Developmental analysis of the role of social comparison in self-evaluation.

Abstract

The use of social comparison information for self-evaluation may be viewed as a major developmental step in children's growing understanding of their competencies and limitations. The two studies presented suggest that children's achievement-related self-evaluations are little affected by relative comparisons until surprisingly late-that is, not earlier than 7-8 years of age. In Study 1, 104 first and second graders performed a task with 3 coacting peers; only the second graders made any use at all of the social comparison information in their evaluative judgments. In Study 2 an attempt was made to maximize the potential for using comparative information by providing a strong incentive to engage in social comparison of abilities in a situation in which objective information about a success/failure outcome was unavailable. The 90 kindergarten, second, and fourth graders played a game with peers and made competence-related self-evaluations and decisions about future performance. Only the judgments of the fourth graders were consistently affected by the social comparison information. The results are discussed in terms of their relation to previous research on the development of social comparison and of possible explanations for the developmental trends observed.Recent theoretical approaches to social development have emphasized a kind of self-socialization process (Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974; Hartup, Note 1) in which children are viewed as active processors of social information, seeking norms or guidelines to define appropriate behavior and to evaluate themselves. One particularly important source of information during this self-socialization process is the peer groupthat is, how one's own behavior compares to relevant others. This social comparison process is thought to be central to selfevaluation in adults (Festinger, 1954;Suls & Miller, 1977), but there has been little

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“…Social comparison processes, whereby children compare their personal attributes with those of similar others (i.e., peers), become more important for children's self-evaluations in the primary school years, as children show increased concerns about peer group acceptance and social evaluation (see Ruble, Boggiano, Feldman, & Loebl, 1980;Parker & Gottman, 1989).…”

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“…Furthermore, there is evidence that dramatic changes occur between kindergarten and second grade in the nature of children's social comparisons (Ruble, 1983). For example, whereas first graders' judgments (of their ability) were influenced by simple environmental feedback (of success or failure), second graders' judgments were affected not only by direct feedback but also by normative information (about social standards of ability) (Ruble, Boggiano, Feldman, & Loebl, 1980). Thus, from around age 7, social comparisons assume a greater importance for children's self-evaluation, although young children are interested in, and do make, social comparisons.…”

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“…According to this model, comparison of one's self to others (external frame of reference) follows the social comparison process (Ruble, Boggiano, Feldman, & Loebl, 1980) whereas comparison of one's self in one domain of knowledge vs. another is more of an internal comparison process. However, the I/E frame-of-reference model does not make any reference to the effects of ME on the formation of the subjective sense of competence in a domain of knowledge vs. another.…”