THE EFFECT OF SOCIAL COMPARISON ON INTERPERSONAL PROBLEMS THROUGH SELF-ESTEEM AND EMOTION DYSREGULATION: TESTING A PSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISM FROM AN EVOLUTIONARY FRAMEWORK

Date

2023-7-4

Author

Aslan, Selçuk

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This study investigates the effect of undergraduate students’ social comparison orientations (ability comparison and opinion comparison), self-esteem, and emotion regulation difficulties in explaining their interpersonal problems. The structural model tested for this purpose examines the mediating roles of self-esteem and emotion regulation difficulties in the relationship between social comparison orientation and interpersonal problems. In collecting the study’s data, a demographic information form, together with the Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, and the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems-Circumplex Scales Short Form were applied to the sample consisting of 549 undergraduates. The proposed model based on the evolutionary framework was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). According to the SEM findings of the proposed model, while all of the direct paths of ability-based social comparison were significant, none of the direct paths of opinion- based social comparison were found to be significant. Similarly, indirect relationships between ability-based social comparison and interpersonal problems were significant through self-esteem and emotion regulation difficulties. However, none of the indirect relationships between opinion-based social comparison and interpersonal problems were found to be significant through self-esteem and emotion regulation difficulties. In addition, all direct and indirect relationships between all other variables, except for the opinion-based social comparison, were also shown to be significant. In summary, while all the research hypotheses regarding the ability comparison were confirmed, those regarding the opinion comparison were rejected. The obtained results are then discussed in light of the related literature, and potential contributions to the theory, research, and practice are presented. Finally, suggestions are put forth for similar studies to be conducted in the future.

Subject Keywords

social comparison orientation, self-esteem, emotion dysregulation, interpersonal problems, evolutionary framework

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/104445

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis