American culture is characterized by strong individualism, as opposed to the collectivist culture of Eastern countries. Therefore, it may be assumed that competition is over-emphasized in American society. In the US, competition can be found in various areas of life and at different stages of life. For example, in families with several children, kids compete with their siblings from a young age in order to get a toy or receive parents’ attention. In adolescence, teenagers compete with each other in academic achievements, dating, appearance, and so on. Competition is the most evident in competitive sports, such as football or baseball. Later, young people compete with each other when trying to enter a college or a university. Adults are engaged in rivalry when applying for a job or attempting to get a promotion or a pay rise. Apart from that, Americans’ emphasis on individualism encourages them to be better in their personal lives: they want to get a better home, smarter children, more high-paying jobs than their peers do. Thus, competition accompanies Americans throughout their lives, bringing both positive and negative results.
The main advantage of competition is that it encourages people to do their best and constantly improve themselves. Adolescents try to achieve better results in their studies and engage in extracurricular activities because they know that it will become their competitive advantage during college admission or job application. Adults work harder to increase their earnings to improve their living conditions and find themselves in the better part of society. Sometimes, competition can foster human development; for example, when children compete and argue with siblings, they begin to realize that other people’s thinking differs from theirs, which advances their own thinking (Berger, 2019, p. 561). Competing with others can also contribute to children’s physical development. For example, the best way for children to develop running skills is by chasing each other or participating in a race instead of running alone (Berger, 2019, p. 632). Competition is part of “active social play,” which is associated with children’s emotional, physical, and intellectual development (Berger, 2019, p. 632). Thus, competition has benefits for individuals because it encourages them to become better versions of themselves and contributes to human development.
At the same time, competition has disadvantages that may disrupt an individual’s psychological well-being. For example, adolescents always look at their peers in search of friends and for developing their self-concept (Berger, 2019, p. 873). Unfortunately, not all adolescents have a realistic and positive self-concept; some of them develop low self-esteem. When such individuals get into a situation involving competition, they attempt to “protect themselves by not trying out” (Berger, 2019, p. 1047). Hence, competition is a negative phenomenon for people with low self-esteem because it discourages them from taking action. As a result, children may lag behind their peers in social, emotional, and physical development, and adults may miss valuable opportunities for improving their current situation. It is argued that competition is beneficial only when it encourages people to make their personal achievements, but when it praises only the best one in a group, it discourages others from trying (Berger, 2019, p. 1418). Therefore, it may be concluded that competition is a positive phenomenon when people make efforts to outperform their own past results. However, when competition disregards one’s personal achievements, it has a negative impact on human development.
Reference
Berger, K. S. (2019). Invitation to the life span (4th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.