“Am I better than I was before?” Social and temporal comparisons in childhood and adolescence

Across the world, we offer children many opportunities for making downward social comparisons (i.e., comparing oneself favorably to others). These practices are well-intentioned: we want to make children feel competent and proud. Yet, such comparisons may backfire. Social comparisons may contribute to a desire for superiority over others, focusing children on interpersonal competitions. An understudied type of comparison—temporal comparison (comparing one’s present self with one’s past self)—might be an alternative approach with a potential to shift children’s mindset away from interpersonal competition toward intrapersonal competition. In this dissertation, I examined whether temporal comparison could give children the same developmental benefits as social comparisons but without the unwanted effects of social comparisons. In Chapter 2, I examined the immediate impact of social and temporal comparisons on emotions and goals. In Chapter 3, I examined whether the immediate effects of temporal comparisons can translate into daily life. In Chapter 4, I examined what the long-term effects are of social and temporal comparisons. Collectively, these studies show that temporal comparisons have similar benefits as social comparisons without the risks of social comparisons. Downward temporal comparisons make children feel proud but without making them desire to be superior to others and while giving them a sense of more progress and insight. Such processes also occur on a daily basis: On days when adolescents make more downward temporal comparisons (but not social comparisons), they desire self-improvement over superiority and feel more related to others. Lastly, downward temporal comparisons may help curtail narcissism.