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Competition

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

  • 66 Accesses

Synonyms

Competitive reward structure; Competitiveness

Definition

Competition is defined in psychology as a social situation in which individuals believe their goals are negatively related to others’ goals. Accordingly, one person’s progress is perceived as interfering with and making it less likely that others will reach their goals (Deutsch 1949, 2006).

Introduction

As a situational variable, the psychological definition of competition emphasizes the perceived incompatibility of individual or group goals. However, whether real or imagined, environments perceived as competitive or having a win/lose framework influence both individual and group behavior (Levi 2017). While much of the early research on competition emerged from social psychology (the Latin root – competere means to meet or come together), competition is now an important research topic in a number of applied fields. Currently, research on competition ranges from the evolution of cognition and behavior using the...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA

    John M. Houston & Jennifer S. Queen

Authors
  1. John M. Houston
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  2. Jennifer S. Queen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to John M. Houston .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA

    Glenn Scheyd

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Houston, J.M., Queen, J.S. (2019). Competition. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1615-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1615-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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