Who Strives and Who Gives Up? The Role of Social Comparison Distance and Achievement Goals on Students’ Learning Investment (original) (raw)
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Frontiers in Psychology
In school settings, adolescents recur to different sources of information to create their beliefs about future possibilities. Social comparison processes and personal goals related to achievement play an important role in shaping these beliefs. Drawing upon literature concerning the Big-Fish-Little-Pond effect and the Achievement Goal Theory, the present study aimed at understanding how adolescents attending the last year of secondary school (n= 689;Mage= 18.15;SD= 0.57) perceive their possibilities of potentially having a better future than their classmates. In particular, we sought to understand in what way this perception is influenced by students’ perceived relative position in their class—which accounts for the social comparison process—and its interaction with different types of achievement goals (mastery-approach goals, mastery-avoidance goals, performance-approach goals, and performance-avoidance goals). Results showed that perceived relative position mediated the relationsh...
The interplay of mastery and performance goals in social comparison: A multiple-goal perspective
2010
recently demonstrated that not only performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals (respectively, the desire to outperform others and not to be outperformed by others) but also mastery goals (the desire to acquire knowledge) were related to social comparison orientation (SCO, the tendency to search for social comparison information). In the present article, the possibility of a link between mastery goals and social comparison that depends on the level of performance-approach goals-a possibility supported by a multiple-goal perspective-was tested by examining the interaction effect between mastery and performance-approach goals. This is an important endeavor, as educational settings are rarely free from performance-approach goals, even when mastery goals are promoted. In Study 1, we tested self-set achievement goals (mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals) as predictors of SCO; the interaction between mastery goals and performance-approach goals indicated that the higher the performance-approach goal endorsement, the stronger the link between mastery goals and SCO. In Study 2, we manipulated goal conditions; mastery goals predicted interest in social comparison in the performance-approach goal condition only. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of multiple-goal pursuit in academic settings.
Contemporary Educational Psychology, 2003
This study addressed notions derived from a model by of self-concept and how it is influenced by social relationships. We were interested in whether the self-evaluation maintenance model (SEM) would allow us to investigate more directly the value component in expectancy-value models of achievement motivation. Using distinctions often made about different motivational orientations, we discovered a three-way interaction between level of mastery orientation (high or low), relevance of math (high or low), and target of rating (self or 7th grade friend) on studentsÕ perception of ability in math. Thus, the SEM model was supported but only for students reporting a low mastery orientation. For them, those who reported math as highly relevant estimated their own ability as significantly higher than their friendÕs, whereas those reporting math as less relevant showed no difference in estimates of ability between self or friend. For high mastery oriented students, no differences were found.
Social Comparison in the Setting of Goals for Own and Others' Performance
2000
This research examines social factors implicated by social comparison theory to be involved in the setting of task performance goals. Participants conducted an error-checking task and selected performance goals for themselves, their roommates, and unknown others. In addition, participants made judgments regarding their relative ability on the task as well as stating their confidence in attaining the goals. Consistent with predictions, participants rated themselves as above average in ability, had more confidence in their own abilities, and set lower goals for others than for themselves. In addition, individuals had more confidence in the abilities of their roommates than unknown others, and consequently chose goals for their roommates that were more similar to their own goals. The results and implications of this study are discussed within the context of social comparison theory and the better-than-average effect.
Role of social comparison orientation and tendencies in Iranian EFL learners academic achievement
2015
Social Comparison is important as it can be either encouraging or discouraging for the person who makes it. Although studies concerning social comparison in the classroom context abound, few deal with the relationship between the role of social comparison orientation and tendencies in academic achievement in a competition based educational context. Adopting a non- experimental ex-post facto design, this study examines such relationship on 387 English Major Students studying in different Iranian universities in the academic year 2014- 2015. Data were collected through a modified version of Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure (INCOM). The results, obtained through the statistical techniques of correlation and multinomial logistic regression, revealed that there is a significant relationship between social comparison and academic achievement. Moreover, the results indicated that high comparison orientation and upward tendency for students predict higher academic achievement...
Integrating Social and Personal Theories of Achievement Striving
1994
Empirical research clearly documents that attributions of failure to lack of ability result in less punishment from others than do ascriptions to lack of effort. In addition, personal attributions of failure to lack of ability result in worse subsequent performance than do ascriptions to an absence of effort. This paper provides a conceptual analysis of these empirical findings. The interpretation is guided by a taxonomy of causal thinking and by presuming that emotions mediate between causal thinking and action. In addition, a distinction is drawn between a process versus a functional understanding of achievement strivings.
1984
Systematic changes in their classroom environments occur when students make thy, transition from upper-elementary to junior high school. 56:talents typically experience a transition from a self-contained classroom to departmentalized instruction in junior high school; they often also experience a transition from, heterogeneous to homogeneous, ability-grouped classrooms in junior high school. Efficts of these environmental changes on students' social comparison of abilities and achisveient-related belrefs and values in mathematics are examined for a Sample of 291 students in 14' upper-elementary and junior high school classrooms. 'Certain social comparison behaviors increase when the school transition occurs and are higher in heterogeneous compared to homogeneous, ability-grouped junior high school classroomsY Other social comparison, behaviors are affectird in quite different ways at the schdol tIansition. Self-concept of'mlith ability and math value decline &t the school transition. Implications of these trends for long-term persistence in awthematics and suggestions for future research are discussed.