Social comparisons by young children in classroom contexts

Chafel, Judith A.

doi:10.1080/0300443840140107

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Evidence suggests that children as young as preschoolers are capable of comparing themselves with classmates (Chafel, 1984; Masters 1968, 1969). For instance, in an experiment among 50 nursery school children, Masters (1969) examined the effect of social comparison on self-rewards.…”

Section: Motives For Social Comparisonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Comparison in the Classroom: A Review

Dijkstra

Kuyper

Werf

et al. 2008

Review of Educational Research

274

200

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This article reviews research conducted on social comparison processes in the classroom since Festinger proposed his theory of social comparison. It covers the theoretical framework of social comparison theory, and it is organized around the following themes: motives for social comparison, dimensions of social comparison, direction of social comparison, and consequences of social comparison. The overall picture is an emerging one in which pupils prefer to compare their performances upward-specifically, with pupils who perform better than themselves but who resemble themselves on related and unrelated attributes. Although the magnitude of the effects of social comparison in the classroom is not examined, the review suggests that such upward comparisons not only lead pupils to perform better but evoke negative affect and lower academic self-concept. Topics discussed include inconsistencies (especially with regard to the direction of comparison and the motives underlying social comparison in the classroom), practical implications, and directions for future research.

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Section: Motives For Social Comparisonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Comparison in the Classroom: A Review

Dijkstra

Kuyper

Werf

et al. 2008

Review of Educational Research

274

200

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In contrast, preschoolers are thought to interpret performance discrepancies as resulting from more temporary factors (e.g., effort), such that experiences of relative failure indicate to them only that more effort is necessary to obtain success (Nicholls, 1984;Veroff, 1969). In this manner, upward comparisons provide preschoolers with opportunities to learn from their peers and meet mastery goals (Butler, 1989a(Butler, , 1989bChafel, 1984;Mosatche & Bragonier, 1981;Pomerantz et al, 1995). Thus, the development of social comparisons is thought to be intimately tied to developmental changes in beliefs about the causes of individual behavior.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Preschoolers' Responses to Social Comparisons Involving Relative Failure

Rhodes

Brickman

2008

Psychol Sci

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ABSTRACT-Prior work indicates that preschoolers (ages 4-5) maintain high self-appraisals and behavioral engagement after performing less well than their peers. This study tested the hypothesis that relative failure has more negative consequences for preschoolers when they interpret achievement differences as being tied to membership in social categories (e.g., when members of different categories have different achievement levels), as opposed to variations in individual effort. Preschoolers (N 5 58) were randomly assigned to receive feedback that a same-gender, other-gender, or gender-unidentified peer performed better than they did on a novel task. Experiences of failure relative to other-gender peers resulted in impaired performance on a subsequent task trial, as well as lack of improvement in self-evaluations after children received more positive feedback. These findings have implications for the origins of social comparisons, category-based reasoning, and the development of gender stereotypes and achievement motivation.During the preschool years, children rapidly learn a wide range of new skills and inevitably will have experiences in which they do not perform as well as their peers. How do these experiences of relative failure influence children's self-appraisals and behavior? For older children and adults, performing less well than peers often results in lower self-evaluations and poorer subsequent performance (e.g., Mussweiler, 2003;Ruble, Eisenberg, & Higgins, 1994). In contrast, previous research suggests that preschool children show high self-appraisals and continued task engagement after experiences of relative failure (Ruble, 1983). In the present study, we hypothesized that preschoolers' responses to relative failure critically depend on the social-category identity of the comparison peer, and demonstrate that failure relative to other-gender peers leads to decreased task performance and lower self-evaluations among preschoolers.Preschoolers (ages 4-5) have been described as immune to the negative effects of relative failure based on findings that they maintain positive self-appraisals and high levels of task-focused effort after they compare their work with that of better-performing peers (i.e., after upward social comparisons; Boggiano & Ruble, 1979;Pomerantz, Ruble, Frey, & Greulich, 1995;Ruble, Boggiano, Feldman, & Loebl, 1980;Ruble et al., 1994;Ruble, Feldman, & Boggiano, 1976;Ruble, Parsons, & Ross, 1976). In one exception, Butler (1998) found that preschoolers rated their own work more negatively after they received concrete evidence that they performed worse, as opposed to better, than a samegender peer. Butler's results impressively demonstrate that preschoolers understand social comparisons and incorporate comparative information into their performance appraisal. However, the implications of these findings for how preschoolers respond to relative failure are limited in two ways. First, because this research compared how children respond to relative success versus relative failure, these da...

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“…Naturalistic observations of social comparison activity by young children suggest that in many instances children are capable of directing their own behavior, independently of a teacher (Chafel, 1984b). Teacher intervention seems unnecessary.…”

Section: Recognizing Children's Social Competencementioning

confidence: 99%

Social comparisons by young children in classroom contexts

Cited by 9 publications

References 18 publications

Social Comparison in the Classroom: A Review

Social Comparison in the Classroom: A Review

Preschoolers' Responses to Social Comparisons Involving Relative Failure

Social Comparisons by Young Children in Preschool: Naturalistic Illustrations and Teaching Implications

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