Better Than My Past Self: Temporal Comparison Raises Dutch Children’s Pride Without Triggering Superiority Goals

• In Event: 3-178 - Social, emotional & self-regulatory influences on children’s mastery strivings, from different countries & perspectives

Integrative Statement

Western societies offer children many opportunities for downward social comparison (i.e., comparing oneself favorably to others). Adults tell children that they are better than others (Kohn, 1992). Educational systems typically provide children with normative grading (Dijkstra, Kuyper, van der Werf, Buunk, & van der Zee, 2008; Levine, 1983). Some schools select and publicly announce “the best student” of the day, week, month, or year (Csermely, 2003). Such a comparison makes children feel proud of themselves but could inadvertently trigger a desire to be superior to others. How can children be made to feel proud without triggering a desire for superiority? We hypothesized that downward temporal comparison (i.e., comparing one’s current self favorably to one’s past self) can make children feel proud and give them a sense of insight and progress, without triggering a desire for superiority.
In this Dutch randomized experiment, for the first time, we compared the effects of social and temporal comparisons on children (N = 583, Mage = 11.65, SD = 1.92). We timed our study in late childhood and adolescence, when children spontaneously engage in both social and temporal comparisons to evaluate themselves (Harter, 2012). We manipulated comparisons by having children engage in a reading and writing exercise for about 15 minutes in their classrooms. Children received a closed booklet that contained written instructions. They first selected a domain central to their identity (e.g., schoolwork, sports, music). They were then randomly assigned, on an individual basis, to reflect back on and write about an experience involving social comparison (downward or upward), temporal comparison (downward or upward), or no comparison. Next, they reported their self-feelings and goal orientations (i.e., the desire to outperform others vs. to improve oneself). We analyzed data using 3 (Comparison Type: social, temporal, none) × 3 (Comparison Direction: downward, upward, none) between-subjects Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) separately for each outcome variable. We followed up significant effects with planned pairwise comparisons.
As hypothesized, downward social and temporal comparisons both made children feel proud of themselves, but only temporal comparisons did so without triggering superiority goals. Relative to social comparisons, temporal comparisons gave children a sense of progress and insight, and triggered a desire in them for self-improvement more so than for superiority.
Our findings suggest that social comparisons may contribute to a competitive interpersonal orientation in children. Goal theories (Ames, 1992; Nicholls, 1984) indicate that contexts that foster such a competitive interpersonal orientation make children concerned about outperforming others rather than about mastering the task at hand. In such contexts, children may sacrifice learning opportunities for the sake of appearing superior. Unlike social comparisons, temporal comparisons may focus children on improving themselves more so than on being superior to others, while giving them an eye-opening opportunity for understanding the change within the self over time. Taken together, downward temporal comparison can be a healthy alternative to downward social comparison, as it makes children feel proud, and gives them a sense of progress and insight, without triggering a desire for superiority.

Authors

• Çisem Gürel, University of Amsterdam
  Presenting Author

• Eddie Brummelman, University of Amsterdam
  Non-Presenting Author

• Constantine Sedikides, University of Sourhampton
  Non-Presenting Author

• Geertjan Overbeek, University of Amsterdam
  Non-Presenting Author