The Role Of Social Comparison In The Satisfaction Of College Students' Adult Attachment Intimacy

In the early stage of parentage experience,the individual gradually formed a subconscious attachment model,and this model will affect the way how individual process information,how to explain life events,as well as the tendency of individual social comparison.Parenting experience gradually make individual form a interpersonal communication pattern,which named "internal working models".From the perspective of intimacy studies,the attachment can reflect the influence of the"internal working model" formed in the early days to the intimacy of the adult.Individuals with different social comparison orientation have the different evaluation to things,and who has higher orientation tend to have lower satisfaction.Researching aims:Based on the previous studies about attachment,social comparison orientation as well as the relations between and among intimate relationship satisfaction,this study focus on quality and its influencing factors of college students’ romantic relationship,and we hope to find the influence mechanism of social comparison to intimacy.we also discussed the effect of attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety to individual intimate relationship satisfaction from different directions of social comparison and the different ways of comparison.Researching methods:Subjects in this study are college students who are in a state of love,and for more than three months.The specific research design is as follows:Research 1:287 college students were investigated to explore the relationship between attachment avoidance,attachment anxiety,social comparative tendency and intimacy satisfaction.We used the Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory(ECR),Social Comparison Orientation Scale(INCOM),and Quality of Relationship Index(QRI)as research tools.Research 2:attachment avoidance 2(high avoidance,low avoidance)× social comparison directions 2(upward comparison,downward comparison)× social comparison consistency 2(consistency comparison,inconsistency comparison)inter-test design,and Attachment anxiety 2(high anxiety,low anxiety)× social comparison directions 2(upward comparison,downward comparison)× social comparison consistency 2(consistency comparison,inconsistency comparison)inter-test design were conducted.Based on the research paradigm of situation test and memorial writing task,we designed four different textual materials as the starting tools.In the upward-consistency comparative context,subjects were asked to read a paragraph which describes someone good things about someone’s lover,and then recall and write on something about the similarity of his/her partner.On the contrary,in the context of the downward comparison,subjects were asked to read a paragraph which describes someone bad things about someone’s lover,and then write on something.For inconsistency comparison,subjects need to make an inconsistent comparison.After the experiment,the satisfaction degree of the subjects is measured by the Quality of Relationship Index.Research results:(1)Adult attachment,social comparison tendency and relationship satisfaction are significantly related to each other.Attachment avoidance is negatively interrelated with intimate relationship satisfaction,has no significant relevance with social comparison tendency;Attachment anxiety is negatively correlated with intimate relationship satisfaction and social comparison tendency;Social comparison tendency is negatively correlated with intimate relationship satisfaction.(2)Through a mediation model test,the social comparison tendency tends to have a complete mediating effect in the influence of attachment anxiety to relationship satisfaction.(3)The relationship satisfaction of the upward assimilative comparison group is higher than upward contrastive comparison group,F(1,14)=5.171,p<0.05,ηp2=0.035;The relationship satisfaction of the downward contrastive comparison group is higher than downward assimilative comparison group,F(1,141,=34.899,p<0.001,ηp2=0.198.Research conclusions:(1)Attachment avoidance,attachment anxiety and social comparison orientation have negative effects on college students’ relationship satisfaction.(2)In the influence of attachment to intimate relationship satisfaction,social comparison tendency play a fully mediating role.(3)Social comparison direction and social comparison consistency affect intimacy relationship satisfaction.Upwards consistency and downward inconsistency have a desirable outcome.(4)To those individuals who have high attachment avoidance or high attachment anxiety,when they make a inconsistent comparison,they will have a higher satisfaction to their intimate relationships.