Psychology Commons^™

The Effects Of Upward And Downward Social Comparison On Teacher Evaluations, Janett Naylor-Tincknell, Carol Patrick

Psychology Faculty Publications

One potential source of bias in teaching and course evaluations may be the students’ perceptions of the personality of the instructor. Social comparison theory may help elucidate the relation between personality and teaching evaluations. The use of downward or upward social comparison may result in more negative assessment of the course depending on the favorability of the personality trait. Students (N=176) rated themselves and their instructor on five personality traits, as well as the overall quality of the course and the instructor. Results indicated that when the students viewed themselves as having more favorable traits than their instructor, they tended …