Social comparisons in everyday life, the validity of a diary method and the roles of depressive personality styles and dysphoria

Abstract

Sociotropy and autonomy have been characterized as personality styles that, in interaction with congruent major life events, confer vulnerability to depression (Beck, 1983). The present study had two purposes: to examine social comparisons in the daily affective lives of people with these personality styles, and to examine the validity of Wheeler and Miyake's (1992) diary method for studying social comparisons naturalistically. For three weeks, 27 sociotropic and 35 autonomous undergraduates completed a record each time they engaged in a social comparison. The social comparison diary demonstrated strong validity: It correlated predictably with various individual difference measures and the results supported previous theory and research in the literature. Furthermore, Wheeler and Miyake's provocative findings regarding the association between comparison direction and precomparison affect, self-esteem, and mood effects were replicated. Depressive personality style also was found to moderate the selection of comparisons and the affective consequences of comparisons, particularly in dysphoric individuals. These results have implications for the social comparison and depressive personality styles literatures.