Week 2 Assignment

With nearly 1,000 people in my graduating class, academic GPA and rank were quite competitive. Those of us in a small percentage of the top of the class therefore definitely experienced social comparison throughout our high school years. For example, Tesser (1986) suggested that the success of people similar or close to us can cause envy. This is strengthened with the closeness of the interpersonal relationship and the degree to which the ambition is common or shared. The valedictorian of our senior class was a friend of mine, and there were many times when I was jealous of her academic achievement. (She also was extremely pretty, came from a wonderful family, and had other attributes that weren’t necessarily “goals,” but I wonder if these attributes contributed to my envy towards her high scholarship.)

Also, while grades provide a concrete measurement of academic achievement, it’s still difficult to discern who is more intelligent than whom when you only look at a sample of people with grades that are very close together in merit. In the classroom and in the school environment, there is definitely social comparison. Thinking back, I know I compared myself with those in the classroom with those who were slightly better at expressing ideas, writing papers, taking tests, studying, working on group projects, etc. despite my knowledge (or lack thereof) of the actual grade this person was receiving. I wonder if this actually guided my own achievements upward!