[Social comparison processes in health psychology and psychotherapy].
Recently, Festinger's (1954) theory of social comparison processes has been "detected" for application in clinical psychology. Patients' social as well as physical comparisons evidently are of high relevance for their starting, participating in, and breaking-off of a (psycho)-therapy. As to our analysis, the availability of physical comparisons, on the one hand, and social comparisons with patients (participating in a group therapy) high in similarity, on the other hand, are of high importance for patients' motivation to successfully end a therapy. Suggesting these results, empirical research supports Festinger's (1954) theory. In the final part of the paper we speculatively apply these results to health counseling. As a consequence of these applications, we expect a growing relevance of the theory of social comparison processes for psychotherapy and health psychology as well.
Haisch
J
J
Haisch
I
I
D006801:Humans; D009042:Motivation; D010352:Patient Dropouts / Q000523:psychology*; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*
Soziale Vergleichsprozesse in Gesundheitspsychologie und Psychotherapie.