The Ballerina’s Self-Concept: Self-Aspect Importance, Social Comparison, and Instructor Feedback at an Intensive Summer Program Katarina Walker and Beth A. Pontari Furman University Hierarchical Regressions Hierarchical regressions were used to analyze how social comparison and instructor feedback may have contributed to outcome variables holding baseline levels of dependent variables constant. While NUC was related negatively to athletic identity, PUC was related to many positive outcomes. This suggests that PUC may provide a way of thinking that protects the dancer from some of the negative effects of being in this competitive environment. That is, a dancer who is able to be inspired by her peers may value dance more and feel more accomplished in attending the program, whereas a dancer who instead feels inferior to her highly talented peers instead may cut off the importance of dance. Regressions with instructor feedback revealed no effects. Conclusions Our research examined dancers’ self-concept and well-being at an intensive summer program:   We extended the existing research on the effects of social comparison and direct feedback on the self-concept of dancers and athletes. Specifically, we examined how much dancers value dance as part of their self-concept, as well as how they view their dance ability after participating in a 5-week program in which social comparisons and instructor feedback were readily available.   We predicted that dancers’ tendency to positively upwardly compare would decrease after being at the intensive, while their tendency to negatively upwardly compare would increase.   We predicted that differences in social comparisons would relate to the dancers’ identities, and that more negative upward comparison would result in the dancers viewing dance as less important to their self-concept and viewing their dance ability as less positive.   We predicted that students with more instructor feedback would reduce the importance of dance to their self-concept. Self-Concept and Dance Compared to the beginning of the program, paired sample t-tests (see means below) showed that dancers identified less with dance, saw themselves as less able dancers, and were more burned out by the end of the program. To many, being a part of an intensive program should be an accomplishment, but these dancers reported otherwise. Changes in Social Comparison Dancers started the intensive with moderately high levels of PUC, and a moderate level of NUC. In contrast, after the intensive the dancers were less likely to PUC and more likely to NUC, but the dancers were still overall more likely to PUC than NUC. Our results revealed that the intensive overall had a negative effect on the dancers with the exception of self-esteem and perceived ability. Effects of Instructor Feedback Overall, dancers received more negative than positive feedback from their instructors. There were no effects for positive and negative feedback separately, but dancers who received more (compared to less) instructor feedback overall saw dance as marginally more important, and had significantly higher self-esteem. In addition, negative feedback was related to dancers being less willing to return to the program. Means with different subscripts differ significantly at the p <.05 level. This research is funded by Furman Advantage and the Paul and Clara Cover Memorial Fellowship. Our research would not have been possible without the support of the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. Serious ballet dancers train intensely from an early age and often dedicate much of their time and energy to dance. This narrowing of interests early on should have implications for self-concept development, yet there is a paucity of research on self-related processes for dancers. Two mechanisms that may uniquely affect the dancers’ self-concept include social comparisons with peers and direct feedback from instructors. Social Comparison Dancers have many readily available targets for comparison and are often placed in competitive environments in which comparisons are almost unavoidable. Upward social comparisons (USC) occur when people encounter another (individual or group) that is superior in some way to their ability in a domain. 6 Positive upward comparisons (PUC) occur if people upwardly compare and feel similar to and inspired by other talented peers. In contrast, negative upward comparison (NUC) occurs if people feel dissimilar to the comparison target, leading to feelings of inferiority. Athletes are particularly vulnerable to the effects of social comparison, 7 and athletes who are placed in very intense training environments where social comparisons may be exaggerated report lower well-being and reduced sense of accomplishment compared to athletes in less intense programs. 8 This effect has also been shown in students at an advanced art program, where greater NUC was associated with a negative change in the students’ identification as an artist. 9 Thus, we expect that dancers at an intensive program will engage in more NUC as a result of comparisons to highly-talented peers, and that this will negatively effect the way dancers form their self-concepts. Direct Feedback from Instructors Coaches and instructors give direct feedback to dancers about their skill level through verbal and sometimes physical corrections. This feedback can be highly public and personal, as it is often individualized and given in front of the peer-group. Research that examined female adolescent athletes found that coach feedback was positively related to perceived competence and satisfaction. 10 However, we believe dancers may receive more negative feedback from instructors, which may come across as more critical than helpful, possibly lowering dancers self- esteem and causing them to reduce the importance of dance. Method Participants: 24 dancers (23 female) between the ages of 12 and 16 (M = 14.98) who were accepted into a 5-week summer intensive at a pre-professional training school for dancers participated. Participants had been dancing for an average of 9.13 years. Procedure: In order to examine the dancer’s self-concept and social comparison, we administered one survey before the intensive began, and one survey at the end of the intensive. See below for examples of measures included in the survey. Instructor feedback was coded once per week by multiple coders as being either positive (i.e., you’re pointing your foot correctly) or negative (i.e., point your foot correctly). Results: Beginning and End of Program Introduction Our research has expanded the existing literature on dancers, social comparison, and the effects of direct feedback on self-concept. We found that while at an intensive program, dancers’ social comparison styles became less positive and more negative in conjunction with lowering dance value and ability. We also discovered that while NUC has negative effects on the dancers’ self-concept, PUC has positive effects, suggesting that dancers may be able to avoid some of the deleterious effects of being in this environment if they engage in more PUC. Surprisingly, and in contrast, instructor feedback had the opposite effects than predicted: dancers with high versus low levels of instructor feedback had higher self esteem and valued dance more highly. However, specifically receiving negative feedback was related to not wanting to return to the program. Our findings are limited by the self-report and correlational nature of our data collection, and in future research we will utilize experimental methods to determine causality between social comparison and self-related outcomes. Nonetheless, it is clear that dancers are vulnerable to social comparison and are worthy of further investigation. Our findings have many applications to the sport and dance worlds, including how intensive programs could be structured to encourage PUC. We will conduct an experiment and manipulate PUC as a mechanism for the dancers to experience the program more positively. Although dancers and athletes may be uniquely vulnerable to social comparison processes, encouraging PUC could help students in other areas including academics. Dance ImportanceDevaluation of Dance Reduced Sense of Accomplishment Athletic IdentityIdealness of Dance Ability R2∆R2∆ β R2∆R2∆ β R2∆R2∆ β R2∆R2∆ β R2∆R2∆ β PUC * * -.38* * -.30* * * Increased PUC * * -.45* * -.30* * NUC * * -.30* * * Increased NUC * * * * Instructor Feedback * * * * Current Research and Hypotheses Results: Hierarchical Regressions Model 2 controls for criterion variable. *Betas are significant at the p ≤.05 level.