This chapter will discuss social comparisons as prototypical strategies in developmental regulation. The adaptive nature of strategic social comparisons has been widely studied in other areas of research (see reviews in Suls & Wills 1991; Wood 1989). I shall specifically address social comparisons in the developmental context and show that they are common, powerful, and adaptive strategies in developmental regulation. Together with other strategies, such as temporal comparison with past and future developmental states (e.g., Filipp & Buch-Bartos 1994; Ryff 1991), they help to optimize developmental regulation across the life span. First, this chapter will develop a theoretical model of social comparisons in the developmental context based on the long-standing tradition in social comparison research. Second, the model will be applied to empirical research on the similarities and dissimilarities between age-normative and self-related conceptions about development in adulthood (Study 7). Subsequently, further specific propositions about self-enhancement by social comparison under conditions of threat are derived and empirically investigated in a study on perceived problems for the self and for one's age peers (Study 8). Finally, social comparison processes will be addressed directly in a diary study and investigated in terms of their specific targets, contexts, affective consequences, and interindividual differences in primary and secondary control striving (Study 9).