Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 20, 2026
The Sense of Self: Reflected Self-Appraisal and Social Comparison
Social comparison at school: Can GPA and personality mutually influence each other across time?
Oana Negru-Subtirica1, Eleonora Ioana Pop1, Elisabetta Crocetti2
1Self and Identity Development Lab, Department of Psychology, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Objective:
Being a student is an important social role youth play during adolescence and how they approach this role has critical implications for their future development. This three-wave longitudinal study investigated the links between academic achievement (i.e., GPA) and personality traits, through the lens of social comparison mechanisms.
Method:
Patterns of effects between students' GPA and personality traits were analyzed at group (i.e., comparing rank-order differences at group-level; group effects) and individual (i.e., scores are compared to a student's own mean; within-person effects) levels. A total of 1,151 adolescents (Mage = 16.45 years; 58.7% female) participated in the study.
Results:
Most effects we depicted were from GPA to personality traits. At the group-level, higher GPA fostered students' Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Openness, while Openness reinforced high levels of GPA. At the individual level, GPA was a protective factor against negative affect, as it drove longitudinal decreases in Neuroticism.
Conclusions:
GPA had a stronger role in personality formation when it reflected students' standing in the school compared to their peers (i.e., group effects) and to a lesser extent when it reflected changes at personal level (i.e., within-person effects).
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