Eksperimen Social Comparison terhadap Tingkat Self-Esteem pada Mahasiswa
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37481/jmh.v6i3.2170Keywords:
Social Comparison, Self-Esteem, University Students, Social Media, ExperimentAbstract
The rapid development of social media has increased opportunities for university students to engage in social comparison, particularly upward social comparison, which may influence their self-esteem. While previous studies have consistently reported a negative association between social comparison and self-esteem, most have relied on correlational designs that cannot establish causal relationships. This study aimed to examine the effect of social comparison on students’ self-esteem using an experimental approach. A randomized two-group posttest-only design was employed involving 30 undergraduate students aged 18–24 years, who were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (n = 15) or a control group (n = 15). Data were collected online through Google Forms after participants provided informed consent. The experimental group was exposed to social media content depicting students with outstanding academic and non-academic achievements to induce upward social comparison, whereas the control group viewed neutral content without social comparison cues. Participants’ state self-esteem was measured using the State Self-Esteem Scale (SSES) developed by Heatherton and Polivy (1991). Data were analyzed using an Independent Samples t-Test to compare self-esteem scores between groups. The results showed no statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups (t = 0.528, p = 0.602), indicating that a single brief exposure to upward social comparison content was insufficient to produce a measurable change in students’ state self-esteem under the conditions of this study.
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