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Social Comparison Processes in Health and Illness

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Handbook of Social Comparison

Part of the book series: The Springer Series in Social Clinical Psychology ((SSSC))

Abstract

Social comparison processes play an increasingly pivotal role in psychological theories of how people interpret health threats, how they understand their own health risks, how and when they decide to seek care for physical symptoms, and how they adapt to serious illness and disability. Our goal in this chapter is to provide an overview of research in which social comparison principles have been applied to health-related situations. Medical problems or situations that create uncertainty about one’s health are good arenas in which to study social comparison phenomena. People who are ill often have difficulty obtaining information about the course of their illness and its treatment, which may make it difficult for them to make objective self-evaluations. The emotional distress they experience may not always be alleviated by direct action. Individuals facing threatening medical encounters therefore may be compelled to search for comparisons as a way to counteract these and other negative consequences of their situation. As we hope to demonstrate, however, people who are not ill also turn to social comparisons to explain disconcerting symptoms and to make decisions about appropriate preventive behaviors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Medicine, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut, 06030, USA

    Howard Tennen & Glenn Affleck

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, 06269-1020, USA

    Tara Eberhardt Mckee

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  1. Howard Tennen
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  2. Tara Eberhardt Mckee
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  3. Glenn Affleck
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA

    Jerry Suls

  2. University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Ladd Wheeler

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Tennen, H., Mckee, T.E., Affleck, G. (2000). Social Comparison Processes in Health and Illness. In: Suls, J., Wheeler, L. (eds) Handbook of Social Comparison. The Springer Series in Social Clinical Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4237-7_21

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