Believing you have it worse than others: maximization- a coping strategy

The present research examined the use of a heretofore unstudied coping strategy in which people maximize negative life events they have experienced. Maximization is defined as the process of comparing oneself to others on the number or intensity of negative life events one is experiencing, with the goal of finding that one is experiencing more or worse negative life events in comparison to others.

It was hypothesized that maximization arises, in part, from self-verification concerns. It should therefore be elicited when an individual's experienced distress is not validated by others following a stressful life event. In addition, it was proposed that maximization will occur at both the public and private levels. Two variables, adjustment and perceptions of embarrassment or stigma are proposed to moderate the relationship between self-verification and maximization behavior.

An experiment was conducted using 83 undergraduate college students, (identified from mass testing), who scored either .80 standard deviations above (Positive Event condition, n=43) or .80 standard deviations below (Negative Event condition, n= 40) the mean on the Life Experiences Survey. During a group discussion with two confederates regarding the types of negative life events college students experience, participants were randomly assigned to receive one of two types of Feedback, Invalidation or No Feedback. In the Invalidation condition, participants received information from the confederates that the confederates’ negative life experiences were more difficult in comparison to the participants. Participants in the No Feedback condition received no information regarding the negative life events they reported during the group discussion.

The results suggest preliminary support for the proposal that the invalidation of distress following a negative life event(s) will elicit maximization behavior, both publicly and privately. Participants in the Negative Event/Invalidation condition, compared to the other three conditions, were significantly more likely to report during the group discussion that their experiences were worse than the confederates. Ona private measure of maximization, participants in the Negative Event/Invalidation condition, compared to the other three conditions, were significantly more likely to report that their experiences were worse than other Virginia Tech students. In addition, adjustment and perceptions of embarrassment significantly moderated the relationship between self-verification and maximization behavior, although the nature of the relationship differed for public and private behavior. Limitations of the experiment and future directions are discussed.