Chapter 13 - Social Comparison Flashcards
Counterfactual thinking
Mentally comparing actual events with fantasies of what might have been possible in alternative scenarios.
Downward comparison
Making mental comparisons with people who are perceived to be inferior on the standard of comparison.
Dunning-Kruger Effect
The tendency for unskilled people to be overconfident in their ability and highly skilled people to underestimate their ability.
Fixed mindset
The belief that personal qualities such as intelligence are traits that cannot be developed. People with fixed mindsets often under-perform compared to those with “growth mindsets.”
Frog Pond Effect
The theory that a person’s comparison group can affect their evaluations of themselves. Specifically, people have a tendency to have lower self-evaluations when comparing themselves to higher performing groups.
Growth mindset
The belief that personal qualities, such as intelligence, can be developed through effort and practice.
Individual differences
Psychological traits, abilities, aptitudes and tendencies that vary from person to person.
Local dominance effect
People are generally more influenced by social comparison when that comparison is personally relevant rather than broad and general.
Mastery goals
Goals that are focused primarily on learning, competence, and self-development. These are contrasted with “performance goals” that are focused on the quality of a person’s performance.
N-Effect
The finding that increasing the number of competitors generally decreases one’s motivation to compete.
Personality
A person’s relatively stable patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior.
Proximity
The relative closeness or distance from a given comparison standard. The further from the standard a person is, the less important s/he considers the standard. When a person is close to the standard s/he is more likely to be competitive.
Self-enhancement effect
The finding that people can boost their own self-evaluations by comparing themselves to others who rank lower on a particular comparison standard.
Self-esteem
The feeling of confidence in one’s own abilities or worth.
Self-evaluation maintenance (SEM)
A model of social comparison that emphasizes one’s closeness to the comparison target, the relative performance of that target person, and the relevance of the comparison behavior to one’s self-concept.
