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" Effects of exposure to idealized body portrayals in an ethnically diverse sample of men and women "
Skorek, Malgorzata
Dunham, Yarrow
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Latin Dissertation
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English
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| Record Number
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913772
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TL1dn7g4t4
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Skorek, Malgorzata
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| Title & Author
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Effects of exposure to idealized body portrayals in an ethnically diverse sample of men and women\ Skorek, MalgorzataDunham, Yarrow
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| College
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UC Merced
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| Date
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2011
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2011
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| Abstract
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There is considerable support in the literature for the proposition that exposureto portrayals of idealized bodies in advertising has various negative effectson men�s and women�s self and body image. Yet, there is also evidence for self-enhancementeffects of these advertisements. This disparity in findings suggeststhe possibility that not all men and women react to advertising portrayals in thesame way and invites a careful study of potential moderators of exposure effects.The proposed research aimed to explore three types of moderators of media exposurewhich address limitations of prior work. First, we studied these effects inpopulations that were largely ignored before: men and ethnically diverse individuals(demographic moderators). Second, we investigated whether personality traitsmight reveal important differences in men�s and women�s vulnerability to mediaexposure to idealized body portrayals (personal moderator). Third, we have attemptedto explore subtler differences in the exposure effects by using new implicitmethodology, enabling us to measure automatic processing of advertising content(methodological moderator). Using implicit measures as opposed to explicit measuresis an important contribution because implicit measures are free from manyof the limitations of self-reports. These contributions were investigated via fourexperimental and one correlational study. Results revealed that in some casesethnic-minority men and women respond differently to idealized body portrayalsin advertising than do White individuals. In accordance with prior work donealmost exclusively in White samples, White men and women experienced negativeeffects of exposure on their self-esteem and body perception, whereas Asian andHispanic (men only) individuals experienced self-enhancing effects, suggesting thatthese individuals engaged in a �fantasy� rather than upward social comparisons.These findings have important health implications and may be helpful in designingtargeted interventions and media campaigns focusing on ethnic-minority menand women suffering from eating disorders. Turning to personality, even though wefound that personality traits (extraversion, conscientiousness, emotional stability)were closely related to self-esteem (directly) and body dissatisfaction (indirectly),we did not find a strong support for their moderating role. Finally, this dissertationprovided some evidence that implicit measures record subtler differences inexposure effects as compared to explicit ones. In conclusion, we provided moresupport for self-enhancing effects than negative effects of exposure, which were revealedby incorporating moderating variables (demographic and methodological).Implications for future work in this area are highlighted and discussed.
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Dunham, Yarrow
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UC Merced
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