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Social Comparison Theory

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

Definition

Social comparison theory concerns the psychological processes by which individuals compare themselves to other people.

Introduction

Social comparison has been a continuously active research topic in social and personality psychology since 1954. Over time, one initial theoretical article developed into a broader field with links to social cognition, individual differences, developmental psychology, and experimental social psychology. The overarching concerns are to examine how people make social comparisons, why they make them, to identify who makes comparisons, and the effects of those comparisons. This entry addresses the key historical and current issues in social comparison research, draws together research on individual differences in social comparison, and identifies links between social comparison and thinking about personhood. We finish with a brief discussion of research measures and related topics.

The Initial Formulation

The initial theory of social comparison...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gordon College, Wenham, MA, USA

    J. P. Gerber

Authors
  1. J. P. Gerber
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Correspondence to J. P. Gerber .

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. Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    Christian H. Jordan

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Gerber, J.P. (2018). Social Comparison Theory. 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_1182-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1182-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

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