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Self‐evaluation maintenance in a larger social context
Author(s) -
Pilkington Constance J.,
Smith Karen A.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1348/014466600164435
Subject(s) - relevance (law) , psychology , social psychology , context (archaeology) , social comparison theory , social environment , paleontology , political science , law , biology
Two studies extended Tesser s (1988) Self‐evaluation Maintenance (SEM) model to include two close others and to examine the implications of intermediate performances on self‐definition. Both demonstrated that when outperformed by both close others, participants rated activities low in self‐relevance. When participants outperformed both close others, relevance was moderate or high. When participants were superior to one close other, but inferior to the other, relevance was low or moderate. When participants were uncertain about relative performances, and when there was disagreement over relative performances among the two close others and participants, ratings of relevance were attenuated as a means of protecting participants self‐evaluations. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of extending the SEM model to the larger social network.