Leon Festinger's Social Comparison Theory

Leon Festinger, a social psychologist is best known for his Social Comparison theory.

Festinger developed the theory after observing interactions among social groups while he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His observations led to his analyzes on how certain groups interact with one another and how individuals are influenced through behavioral norms and expectations. Festinger’s Social Comparison theory is a framework that provides explanations and reasons why people evaluate themselves to others. His first hypothesis states that “there exist, in the human organism, a drive to evaluate his opinions and abilities.” Festinger’s second hypothesis says that “to the extent that objective and non-social means are not

Peer pressure and social expectations are just a few of the many challenges for teenagers but these feelings about themselves at this age tend to end up being long lasting memories that can have impact our self-esteem for good or bad. We often used our own social groups to model our own behavior. We compare our own life in terms of relationships, career choices etc, to those of others around us. We seek out information and opinions of others and attempt to establish some of those norms, whether realistic or not, into our own life. This may result in self-doubt. Social media has been a blessing and a curse. Most people will post only positive images and attributes about themselves. This re-sults is often an unrealistic image of their actual everyday life. However, positive images of oth-ers can lead to self-doubt in people’s own relationships. They may think they are missing out or lack something in their lives or they or may develop feelings of

While, I have begun to worry less about the small stuff, I do worry that I will not always reach my goals. I believe constant assess-ment can also be health and you can change your behavior in order to become a better person. Social Comparisons, I believe, make you become a better individual and the best that you can be.

. Social Comparison theory is helpful in understanding why and how we compare ourselves to others. We often compare ourselves to similar people, in order to establish a criteria on which we are able to make certain judgments about ourselves. We may sometimes compare ourselves in an upward direction or we may compare ourselves in a downward direction. Both serve a purpose in that. they can result in positive or negative feelings about one’s self. In turn this can cause our behavior to change. We may decide to act upon those feelings to improve our own mental standing. We often subconsciously compare ourselves to others in terms of physical, cognitive, or athletic attributes. This is particular noticeable in school where we are