Media Exposure on Adolescent Body

¶ … Media Exposure on Adolescent Body Image

Background and History of the Study of Human Psychological Development

During the 20th century, psychology evolved into a field in which different theorists introduced several conceptual approaches to understanding the development of personality in the individual. Erickson conceived of personal psychological development as largely dependent on issues of internalized identity and identity confusion attributable to environmental influences. Piaget focused more on the transition from the preoperational stages of moral thought and responsibility to the formal operation stage that characterized normal adult psychological perspectives. Freud introduced an entirely different conceptual model that viewed the evolution of personality as primarily attributable to foundational influences and to the specific frustrations and conflicts repressed into the subconscious very early in life and continually expressed indirectly thereafter.

Similarly, much of 20th century psychological thought pertained to identifying the predominant source of developmental influence and the distinction among biological processes and contributing factors, cognitive learning through exposure to environmental factors, and socio-emotional factors dependent on the perceptions of the individual in relation to the thoughts and opinions of others. Previously, human psychology had been regarded as primarily (even exclusively) a function of one set of factors or of another set of factors.

Only as psychologists perfected methods of testing various elements of the different psychological approaches that had been suggested as the source of human psychological development before the middle of the 20th century did mainstream modern psychological theorists come to the consensus that all of the major school of thought described aspects of a single topic that was simply much more broad than previously assumed. Today, contemporary psychologists generally regard the psychological development of human beings to be the result of myriad individual factors that include biological tendencies, the environmental influence of society and culture, and the psychodynamic issues of suppressed emotions and conflicts as first described by Freud. The contemporary model of human psychological development recognizes the individual contributions of the different conceptual approaches as each representing part of the puzzle rather than a solitary explanation to the exclusion of other approaches.

Body Image and Self-Perception

One component of psychological self-image relates to the individual's perceptions and beliefs about his or her physical attractiveness to others (Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2008). Certainly, there are many aspects of physical attraction that are universal among all known human societies that suggest very strongly a common evolutionary origin. Examples include the general preference for physiological symmetry and obvious physical signs of masculinity and strength in males and of femininity and reproductive health in females (Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2008).

However, to a large degree, measures of physical attractiveness are also functions of internalizing the arbitrary standards and criteria that come to denote beauty within a given culture or society (Henslin, 2002; Macionis, 2003). Because at least part of the direction and shape of individual self-perception is a function of self-perceptions about learned standards of attractiveness, greater exposure to images and representations that reinforce societal concepts and definitions about physical attractiveness would seem naturally to be associated with greater dependence of self-image (at least in relation to physical attractiveness) on conformity with those societal values.

Moreover, adolescence and young adulthood are periods of both increased anxiety about appearance and social acceptance as well as of greater dependence on the opinions and perceptions of others (Jones, Vigfusdottir, & Lee, 2004). 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 those who are exposed to comparatively fewer media images of beauty.