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Social Comparison: The Change In Self-Esteem

Decent Essays

The independent variable of the experiment will be social comparison. Social comparison will be made by giving feedback sheets to the students in the social comparison condition. The feedback sheets include every student’s score on the exam. The dependent variable is the change in self-esteem the student may face. The change in self-esteem will be measured in a questionnaire that assesses their self-esteem before taking the exam and how they felt they compared to the rest of the group and after the feedback sheets and how felt they compared with the rest of the class. I will experimentally manipulate social comparison by having participants complete a placement exam for a class that participants have shown to express interest or previous knowledge …show more content…

All participants in group 1, the social comparison condition, will receive the feedback sheet to show where they compare with the rest of the participants in the course. The participants will be manipulated to sit next to a participant that had the reciprocal score of what the individual received. Participants in group 2, the control group, will not be receiving the feedback sheet. Participants in both groups will receive a questionnaire that asks how the exam made them feel and how well they felt they did on the exam. There will be questions that ask how they feel they will do in the course. After the lecture has been presented to the class, the participants will then be given the second exam. Following the second exam, participants in group 1 will be receiving the feedback sheet while participants in group 2 will not be receiving the feedback sheet. All participants will receive a follow-up questionnaire in which they will be asked how they felt they compared to the rest of their peers, how the exam made them feel, what their self-esteem is after completing the

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