Date of Award
6-2008
Document Type
Union College Only
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Joshua Hart
Language
English
Keywords
exposure, participants, body, media, lifetime
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the influences of the media on women’s body image. The current study used the Eating Disorders Inventory-2 and the Body Image States Scale to measure participants’ body satisfaction before and after exposure to either a fashion magazine or jewelry magazine. The study looked at the effects of previous media exposure and exposure to pictures of thin women on change in body satisfaction. I hypothesized that the participants exposed to pictures of thin women would subsequently report lower body satisfaction than participants in the control condition. I also hypothesized that participants who had low lifetime exposure to various media would initially have better body image scores than participants in the high media exposure group, and that being exposed to thin fashion models would affect these participants more than the participants who had high lifetime exposure to media. The results did not support these hypotheses, but upon exploratory analysis it was found that low lifetime media exposure participants tended to be more negatively affected by exposure to pictures of thin women than the high lifetime exposure participants. Discussion focuses on the implications of these results and potential future directions for this kind of research.
Recommended Citation
Bennett, Rachel A., "The media and body image : does lifetime media exposure affect body satisfaction after exposure to a thin ideal?" (2008). Honors Theses. 1444.
https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses/1444