APS
30th APS Annual Convention · 2018
Bettering Past Selves: Temporal Comparison Shapes Children’s Self-Feelings and Goals
- Çisem Gürel
University of Amsterdam - Eddie Brummelman
University of Amsterdam - Constantine Sedikides
University of Southampton - Geertjan Overbeek
University of Amsterdam
Abstract
Western society provides many opportunities to children for downward social comparison. Such comparison makes children feel proud, but also encourages them to outperform others. We show that engaging in downward temporal comparison—bettering past selves—makes children feel proud while encouraging them to improve themselves rather than to outperform others.
Self
