We thank Laksmiina Balasubramaniam and Ariana Youm for their assistance with data collection. We also thank Joanne Wood, Brett Q. Ford, Geoff MacDonald, and Emily Impett for their helpful comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this manuscript.

Experience sampling methods allow researchers to examine phenomena in daily life and provide various advantages that complement traditional laboratory methods. However, existing experience sampling methods may be costly, require constant Internet connectivity, may not be designed specifically for experience sampling studies, or require a custom solution from a computer programming consultant. In this article, we present ExperienceSampler, an open-source scaffold for creating experience-sampling smartphone apps designed for Android and iOS devices. We designed ExperienceSampler to address the common barriers to using experience sampling methods. First, there is no cost to the user. Second, ExperienceSampler apps make use of local notifications to let participants know when to complete surveys and store the data locally until Internet connection is available. Third, our app scaffold was designed with experience sampling methodological issues in mind. We also demonstrate how researchers can easily customize ExperienceSampler even if they have no programming skills. Furthermore, we evaluate the utility of ExperienceSampler apps with results from one social psychological study conducted using ExperienceSampler (N = 168). Mean response rates averaged 84%, and the median response latency was 9 minutes. Taken together, ExperienceSampler creates cost-effective smartphone apps that can be easily customized by researchers to examine experiences in daily life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Although past research has shown that social comparisons made through social media contribute to negative outcomes, little is known about the nature of these comparisons (domains, direction, and extremity), variables that determine comparison outcomes (post valence, perceiver’s self-esteem), and how these comparisons differ from those made in other contexts (e.g., text messages, face-to-face interactions). In four studies (N=798), we provide the first comprehensive analysis of how individuals make and respond to social comparisons on social media, using comparisons made in real-time while browsing news feeds (Study 1), experimenter-generated comparisons (Study 2), and comparisons made on social media vs. in other contexts (Studies 3-4). More frequent and more extreme upward comparisons resulted in immediate declines in self-evaluations as well as cumulative negative effects on individuals’ state self-esteem, mood, and life satisfaction after a social media browsing session. Moreover, downward and lateral comparisons occurred less frequently and did little to mitigate upward comparisons’ negative effects. Furthermore, low self-esteem individuals were particularly vulnerable to making more frequent and more extreme upward comparisons on social media, which in turn threatened their already-lower self-evaluations. Finally, social media comparisons resulted in greater declines in self-evaluation than those made in other contexts. Together, these studies provide the first insights into the cumulative impact of multiple comparisons, clarify the role of self-esteem in online comparison processes, and demonstrate how the characteristics and impact of comparisons on social media differ from those made in other contexts.

We examine whether individuals react to social comparisons involving their parent or child as they would to comparisons involving the self. Individuals reported high self–other overlap for mother and child, but not father (Pilot Study), suggesting that individuals may experience mother’s and child’s outcomes as their own. After recalling upward comparisons, high-overlap children (undergraduate students; Study 1) protect their perceptions of their mother, but not father, and parents (with children 18 or younger; Studies 2–3), regardless of overlap, protect their perceptions of their child: They changed the meaning of threatening upward comparisons by rating domains as less important and attributing less responsibility to family members. Finally, we examined self-attributions to rule out the alternative explanation that individuals use these strategies to protect themselves because they feel personally responsible for family members’ outcomes. These studies suggest that individuals experience mother, but not father, comparisons as if they were directly involved but only if they are high in overlap. In contrast, parents experience child comparisons as if they were comparing themselves directly regardless of overlap.

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