What is body image?
an individual’s perceptions and evaluations of their body -particularly on appearance (how you feel & what you think about it)
What is body image disturbance?
Demonstrably inaccurate perceptions, or discontent with one or more of the body’s observable features
What is the most common way to measure body dissatisfaction?
give a scale & circle what you look like now & then circle what your ideal body looks like -if there’s a difference w/ current & ideal then shows body dissatisfaction
How early does body dissatisfaction show up? What were the findings in this age range?
-6 (or even earlier) -did a study w/ 6-8 yr olds -found girls wanted thinner figure -(the boys wanted a bit of either thinner or larger, maybe muscular shows up later in age?)
What was the government study w/ adolescents?
-asked them how they felt about their body -(didn’t use the scale) -15-25% felt too fat or too thin -disproportionate to whether they were or not -half of the kids who said they were fat would be considered overweight by health metrics
Between Grade 6-10 what are the trends for boys and girls?
boys think they’re too thin by Grade 10 -whereas girls think their too fat (metrics of too thin are higher in grade 8 then go down by grade 10 for the girls)
What to girls ‘desire?’
Thinness
What do boys ‘desire’? How does it change?
Muscular -less consistent over development -at first want thinness then during pre-adolescence & adolescence want muscles
Why is studying body image important?
linked w/ disordered eating (so how you feel (body image) can impact your behaviours (your eating habits))
-also can disrupt relationships, increase risk of steroid use, vanity-driven spending (in women), self-esteem and mental health
What is disordered eating? And what is it linked w/ (or what are the impacts of it?)
-controlling your behaviour in maladaptive ways -linked w. lower life expectancy & health
What are other risk factors for disordered eating?
-self-esteem, genetics, mental health, family & peer dieting, race/ethnicity, family interactions
How are the ideals represented in print media?
- magazines -thin body ideal -studies mainly focused on women as magazines are targeted towards them -avrg mag model is thinner than 98% of N. American women (trending towards average weights)
- convey messages -15% of headlines focus on diet & body image
- contradictory messages -titles, images, recipes, articles
- focus on muscular man for male oriented print media (but don’t have statistics)
How are the ideals presented in screen media?
- overrepresentation of thinness
- underrepresentation of fatness
What is did the study on TV shows and statistics of representation find?
- # of characters underweight vs. overweight
- 5% of pop is underweight -12-30% of characters
- 51% of pop is overweight -13% of characters
What does the content say about fat characters? The messages
Fatness is negative -those characters are treated poorly -more likely to be insulted (often by men), laughed at, fewer romances, fewer friends, having less sex, fewer leadership roles
-ex. in movies, fictional TV, reality TV, sports, advertisements
Do we see body image issues in children screen media?
Yes
What do children’s cartoons and videos say?
thinner characters are more likely to display positive characteristics
- 40% had a character that was concerned about their body/weight
- more likely the woman’s physical attractiveness (& thinness) is associated w/ positive traits
- ex. The Little Mermaid
What do children’s video games say?
- female characters are often depicted as thin w/ very large breast -unrealistically large
- 80% of male characters were hypermuscularized
- (possibly more so in children’s games) -ratio to waist and chest were unrealistic
Are certain body types shown more in the media?
-pretty good evidence suggests yes -& more shown w/ positive traits
What method has most body image research been done?
-experimental
What is a study that tested affect of appearance media? (hint: commercial)
- grade 8-12 teens -experimental -randomly assigned to view appearance-based commercial vs. non (girls saw thin ideal, boys saw muscular) -then did scales on body dissatisfaction (girls) & mood -impacted both
- girls who viewed appearance one had more body dissatisfaction -not for boys
What are the findings of most body image experimental studies?
- find after being exposed to idealized media (commercials, magazines, TV shows) -increase in body dissatisfaction
- less consistent for boys (less of an effect)
So is there an immediate aftermath of being shown idealized bodies in the media? Critique?
- it seems so, yes -can impact body image immediately following
- BUT do the participants know what’s going on? -demand characteristics -performing how they think they’re supposed to
- also very short-term -what’s the long term?
- (not immediate imitation though -can have affects but not like violence where immediately imitate)
What is a body image natural experiment?
- Becker -2002 -Fiji
- had TV but didn’t get Western TV until 1995 -Fijians traditionally prefer larger body type but w. Western TV looked @ teen girls before & after -found 3yrs following -increase in disordered eating & dieting -in interviews 77% mentioned TV’s influence
