REAL WOMEN AND REAL BEAUTY: ASSESSING THE INTERNAL COMPARISON PROCESSES AND TARGET IMAGES IN BODY-IMAGE SELF-DISCREPANCIES

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Taylor, J. (2016). REAL WOMEN AND REAL BEAUTY: ASSESSING THE INTERNAL COMPARISON PROCESSES AND TARGET IMAGES IN BODY-IMAGE SELF-DISCREPANCIES. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to assess if levels of state body shame and state appearance anxiety differ across two body-comparison conditions when controlling for baseline differences in weighted trait appearance self-discrepancy and BMI. Participants were asked to imagine and write about making a comparison with either a personal ideal of beauty (condition 1) or a sociocultural ideal of beauty (condition 2). Results of the manipulation check, which excluded the control variables, showed significant increases in the criterion variables for the personal but not the sociocultural condition. Results of hierarchical regression analyses testing the main hypothesis—and including controls—indicated a significant increase in both conditions for the dependent variables, but no significant difference between conditions. An additional test of moderation failed to show an interaction between condition and internalization of the sociocultural ideal. Additional qualitative data collected and analyzed via t-tests indicated that participants imagined multiple categories of appearance ideals (e.g., celebrity, friend) across both conditions. Findings from the current study suggest that an experimental manipulation consisting of a combination of imaginal exposure and open-ended writing task effectively elicited negative body-image-related affect. Moreover, results highlight that women think of multiple images when engaging in body-image comparison processes.

Details
Author

Taylor, Jessica

Title

REAL WOMEN AND REAL BEAUTY: ASSESSING THE INTERNAL COMPARISON PROCESSES AND TARGET IMAGES IN BODY-IMAGE SELF-DISCREPANCIES

Physical Description

1 online resource (112 pages) : PDF

Date

2016

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to assess if levels of state body shame and state appearance anxiety differ across two body-comparison conditions when controlling for baseline differences in weighted trait appearance self-discrepancy and BMI. Participants were asked to imagine and write about making a comparison with either a personal ideal of beauty (condition 1) or a sociocultural ideal of beauty (condition 2). Results of the manipulation check, which excluded the control variables, showed significant increases in the criterion variables for the personal but not the sociocultural condition. Results of hierarchical regression analyses testing the main hypothesis—and including controls—indicated a significant increase in both conditions for the dependent variables, but no significant difference between conditions. An additional test of moderation failed to show an interaction between condition and internalization of the sociocultural ideal. Additional qualitative data collected and analyzed via t-tests indicated that participants imagined multiple categories of appearance ideals (e.g., celebrity, friend) across both conditions. Findings from the current study suggest that an experimental manipulation consisting of a combination of imaginal exposure and open-ended writing task effectively elicited negative body-image-related affect. Moreover, results highlight that women think of multiple images when engaging in body-image comparison processes.

Genre

masters theses

Subjects--Topics

Psychology

Degree

M.A.

Keywords

Appearance Anxiety
Beauty
Body Image
Body Shame
Media
Sociocultural

Subject Area

Psychology

Advisor(s)

Webb, Jennifer
Canevello, Amy

Committee Members

Sullivan, Shannon

Degree Note

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2016.

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Taylor_uncc_0694N_11218

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:391