伴侶之社會比較及其對個體自我評價的影響

Abstract

本研究主要探討個體在進行伴侶之社會比較時，可能的比較層面、比較對象，以及比較結果對個體自我評價可能造成的影響。過去社會比較研究多以自己本身為比較的主體，甚少論及個體如何將自己伴侶與他人加以比較，本研究則針對此不足之處，進行探討。研究一結果顯示，當在能力層面進行社會比較時，個體會選擇與伴侶相似的他人做為比較對象，而對伴侶人際情感層面的表現則會同時考慮到自己與對方的相似性及伴侶與對方伴侶的相似性。研究二結果則顯示，若伴侶的能力層面表現不若對方伴侶時，個體對伴侶的評價會下降，但本身自我評價則反而提高。而在人際情感層面，伴侶表現不如對方伴侶時，若個體本身與對方相似，個體對伴侶的評價及本身的社會自尊均會下降。

The purpose of this study is to examine the possible impact of the close partner`s social comparison process. The author tried to investigate who would be considered as the appropriate comparison target for one`s close partner and the possible impacts of the comparison on one`s self-evaluation and the evaluation of the close partner. Experiment 1 examined how one selected the comparison target for one`s close partner when facing different comparison dimensions. The results indicated that, when facing the dimension relates to ability, one tended to choose someone who is similar with one`s close partner as the comparison target. Meanwhile, when facing the affect dimension, one would consider both the similarity between oneself and the other and the similarity between one`s close partner and the other`s close partner. The result of experiment 2 showed that if other`s close partner outperformed one`s close partner on the ability dimension, one would have lower evaluation of his/her partner, but one`s own self-evaluation would become even higher. A compensation effect and a “cut off” effect were proposed to explain this phenomenon. On the other hand, if one`s close partner was not as good as other`s close partner on the affect dimension, one`s self-evaluation and the evaluation of one`s own close partner were both decreased. Further implications were also discussed.