Media and body image

BODY IMAGE AND MEDIA EAST V WEST

Sehrish shah

PAST RESEARCH ….

Khor et al (2009), Body image is based on perception of ourselves.

Grabe, Hyde, Ward (2008) 7 year olds have body image ideals.

Models in media becoming even smaller.

CONTINUED…

Australian Government urges the UK to change legislation to encourage average size models in the media.

‘Average sized models just don’t sell!’

UK refuses change in legislation to avoid a financial loss.

THE IDEA OF BEAUTY …

Hall and Christine (1995) media affects men and women equally.

Asian women have a high body image satisfaction in comparison to the British and Australians.

To what extent does media affect body image ideals amongst women?

Is there a causal relationship?

HYPOTHESIS….

To investigate the perception of British Pakistani and Pakistani participants in regards to body image.

To determine to what extent the media affects these ideals.

PARTICIPANTS ….

100 participants of Pakistani background 50 British Pakistani 50 Pakistani Condition 1 .. (M=20) Condition 2 .. (M=21)

Recruited through opportunity sampling

The PASTAS - Physical Appearance State and Trait Anxiety Scale (Speilburger, et al., 1983)

THE PASTAS Not at All Slightly Moderately Very Much So Exceptionally So

Right now, I feel anxious, tense, or nervous about:

The extent to which I look overweight. 0 1 2 3 4

2. My thighs. 0 1 2 3 4

3. My buttocks. 0 1 2 3 4

4. My hips. 0 1 2 3 4

5. My stomach (abdomen). 0 1 2 3 4

6. My legs. 0 1 2 3 4

7. My waist. 0 1 2 3 4

8. My muscle tone. 0 1 2 3 4

9. My ears. 0 1 2 3 4

10. My lips. 0 1 2 3 4

11. My wrists. 0 1 2 3 4

THE RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Research assistant is a resident of Pakistan.

50 consent, debrief forms and questionnaires sent to research assistant.

Participants recruited through opportunity sampling within a small village in Pakistan.

Research ran the experiment sending completed forms back to the researcher in the UK in order for results to be analysed.

RESULTS:

Results significant at a level of 0.01%

Provides support for previous research

Cronbach’s Alpha run to test for reliability

Scores in the Pakistani condition are more reliable.

IS THE MEDIA REALLY TO BLAME?

Participants still residing in Pakistan

Study highlights areas of further research

Research findings support previous studies

Lack of researcher in Pakistan

Male research assistant

Language barrier Limited number of

participants

Advantages Disadvantages