| Creators | Gasiorek, Barbara M. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Psychology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001067875, proquestno: AAINN63624, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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