Jenn didn’t do as well as she would have liked on the first 3325 exam. She wants to motivate herself to do better on the next exam. Her primary goal is to improve herself. To whom would it be most useful for Jenn to compare herself?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Consider the scenario: Jenn aims to improve her own performance on the next exam, so the most useful comparison should provide relevant, actionable insight from a similar context.
Option 1: Jill, who performed equally as well as Jenn on her first exam, and is in the same class. This gives Jenn a baseline that is the same as hers, which might motivate but offers limited new information about how to improve, since they started at a similar level.
Option 2: Cindy, who performed equally as well as Jenn on her first exam, but is in a different class. While the comparable level is useful, the different class means different pacing, topics, or teaching style, reducing the transferability of any strategies Jenn could adopt from that comparison.
Option 3: Libby, who did worse than Jenn on the first exam. Comparing to someone who performed worse can highlight the gap for improvement but provides less insight into effective strategies for raising performance; it may also be demotivating if Jenn fixates on the other person’s struggle rather than her own path to improvement.
Option 4: Sheila, who did better than Jenn on the first exam. This is the most useful comparison for self-improvement: it sets a concrete performance target, suggests there are actionable practices or study approaches Jenn can observe and adapt, and, since it’s in the same context (same exam and class), the differences are more likely due to controllable factors.
In summary, the value of a comparison for boosting effort and strategy is highest when the peer is succeeding in a similar context and at a reachable level, which points to Sheila as the most informative reference. The other options either lack contextual alignment, offer less actionable insight, or could reduce motivation by focusing on differences rather than constructive strategies.

PSYCH 3325 AU2025 (37320) Exam 2

Jenn didn’t do as well as she would have liked on the first 3325 exam. She wants to motivate herself to do better on the next exam. Her primary goal is to improve herself. To whom would it be most useful for Jenn to compare herself?

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PSYCH 3325 AU2025 (37320) Exam 2

Jenn didn’t do as well as she would have liked on the first 3325 exam. She wants to motivate herself to do better on the next exam. Her primary goal is to improve herself. To whom would it be most useful for Jenn to compare herself?

View Explanation

Log in for full answers

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According to Social Comparison Theory, schadenfreude tends to be stronger when we take joy in the pain and suffering of someone we perceive to have a higher status than us.

When we want accurate self-information we are most likely to compare ourselves to others, this is called:

Perceiving yourself as a fast runner because you are faster than a small child is a (biased) example of a(n) _____________, whereas perceiving yourself as a slow runner because you are slower than Usain Bolt is a (biased) example of a(n) ________________.

Which of the following app-based strategies is most likely to have an adverse psychological impact, despite seeming wellbeing-oriented?

Axel believes he is attractive because he perceives everyone else around him to be ugly. Which of the following theories of self-knowledge is most relevant to explaining Axel’s self-beliefs?

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