Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Effects Of Television On The Social Construction Of Body Images By Five- And Six-Year-Old Girls, Kristine M. Gruidl

Student Work

Television images influence individuals (Elliott and Slater, 1980). Cognitive learning theory suggests that during the first five to six years of life, children’s behavior patterns will be set (Donohue, 1975). Television has the potential to be a positive influence on learning. However, typical American media and television have been a negative influence on most children (Williams, 1981).

A 1996 study reported thirty-nine-point-one percent of first graders do not like their appearance and would change their looks, given the opportunity. It has been suggested the mass media are responsible and have taught children fat is bad and thin is good (Flannery-Schroeder …

Looking At Barbie: Social Comparison Processes And Body Esteem Among Women, Sally Elizabeth Ware

Student Work

In this thesis, three areas are described: the phenomenon of body dissatisfaction among apparently normal-sized women from a sociocultural perspective; social comparison theory, which is proposed to be the mechanism by which the phenomenon operates; and the results of an experiment designed not only to test the nature of the phenomenon itself, but also to test certain components of social comparison theory, such as selection of comparison targets and the role of derogation.

The study reports women’s responses to inescapable social comparison on the attribute of body size and shape with two groups of social comparison targets: photographs from popular …

Anxiety And Body Image In Tattooed And Nontattooed Military Prisoners, Terry L. Habeger

Student Work

Tattooing has evolved into something less than an art, particularity in western cultures, and has lost its original dignity and original significance as well (Abramson,1931). As a result, there has been a great deal of conjecture concerning the psychodynaraics of tattooing (Edgerton & Dingman,1963; Hamburger,1966; Hamburger & Lacovara,1963). The present study was an attempt to investigate the psychodynamics of tattooing through the use of one measure of anxiety and two measures of body image with tattooed and nontattooed individuals. The techniques employed were the Secord (1953) Homonym Word Association Test, the Secord-Jourard (1953) Body Cathexis Scale, and the Taylor (1953) …