Self-evaluation maintenance (SEM) concerns discrepancies between two people in a relationship. The theory posits an individual will maintain as well as enhance their self-esteem via a social comparison to another individual. Self-evaluation refers to the self-perceived social ranking one has towards themselves. It is the continuous process of determining personal growth and progress, which can be raised or lowered by the behavior of others. Abraham Tesser created the self-evaluation maintenance theory in 1988. The self-evaluation maintenance model assumes two things: that a person will try to maintain or increase their own self-evaluation, and self-evaluation is influenced by relationships with others. A person's self-evaluation (which is similar to self-esteem) may be raised when a close other performs well. For example, a sibling scores the winning goal in an important game. Self-evaluation will increase because that person is sharing his/her success. The closer the psychological relationship and the greater the success, the more a person will share in the success. This is considered the reflection process. When closeness and performance are high, self-evaluation is raised in the reflection process. If someone who is psychologically close performs well on a task that is irrelevant to a person's self-definition, that person is able to benefit by sharing in the success of the achievement. At the same time, the success of a close other can decrease someone's self-evaluation in the comparison process. This is because the success of a close other invites comparison on one's own capabilities, thereby directly affecting one's own self-evaluation. This is also strengthened with the closeness of the psychological relationship with the successful other. Using a similar example: a sibling scores the winning goal in an important game; but you are also on the same team and through comparison, your self-evaluation is lowered. When closeness (sibling) and performance (scored the winning goal) are high, self-evaluation is decreased in the comparison process. This is further expressed when the comparison is related to something you value in your personal identity. If you are aspiring to become a professional soccer player, but your sibling scores the winning goal and you do not, the comparison aspect of SEM will decrease your self-evaluation. In both the reflection and comparison processes, closeness and performance level are significant factors. If the closeness of another decreases, then a person is less likely to share the success and/or compare him/herself, which lessens the likelihood of decreasing self-evaluation. A person is