Social Comparison, Equality, and Relationship Satisfaction: Gender Differencesover a Ten-Year-Period

摘要

Considerable research on social comparison processes has assumed that acomparison in a given direction (upward or downward) will lead to a particular affective reaction. In contrast, the present studies proposed that a comparison can produce either positive or negative feelings about oneself, independent of its direction. The prediction was upheld in two studies. Several factors moderated the tendency to derive positive or negative affect from upward and downward comparisons. In Study One, cancer patients low in self-esteem and with low perceived control over their symptoms and illness were more likely to see downward comparisons as having negative implications for themselves, as compared with high self-esteem individuals and those high in perceived control. Study Two examined comparison processes with respect to the evaluation of marriage. Few differences were found in positive affect generated by comparisons in either study as a function of moderating variables. The implications of these findings for social comparison theory and for the coping and adaptation literature are discussed.