Social Comparison
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Social Comparison, Textbook p. 603
During a music concert in one of the schools, one girl by the name MW talked about a girl named VR whom she was competing. MW said that VR had put on a weird costume. She was pissed off when VR was announced the winner of the concert. MW told her friends she was the best placed to win the concert but the judges had favored MW against her.
Deep inside, MW admired VR. She started testing similar costumes to those VR had put on during the concert. In fact, she started getting closer to VR and once asked her how she had managed to win in the concert. It was not surprising when during the following concert MW put on a similar costume as VR had put during the previous concert. MW’s friends were surprised to find her in similar costumes as VR. They also started putting on similar costumes in the concerts that followed.
MW and her friends discovered that they really wanted to be like VR. They admired the fact that she was gifted in music and they all wanted to emulate her. Through their comparison of their own abilities and the abilities of VR, they were able to discover who they were and aspired to be like someone who was better than them (Myers, 2012). Although it appeared they were apparently jealous of VR, their true feelings were that they wanted to be better and VR represented the goal they wanted to achieve.