That would seem to suggest that exposure to media images associated with beauty would have the greatest influence on the individual. This proposal is designed to test the relationship between exposure to images and other visual representations associated with physical beauty and the development of self-perception in the individual. Hypothesis

It is hypothesized that self-perception among adolescents and young adults with respect to relative physical attractiveness will vary directly in proportion to their degree of interest in and exposure to media images of beauty. The independent variable will be the exposure of subjects to various forms of media associated with a high degree of emphasis on physical attractiveness. The dependent variable will be the measure of self-perception of physical attractiveness.

Experimental Method

Participants

The participants will be 50 subjects in the 12-17 age range; and 50 subjects in the 18-20 age range. The younger subjects will be further divided into groups of 7th and 8th Grade students and 9th through 12th Grade students, primarily because that corresponds to their classes. All participants will fill out questionnaires distributed anonymously with the assistance and permission of their teachers. Subjects in the 18-20 range will be approached by soliciting the assistance of professors at the local community college.

Experimental Design and Procedure

The design of the experiment will involve a self-report of television watching habits and magazine watching habits in conjunction with self-reports of perceptions of each subject's satisfaction with his or her body image. More specifically, each subject will respond to a questionnaire designed to distinguish those subjects who are exposed to more media images of beauty from...

A positive correlation between subjects who are exposed to more media images of physical attractiveness and lower self-reported measures of physical attractiveness will be considered confirmation of the experimental hypothesis. The absence of any correlation between more exposure to media images of attractiveness and lower self-reported measures of physical attractiveness will be considered to contradict the experimental hypothesis.
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