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Past Research& Theory I have learned from the past research that there are gender differences as well as race/ethnic differences related to body image and self-esteem. Social class could also be a factor influencing body image and self-esteem. Previous research suggests that there is an impact of the media on people's perceptions and feelings related to an ideal body image. Finally, men and women have distorted views about what the opposite sex desires them to look like. Through socialization processes, children learn that the male body should be developed, strong, functional, and competent while the female body should be preserved, protected, and made more beautiful. This is also reinforced through toys (such as Barbie dolls), billboards, and TV models of beautiful women and muscular male figures (Sloan 2004). An experiment was conducted exposing 158 males to television advertisements containing ideal male images or neutral male images (these images were inserted between segments of television programs). It was found that exposure to the media images of the male ideal (lean and muscular), can have harmful effects on mood and body satisfaction in men. Exposure to ideal images in television advertisements can significantly increase one’s muscular dissatisfaction, on the contrary, exposure to non-appearance advertisements showed no effect on body dissatisfaction. These viewings were also associated with depression (Agliata and Tantleff-Dunn 2004). In a similar study given to 126 women, shown magazine advertisements containing full-body, body part, or product images; it was found that, viewing thin-ideal females images lead to increased negative mood and body dissatisfaction. It was also found that product and brand names associated with body-part images were less recalled than full-body images (Tiggemann and McGill 2004). Often it is thought that media only effects women, when actually some of these statistics can be misleading. It was found that nearly as many men wanted to be thinner as those who wanted to be heavier, whereas the majority of women wanted to be thinner. So if just reading the numbers it looks as if the majority of women want to be thinner, when actually the men have just as much dissatisfaction as women, they just want both to be heavier and thinner (Vartanian, Giant, and Passino 2001).I have learned from the past research that there are gender differences as well as race/ethnic differences related to body image and self-esteem. Social class could also be a factor influencing body image and self-esteem. Previous research suggests that there is an impact of the media on people’s perceptions and feelings related to an ideal body image. Finally, men and women have distorted views about what the opposite sex desires them to look like.
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Limitations My study had a number of limitations. Due to practical reasons (limited time and funding), my sample was a small convenience sample of college students at one university. The classes that I used were all social science classes. Thus the sample overrepresented women and social science majors. Also, my minority population was too small to run analyses. I used only a questionnaire because of the relative low cost time-efficient characteristic of questionnaires. Thus the study could have improved by using multiple methods. Along with my questionnaire, I could have done some interviews. A larger and representative sample would have been another improvement.
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Views on Real and Ideal Body Image My results showed that women self identify with a heavier sketch than males did. Thus, despite finding no gender differences on the body image scale, there was a gender difference in body image as measured by the selection of a sketch. Furthermore, females believe males want a thinner partner than males do. This result goes along with my theory that we are taught an ideal and try to match it. Females believe that men want a skinny female as a partner, which goes along with my final significant result that says that females chose a skinnier sketch than the one with which they identified and males would like a heavier body that the one that they self identified.. This indicated some dissatisfaction with current body image.The results of my study will be useful to many people in the future. The significant results that I did find involved males, which may suggest that teachers, counselors, policy makers, etc., should give equal attention to males and females when dealing with body image and self-esteem issues. The insignificant results that I found show that university students may be more confident or less concerned about their body images than past research indicates. In addition, there appear to be fewer gender differences. Thus, those working with college students on these issues will need to consider these possible changes.
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Method I approached a few of my current and past professors and asked them if they would allow me to pass out a questionnaire to their students in their classes. I explained that it was for my Sociology 300 senior experience class and that it was required for graduation. With their permission I entered these classrooms at the beginning of the hour and verbally explained that this is an anonymous survey and their participation is completely voluntary. The questionnaire also contains a written informed consent paragraph. I then passed out the surveys and waited for them to finish. The questionnaire took about 10 minutes to complete. I then collected all the questionnaires, thanked them for their time, and the professor continued with the class as scheduled.
Questionnaire
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Gender Differences My hypothesis on gender differences was rejected. When comparing males and females on the basis of body image and self-esteem, no significant differences were found. Meaning, there were no gender differences between males and females on their perceptions of their body image or self-esteem. These findings contradict past studies which suggest that females have a lower body image, as well as lower self-esteem than males. Other studies however, used different methods, such as interviews and experiments, or different measures of body image and self-esteem. More research also needs to be done focusing on males. My theory suggested that through socialization, men and women are taught what the ideal body is supposed to be and will try and reach that ideal; if they are unable their self-esteem will lower. Overall for all the participants my theory corresponded with my results. The higher ones body image the higher their self-esteem. The differences between genders did not support my theory. I thought that females would be more affected than males would be. One possible explanation is that there has been a change in recent years allowing for a greater level of acceptance for a wider range of body types. Although an overweight woman or an extremely thin male are not seen as ideal in today’s society, a wide range of body types are seen walking down the streets and in the mass media. There seems to be a more focus on being healthy than on just looking good. Maybe these college students are seeing people their age, and how difference and diverse everybody is, and eventually become more accepting of this.
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Racial Differences My hypothesis on racial differences was rejected. When comparing whites and nonwhites on the basis of body image and self-esteem, no significant differences were found. These findings also contradicted past research which studies suggested that nonwhites had more favorable perceptions of body image and self-esteem, particularly African-American women compared to Caucasian women. My sample was not as diverse as other samples used: I was unable to obtain a sufficient number of nonwhite participants to run meaningful analyses even after recoding race in to two categories. Thus these results should be viewed with caution
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Media Exposure My hypothesis on media exposure was partly accepted. My results showed that the more magazines that males read, the lower their body image. Females' body image was not related to any measures of media exposure. Television and overall exposure showed no relationship on perceptions of body image and self-esteem in either males or females. Perhaps college students are less impacted by, these ideal advertisements showed in the mass media due to their education, exposure to diversity, and concern with other things such as, success and status. Much of the past research in this area also used different methodologies such as experiments where subjects were exposed to actual advertisements. It may be that my measures of media exposure were not able to adequately measure this concept. I did not ask about exposure to media on-line, for example.
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