People's responses to upward and downward social comparisons: the role of the individual's effort-performance expectancy.
The aim of this research among practicing teachers was to demonstrate that the individual's effort-performance (E-P) expectancy can explain different responses to upward and downward social comparison information in terms of positive affect and the intent to work harder. The results of both Experiment 1 (N=100) and Experiment 2 (N=162) show that exposure to a superior colleague generated more positive affect among teachers than exposure to an inferior other, particularly at high levels of E-P expectancy. Perhaps more importantly, explaining target's superior performance in terms of high effort and inferior performance in terms of low effort enhanced participants' intentions to work harder at their own jobs.
Van Yperen
Nico W
NW
University of Groningen, Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, The Netherlands. N.van.Yperen@rug.nl
Brenninkmeijer
Veerle
V
Buunk
Abraham P
AP
D000328:Adult; D005178:Faculty; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D009426:Netherlands; D012933:Social Identification; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis