Year: 2004
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Despite the limitations and unresolved issues mentioned above, the present dissertation offers an interesting pattern of results concerning affective and selfevaluative responses to exposure to others who are doing better or worse. Particularly by showing that affective and self-evaluative responses differ, or may even be opposite, the present dissertation is relevant to theory of and research into social comparison issues. Furthermore, insight was obtained into the processes that underlie these responses. The degree to which people either compare or identify themselves with others appeared to steer their responses in opposite directions. The present thesis also showed how people with varying levels of social comparison orientation differ in their responses. Finally, the present dissertation offers indications of how people for whom a particular domain is very important, either because they are low in subjective well-being in that domain or because they find it important to excel, may handle comparison with worse-off others and use it to their benefit. In conclusion, when people see others in their surroundings who are doing either better or worse than they are, it appears that it is sometimes more pleasant to listen to the heart, and others times more pleasant to listen to the head.
Author: Hinke A. K. Groothof
Language: English
Topic: Emotions and Moral Behavior
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1502909953