Publisher Description

Comparison of objects, events, and situations is integral to judgment; comparisons of the self with other people comprise one of the building blocks of human conduct and experience. After four decades of research, the topic of social comparison is more popular than ever. In this timely handbook a distinguished roster of researchers and theoreticians describe where the field has been since its development in the early 1950s and where it is likely to go next.

The Oxford Handbook of Social Influence restores this important field to its once preeminent position within social psychology. Editors Harkins, Williams, and Burger lead a team of leading scholars as they explore a variety of topics within social influence, seamlessly incorporating a range of analyses (including intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intragroup), and examine critical theories and the role of social influence in applied settings today.

Assessment of abilities, opinions, and overall feelings of self-worth, are commonly acknowledged to be influenced by how ones’ attributes compare with those of other people. In contemporary social psychology, this process is known as social comparison or interpersonal comparison. Originally published in 1991, this volume presents the most recent developments in this field of study at the time. As described in the chapters the theory has gone through several iterations, taken on new problems and research paradigms, and reached out to other social-psychological areas of study. Some of this research addresses questions that are logical extensions of Festinger’s theory; some consider questions that derive from entirely different ways of construing the comparison process from Festinger’s original approach. Although all questions are not settled, the work presented here shows how far the original social comparison theory has evolved and suggests where the next insights are likely to be found. Today it can be read in its historical contex

The extent to which we see ourselves as similar or different from others in our lives plays a key role in getting along and participating in social life. This volume identifies research relevant to such communal functions of social comparisons and summarizes and organizes this research within a single, coherent conceptual framework. The volume provides an important addition to current thinking about social comparison, which has often neglected communal and affiliative functions. Whereas human desire to compare with others has traditionally been viewed as motivated by self-centered needs such as self-evaluation, self-enhancement, and self-improvement, this book presents an eclectic cross-section of research that illuminates connective, cooperative, and participatory functions of social comparisons. In this vein, the book aims both to expose research on currently neglected functions of social comparisons and to motivate a broader theoretical integration of social comparison processes.

Over the past decades, the field of health psychology has witnessed a tremendous growth, and social psychologists have contributed substantially to the theoretical foundation of this field. Their research has focused on a wide variety of health-relevant topics such as how individuals decide to respond to threats to their health and well-being, how and why they change their behavior to avoid such threats, and especially, how they adjust to or cope with the risk of threatening disease and with the diseases themselves. As diverse as this literature may be, however, there does appear to be a common theme throughout much of it--the observation that comparison of oneself and one's health status and coping efforts with others is an integral part of the coping process. Consequently, social comparison theory is increasingly becoming recognized as a fruitful framework for illuminating health related issues. A still expanding literature is exploring the role of social comparisons with respect to coping with a wide range of health problems, including cancer, physical decline among the aged, rheumatoid arthritis, AIDS, stress at work and occupational burnout, and eating disorders. Social comparison theory has augmented knowledge about the ways in which people cope with stressful events, and thus has contributed significantly to it. At a more basic level, research in this applied context has made significant contributions to the development of social comparison theory itself. The present volume presents an overview of the various ways in which social comparison theory has been applied to issues related to health, coping, and well-being, and also points out how these applications have contributed to our insight into the way humans employ social comparison information. Given the attention paid to theoretical and applied issues, this volume will appeal to a wide audience, including social and health psychologists, as well as therapists, physicians, clinicians, medical sociologists, nurses, and those involved in the growing field of nursing research.