People’s self-concept contributes to their sense of identity over time. Yet self-perception is motivated and serves survival and thus does not reflect stable inner states or accurate biographical accounts. Research indicates that different types of comparison standards act as reference frames in evaluating attributes that constitute the self. However, the role of comparisons in self-perception has been underestimated, arguably because of lack of a guiding framework that takes into account relevant aspects of comparison processes and their interdependence. I propose a general comparative model of self-perception that consists of a basic comparison process involving the individual’s prior mental representation of the target dimension, the construal of the comparison standard, and the comparison outcome representing the posterior representation of the target dimension. The generated dimensional construal is then appraised with respect to one’s motives and controllability and goes on to shape emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses. Contextual and personal factors influence the comparison process. This model may be informative in better understanding comparison processes in people’s everyday lives and their role in shaping self-perception and in designing interventions to assist people overcome undesirable consequences of comparative behavior.

随着时间的推移，人们的自我概念有助于他们的认同感。然而，自我认知是有动机的，是为了生存服务的，因此不能反映稳定的内心状态或准确的传记。研究表明，不同类型的比较标准可以作为评估构成自我的属性的参考框架。然而，比较在自我认知中的作用被低估了，可能是因为缺乏考虑比较过程的相关方面及其相互依赖性的指导框架。我提出了一种自我感知的通用比较模型，它由一个基本的比较过程组成，涉及个体对目标维度的先验心理表征、比较标准的解释以及代表目标维度的后验表征的比较结果。然后根据一个人的动机和可控性对生成的维度解释进行评估，并继续形成情感、认知和行为反应。背景和个人因素会影响比较过程。该模型可能有助于更好地理解人们日常生活中的比较过程及其在塑造自我认知和设计干预措施以帮助人们克服比较行为的不良后果方面的作用。