Unit 5 Flashcards

1
Q

What is body image?

A

an individual’s perceptions and evaluations of their body -particularly on appearance (how you feel & what you think about it)

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2
Q

What is body image disturbance?

A

Demonstrably inaccurate perceptions, or discontent with one or more of the body’s observable features

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3
Q

What is the most common way to measure body dissatisfaction?

A

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

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4
Q

How early does body dissatisfaction show up? What were the findings in this age range?

A

-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?)

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5
Q

What was the government study w/ adolescents?

A

-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

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6
Q

Between Grade 6-10 what are the trends for boys and girls?

A

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)

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7
Q

What to girls ‘desire?’

A

Thinness

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8
Q

What do boys ‘desire’? How does it change?

A

Muscular -less consistent over development -at first want thinness then during pre-adolescence & adolescence want muscles

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9
Q

Why is studying body image important?

A

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

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10
Q

What is disordered eating? And what is it linked w/ (or what are the impacts of it?)

A

-controlling your behaviour in maladaptive ways -linked w. lower life expectancy & health

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11
Q

What are other risk factors for disordered eating?

A

-self-esteem, genetics, mental health, family & peer dieting, race/ethnicity, family interactions

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12
Q

How are the ideals represented in print media?

A
  • 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)
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13
Q

How are the ideals presented in screen media?

A
  • overrepresentation of thinness

- underrepresentation of fatness

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14
Q

What is did the study on TV shows and statistics of representation find?

A
  • # of characters underweight vs. overweight
  • 5% of pop is underweight -12-30% of characters
  • 51% of pop is overweight -13% of characters
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15
Q

What does the content say about fat characters? The messages

A

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

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16
Q

Do we see body image issues in children screen media?

A

Yes

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17
Q

What do children’s cartoons and videos say?

A

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
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18
Q

What do children’s video games say?

A
  • 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
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19
Q

Are certain body types shown more in the media?

A

-pretty good evidence suggests yes -& more shown w/ positive traits

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20
Q

What method has most body image research been done?

A

-experimental

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21
Q

What is a study that tested affect of appearance media? (hint: commercial)

A
  • 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
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22
Q

What are the findings of most body image experimental studies?

A
  • find after being exposed to idealized media (commercials, magazines, TV shows) -increase in body dissatisfaction
  • less consistent for boys (less of an effect)
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23
Q

So is there an immediate aftermath of being shown idealized bodies in the media? Critique?

A
  • 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)
24
Q

What is a body image natural experiment?

A
  • 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
25
Why might representation of thinness have long term impacts?
-idea that it's associated w/ success
26
What is a body image correlational study?
2nd-4th grade girls - amount of TV viewing & current body ideal -did NOT find a correlation - BUT followed up a yr later -found amount of TV predicted future body ideal
27
Is there a correlation btw amount of media exposure & body image?
- sometimes -but don't always show associations | - could predict longer-term effects?
28
Why might the correlation not exist but predict future body ideals?
- media could take time to impact us -or the kids expectations -looking at adult bodies, assume when older will look like that -less about right now, but ideals for later - could be the content -if watching lots of a certain kind of TV might have diff effects than watching a diff kind (not TV overall but type of TV) - could depend on what viewer is thinking about -are they thinking about appearance? Reasons for consuming?
29
What is type of TV content that is particularly linked w. poorer body image?
- soap operas | - had significant effects
30
What do body image meta-analysis find?
- show small but significant links between media & body dissatisfaction - smaller effect size than violence - media input might affect 1-6% of body image but is most likely other factors (media play small role) - media input can predict 0.5-6% of the variance in body image
31
What other factors might matter in body image? (specifics of each one)
- individual differences - gender (most research done w/ girls) - pre-existing body dissatisfaction? - race/ethnicity --> more influenced by same race characters -diff impacts btw individuals of diff race & characters of diff races? (see LatinX study)
32
How is body image effected depending on race? What study? What does this suggest?
- when white women view white characters linked w/ negative body image - when black women view black characters linked w/ positive body image - LatinX study (__) & mainstream white TV -linked w/ decreases in body image & black-oriented Tv was linked w/ increases -(often better about diff body types - content diff) - suggest individual factors (their race) as well as content (& representations) can influence
33
Summarize Hargreaves & Tiggeman
- idealized media images & adolescent body image (boys & girls) -experimental - 595 (310 girls, 285 boys) -grade 8-12 teens -2 cause & effect -commercial one (see card 22) -measured body dissatisfaction after -used visual scales (less biased) -how they feel -(before & after viewing) - social comparison theory - girls = thin ideal had higher body dissatisfaction (small effect) -more comparison w/ thin one - boys = no diff/limited if they idealized/appearance one or not -didn't compare as much (??) - did depend on individual differences (how appearance concerned - those who were did more comparison) - increased negative mood and appearance comparison for both boys and girls - gender & appearance investment are important - unique: -immediate -+boys - limitations: -content of stimuli -can't match tapes -measurement of boys body image
34
What about an experimental study with just boys?
- adolescent boys Grades 9-10 -commercials -one male-ideal & one figure free -asked questions after (how do you like your body, how much do you want to change it) - no strong negative effect - watching the idealized actually made them feel better about their body
35
Why might there be gender differences in consuming body image media?
(-male gaze? - how we're socialized to feel about our bodies) - how we feel about disclosing our body dissatisfaction? - accuracy of measurements - men impacted later? college aged -so physiological differences - what self-esteem is based on? (vs. appearance) - diff baseline self-esteem? - diff media representations - methodological challenges in assessing body image in boys? Since self-report
36
What does media lack when study body image & gender?
-representation of non-binary and transgender individuals -not a lot of representation in media either (how might that lack have effects? -ex. celebrities)
37
What is the overall conclusion for whether media is linked w/ body image?
-it is linked -at least for some individuals
38
What is Social Comparison Theory?
- we compare ourselves to others (understand ourselves by evaluating others) - we will also evaluate ourselves relative to those seen in the media - (but social comparison to peers is much stronger than social comparison to media)
39
What is Internalization of Thin Ideals?
- society's message is thin = better & muscular = better - this message is transmitted through media - we then internalize is & it becomes part of our thought processes & beliefs - failure to live up to the standard can lead to greater body dissatisfaction
40
What is Contingent Self-Worth Theory?
- society's message is your value is determined by appearance -your worthiness is contingent on your appearance - transmitted via media - failure to meet thin/muscular ideals can lead to negative self-worth, which turns to body dissatisfaction
41
Can comparison, internalization, and idea of self-worth happen at the same time?
yes -can work together
42
Why might social media & body image be different?
- real peers -or real ppl similar to your peers (mass media too) -you're presented -can idealize yourself, and everyone puts idealized version of themselves out there - users are creators as well as recipients - quantifiable - bit more permanent - more public - curated space
43
Facebook internal research? Problems?
- leaked -15 teens -interviewed 15 of them -for girls who reported body image issues, 30% said Instagram made it worse -1/3 of them (?) - problems: correlational (not causation) -maybe those w/ body image issues are drawn to insta for diff reasons - algorithms - sample size is really small -can't generalize - self-reported data - probs not randomly selected - internal, not reviewed -validity
44
So does the research (correlational) say about poorer body image & social media use?
- yes suggests they are linked -correlational -small relationship - correlation btw # of social platforms you use & body image - correlation btw # of time you spend on social media & body image
45
Study on tween girls and FB?
-compared users & non-users -found non-users had more positive feelings about their bodies
46
Summarize Fardouly
- social (or appearance) comparison through social media, traditional media, & in person-Ecological Momentary Assessments -reduce bias & in real life - 146 women -undergraduates -does the amount of comparison & type impact how we feel about our bodies - 5 days in a row, 5 times a day - if compared, context, direction, then appearance satisfaction - factors, mood, diet, exercise - found most comparisons are in person (77% or 71%??) -traditional media less than social media -most common across all contexts was upward (though non-significant in media) --upward comparison linked w/ less appearance satisfaction -out of media, social media most dissatisfaction (led to less in person appearance satisfaction) -Social Comparison Theory -social media upward had more negative outcomes/mood than in person - limitations: -demand characteristics -variety of social media platforms -comparison differences -only studied immediate impact (need longitudinal)
47
Social media - factors?
- different platforms (not all the same, or appearance-based) - what you do (activities) matter -ex. selfie, viewing/posting pics, seeking negative feedback - equivalence across gender (impacted both boys & girls) -way they're presented? - but can be positive (body positive content, parodies, reality posts - linked w/ more satisfaction)
48
What method of research is mostly done w/ social media?
- mainly correlational -co could have 3rd variables - mostly focused on young adults - (does show a link but depends on type of use) - social media is constantly changing
49
Do we need an intervention for media for boys & body image?
-not yet -but suggests yes for girls
50
Why do people make upward comparisons?
want to improve ourselves -unidirectional drive upward
51
When were thoughts of dieting and exercise most prevalent?
-after upward comparison on social media (vs. upward in person)
52
What are the 3 main theories for body image?
1) Social Comparison Theory 2) Thin Ideal (Muscular) Internalization Theory 3) Contingent Self-Worth Theory
53
What are 2 ways social media is distinct from traditional media?
1) users are creators as well as recipients | 2) content comes from peers as well as mass media sources
54
What are 3 ways social media is distinct from face-to-face interactions?
1) can control how you present yourself 2) permanence and publicness 3) quantifiability: numerical social metrics
55
In which contexts are making an upward comparison associated w/ less appearance satisfaction? Which context effects the most?
- in all context | - social media has most negative effects
56
Which social media platforms have more of an impact?
image-based platforms