Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Goal orientations and social comparison: The role of different motivations in affiliation preferences

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Motivation and Emotion Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In light of previous findings that both task and ego orientations are related to engagement in social comparison, the present research aimed to investigate this association in depth by examining why and with whom task- and ego-oriented individuals engage in comparisons. In Study 1, we found that task-oriented individuals tended to prefer working with a high performer because they wanted to improve themselves. In Study 2, we provided participants with success or failure feedback before asking them to indicate partner preferences. In the face of failure, task-oriented individuals showed a preference for a high performer due to self-improvement motivation. On the contrary, ego-oriented individuals were more motivated to feel superior to others and/or less motivated to improve themselves, which in turn led them to prefer a less competent partner. The present research demonstrated that the seemingly identical relation between the two goal orientations and the tendency to engage in social comparison might be substantially different in nature.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ames, C. (1992). Classrooms: Goals, structures, and student motivation. Journal of Educational Psychology , 84 , 261–271.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ames, C., & Archer, J. (1988). Achievement goals in the classroom: Students’ learning strategies and motivation processes. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 260–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barkoukis, V., Ntoumanis, N., & Nikitaras, N. (2007). Comparing dichotomous and trichotomous approaches to achievement goal theory: An example using motivational regulations as outcome variables. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 77, 683–702.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bounoua, L., Cury, F., Regner, I., Huguet, P., Barron, K. E., & Elliot, A. J. (2012). Motivated use of information about others: Linking the 2 × 2 achievement goal model to social comparison propensities and processes. British Journal of Social Psychology, 51, 626–641.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Butler, R. (1992). What young people want to know when: Effects of mastery and ability goals on interest in different kinds of social comparisons. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 934–943.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Butler, R. (1993). Effects of task- and ego-achievement goals on information seeking during task engagement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 18–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buunk, A. P., Cohen-Schotanus, J., & van Nek, R. H. (2007). Why and how people engage in social comparison while learning social skills in groups. Group Dynamics, 11, 140–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buunk, A. P., & Gibbons, F. X. (2007). Social comparison: The end of a theory and the emergence of a field. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 102, 3–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chatzisarantis, N. L., Ada, E. N., Bing, Q., Papaioannou, A., Prpa, N., & Hagger, M. S. (2016). Clarifying the link between mastery goals and social comparisons in classroom settings. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 46, 61–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins, R. L. (2000). Among the better ones. In J. Suls & L. Wheeler (Eds.), Handbook of social comparison (pp. 159–172). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Darnon, C., Dompnier, B., Gilliéron, O., & Butera, F. (2010). The interplay of mastery and performance goals in social comparison: A multiple-goal perspective. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102, 212–222.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dickhäuser, C., Buch, S. R., & Dickhäuser, O. (2011). Achievement after failure: The role of achievement goals and negative self-related thoughts. Learning and Instruction, 21, 152–162.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duda, J. L., & Nicholls, J. G. (1992). Dimensions of achievement motivation in schoolwork and sport. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84, 290–299.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dweck, C. S., & Leggett, E. L. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review, 95, 256–273.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elliot, A. J. (1999). Approach and avoidance motivation and achievement goals. Educational Psychologist, 34, 169–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elliot, A. J., & McGregor, H. A. (2001). A 2 × 2 achievement goal framework. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 501–515.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Elliot, A. J., & Murayama, K. (2008). On the measurement of achievement goals: Critique, illustration, and application. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100, 613–628.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elliott, E. S., & Dweck, C. S. (1988). Goals: An approach to motivation and achievement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 5–12.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7, 117–140.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friend, R. M., & Gilbert, J. (1973). Threat and fear of negative evaluation as determinants of locus of social comparison. Journal of Personality, 41, 328–340.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gerrard, M., Gibbons, F. X., Lane, D. J., & Stock, M. L. (2005). Smoking cessation: Social comparison level predicts success for adult smokers. Health Psychology, 24, 623–629.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gibbons, F. X., Benbow, C. P., & Gerrard, M. (1994). From top dog to bottom half: Social comparison strategies in response to poor performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 638–652.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gibbons, F. X., Lane, D. J., Gerrard, M., Reis-Bergan, M., Lautrup, C. L., Pexa, N. A., & Blanton, H. (2002). Comparison-level preferences after performance: Is downward comparison theory still useful? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 865–880.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grant, H., & Dweck, C. S. (2003). Clarifying achievement goals and their impact. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 541–553.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gregg, A. P., Hepper, E. G., & Sedikides, C. (2011). Quantifying self-motives: Functional links between dispositional desires. European Journal of Social Psychology, 41, 840–852.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helgeson, V. S., & Mickelson, K. D. (1995). Motives for social comparison. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 1200–1209.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, A., & Maehr, M. L. (2007). The contributions and prospects of goal orientation theory. Educational Psychology Review, 19, 141–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kozlowski, S. W., & Bell, B. S. (2006). Disentangling achievement orientation and goal setting: Effects on self-regulatory processes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 900–916.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, W., & Kim, S. I. (2014). Effects of achievement goals on challenge seeking and feedback processing: Behavioral and fMRI evidence. PLoS ONE, 9, 1–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lockwood, P., & Kunda, Z. (1997). Superstars and me: Predicting the impact of role models on the self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 91–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Major, B., Testa, M., & Bylsma, W. H. (1991). Responses to upward and downward comparisons: The impact of esteem-relevance and perceived control. In J. Suls & T. A. Wills (Eds.), Social comparison: Contemporary theory and research (pp. 237–260). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, R. L., & Suls, J. M. (1977). Affiliation preferences as a function of attitude and ability similarity. In J. M. Suls & R. L. Miller (Eds.), Social comparison processes: Theoretical and empirical processes (pp. 103–123). Washington, DC: Hemisphere.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neff, K. D., Hsieh, Y. P., & Dejitterat, K. (2005). Self-compassion, achievement goals, and coping with academic failure. Self and Identity, 4, 263–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicholls, J. G. (1984). Achievement motivation: Conceptions of ability, subjective experience, task choice, and performance. Psychological Review, 91, 328–346.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicholls, J. G. (1989). The competitive ethos and democratic education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicholls, J. G., Cheung, P. C., Lauer, J., & Patashnick, M. (1989). Individual differences in academic motivation: Perceived ability, goals, beliefs, and values. Learning and Individual Differences, 1, 63–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicholls, J. G., Patashnick, M., & Nolen, S. B. (1985). Adolescents’ theories of education. Journal of Educational Psychology, 77, 683–692.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nolen, S. B. (1988). Reasons for studying: Motivational orientations and study strategies. Cognition and Instruction, 5, 269–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Park, S. W., Bauer, J. J., & Arbuckle, N. B. (2009). Growth motivation attenuates the self-serving attribution. Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 914–917.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poortvliet, M., & Darnon, C. (2010). Towards a more social understanding of achievement goals: The interpersonal effects of mastery and performance goals. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19, 324–328.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poortvliet, P. M. (2013). Harming others’ task-related efforts: The distinct competitive effects of ranking information on performance and mastery goal individuals. Social Psychology, 44, 373–379.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poortvliet, P. M., Janssen, O., Van Yperen, N. W., & Van De Vliert, E. (2007). Achievement goals and interpersonal behavior: How mastery and performance goals shape information exchange. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 1435–1447.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & LaPrelle, J. (1985). Social comparison after success and failure: Biased search for information consistent with a self-serving conclusion. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 21, 195–211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Régner, I., Escribe, C., & Dupeyrat, C. (2007). Evidence of social comparison in mastery goals in natural academic settings. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99, 575–583.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, G. C., Treasure, D. C., & Balague, G. (1998). Achievement goals in sport: The development and validation of the perception of success questionnaire. Journal of Sports Sciences, 16, 337–347.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rucker, D. D., Preacher, K. J., Tormala, Z. L., & Petty, R. E. (2011). Mediation analysis in social psychology: Current practices and new recommendations. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5, 359–371.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sedikides, C., & Strube, M. J. (1997). Self-evaluation: To thine own self be good, to thine own self be sure, to thine own self be true, and to thine own self be better. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 29, 209–269.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sideridis, G. D., & Kaplan, A. (2011). Achievement goals and persistence across tasks: The roles of failure and success. The Journal of Experimental Education, 79, 429–451.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simmons, J. P., Nelson, L. D., & Simonsohn, U. (2011). False-positive psychology: Undisclosed flexibility in data collection and analysis allows presenting anything as significant. Psychological Science, 22, 1359–1366.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, R. H., & Insko, C. A. (1987). Social comparison choice during ability evaluation: The effects of comparison publicity, performance feedback, and self-esteem. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 13, 111–122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, W. P., & Sachs, P. R. (1997). Social comparison and task prediction: Ability similarity and the use of a proxy. British Journal of Social Psychology, 36, 587–602.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Spinath, B., & Stiensmeier-Pelster, J. (2003). Goal orientation and achievement: The role of ability self-concept and failure perception. Learning and Instruction, 13, 403–422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stanton, A. L., Danoff-Burg, S., Cameron, C. L., Snider, P. R., & Kirk, S. B. (1999). Social comparison and adjustment to breast cancer: An experimental examination of upward affiliation and downward evaluation. Health Psychology, 18, 151–158.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Suls, J., Martin, R., & Wheeler, L. (2002). Social comparison: Why, with whom, and with what effect? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 159–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, S. E., & Lobel, M. (1989). Social comparison activity under threat: Downward evaluation and upward contacts. Psychological Review, 96, 569–575.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Urdan, T., & Midgley, C. (2001). Academic self-handicapping: What we know, what more there is to learn. Educational Psychology Review, 13, 115–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Yperen, N. W., & Leander, N. P. (2014). The overpowering effect of social comparison information on the misalignment between mastery-based goals and self-evaluation criteria. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40, 676–688.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • VandeWalle, D. (2004). A goal orientation model of feedback-seeking behavior. Human Resource Management Review, 13, 581–604.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • VandeWalle, D., & Cummings, L. L. (1997). A test of the influence of goal orientation on the feedback-seeking process. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 390–400.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wayment, H. A., & Taylor, S. E. (1995). Self-evaluation processes: Motives, information use, and self-esteem. Journal of Personality, 63, 729–757.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wheeler, L., Koestner, R., & Driver, R. E. (1982). Related attributes in the choice of comparison others: It’s there, but it isn’t all there is. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 18, 489–500.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wills, T. A. (1981). Downward comparison principles in social psychology. Psychological Bulletin, 90, 245–271.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wood, J. V. (1989). Theory and research concerning social comparisons of personal attributes. Psychological Bulletin, 106, 231–248.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wood, J. V., & Taylor, K. L. (1991). Serving self-relevant goals through social comparison. In J. M. Suls & T. A. Wills (Eds.), Social comparison: Theory and research (pp. 23–50). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wood, J. V., Taylor, S. E., & Lichtman, R. R. (1985). Social comparison in adjustment to breast cancer. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 1169–1183.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Korea University, 145 Anam-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, 02841, South Korea

    Yoobin Park & Sun W. Park

Authors
  1. Yoobin Park
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sun W. Park
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sun W. Park.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Park, Y., Park, S.W. Goal orientations and social comparison: The role of different motivations in affiliation preferences. Motiv Emot 41, 617–627 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-017-9634-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-017-9634-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation