A theory of temporal and historical comparison is proposed, the core of which is developed from Festinger's theory of social comparison by means of a metatheoretical device, conceptual translation, a semantic algorithm that consists of an informal dictionary and a set of rewriting rules. For example, a proposition in social comparison theory about the comparison of two different individuals is rewritten in temporal comparison theory as a proposition about the same individual comparing himself at two different points in time. A small set of rewriting rules is discovered such that every proposition within social comparison theory can be shown to yield a new proposition of temporal or historical comparison. A very small subset of these propositions resembles propositions within dissonance theory. That a temporal translation of social comparison theory is possible suggests that the temporal dimension of human experience, entirely omitted from Festinger's theory, may nonetheless be organized by the very same principles.Festinger's social comparison theory (SCT) is one of the major conceptual statements in social psychology that has laid claim to theoretical status. Developed more than 20 years ago, it still continues to be the subject of empirical investigation and conceptual refinement (e.g., Suls & Miller, in press).The intent of this article is to set forth a complementary theory of comparison processes dealing with the temporal aspect of human experience. This new theory, which we call temporal comparison theory (TCT), is not the result of empirical generalization, nor is it a response to a set of data that demand explanation, nor does it attempt a more abstract, formal, mathematical, or integrative formulation of existing knowledge. Rather, the core setThe author wishes to thank Jerry Suls, John Sabini, and Phil Brickman for commenting on an earlier draft.

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