Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Body image and its effects
Body image issues in society
Body image and its effects
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Body image and its effects
The research problem is to explore the relationships between general media content and pro-anorexia website content, peer influence (general as well as specific influence to view pro-anorexia websites) and the drive for thinness in females, and drive for muscularity in males in the college student population.
The researchers assume that pro anorexia website content will cause internalization (which is; when a thought becomes a belief that (in this case), woman should always be thin and men should always be muscular and that belief would cause excessive dieting and/or exercise).
The population is male and female introductory psychology college students. There were 300 college students that varied from age 18 – 55 years old. About 55.9% were female and 39.5% were male. The average age was 22.37 with a standard deviation of 6.25. About 76.8% of the students were white (non-Hispanic), 6.5% were Latino, 5.5% Asian, 1.9% African American, 1.0% Pacific Islander, 1.3% Native Americans and 2.9% considered themselves to be part of the “other” group.
I see potential bias, as the average college...
The World of Psychology. (2002). A Pearson Education Company. Boston, MA: Samuel Wood & Ellen Green Wood p. 593
To begin, Rys proposes that one of the main psychological factors of anorexia is the unknown identity of oneself and the ideal image of a woman. In this present day, media is everywhere. Women are constantly trying to change themselves to become the image that the population as a whole...
Pro-Anorexia Websites Cyberspace, something that was once considered a fad, has developed into a tool that allows people struggling with anorexia to potentially find sanctuary from the regulatory systems in popular culture that are applied to women’s bodies. Cyberspace provides an alternative space for women with eating disorders or body issues. The space created by cyberspace is potentially safer for women to meet because it allows anonymity while simultaneously being part of a community that the built environment is unable to provide. The components that make up pro-anorexia websites are usually considered abnormal, repugnant, or deviant within popular culture, because popular culture does not accept the way anorexics interpret images of the body. This popular view of people with anorexia does not allow anorexics to function as an accepted part of public space or popular culture.
The complications that accompany body image have long been an issue in society. Body image is the sense of how an individual views his or her own body as compared to others in society, or what is considered to be the ideal body image. There are many different factors that effect ones body image, but a major influence is the media. The media has long been associated with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder where an individual participates in self-starvation, and bulimia is an eating disorder where an individual will eat as much as he or she wishes and then purges the previously eaten food. These are two destructive eating disorders that are associated with a negative body image. This comes to question, does media have an influence on creating a negative body image, which may inherently lead to eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia? Anorexia nervosa and bulimia affect various age groups but is extremely common in adolescence and emerging adulthood. During this stage in an individual’s lifespan there is a lot going on with ones psychological development as well as body. How an adolescent views his or her body image be highly impacted by how the media portrays what the ideal body image is. According to Berger (2015), “as might be expected from a developmental perspective, healthy eating begins with childhood habits and family routines” (p.415). If proper eating habits are not implemented negative body image and eating disorders that are associated with media becomes further predominant in adolescence and emerging adulthood.
Borzekowski DL, Schenk S, Wilson JL, Peebles R. “e-Ana and e-Mia: A content analysis of pro-eating disorder Web sites.” Am J Public Health. June (2006): 1526-34. Web. 23 Mar. 2011.
The media can impact people’s lives in many ways, whether it’s fashion, movies, literature, or hobbies. One of the impacts is how women view their bodies. Movie stars and models feel pressured to catch attention and to look good in order to have a good career in their respective field. People tend to judge how someone looks based on their body composition. The result of this “judgment” is that Hollywood is getting skinny. Since models and actresses serve as role models for people, people tend to want to look like them. The result of this seemingly harmless model of behavior is in an increase in eating disorders.
In conclusion, society’s influence sparks the initial thought that skinny is pleasurable and desirable. Adolescents will buy into this misconception that they get from the media and society. When this misconception is bought into, it can cause serious consequences as the individual looks for extreme measures of weight control. This weight control can be contained by helping individuals struggling with Anorexia and Bulimia fix their distorted view of themselves, eliminating the negative influence one media source at a time.
Nio, T. (2003). Cultivation and social comparison of the thin-ideal syndrome: The effects of media exposure on body image disturbance and the state self-esteem of college women. School of Journalism in the Graduate Scho, 105-113.
Levine, Michael P., and Sarah K. Murnen. "Everybody Knows That Mass Media Are/Are Not [Pick One] A Cause Of Eating Disorders": A Critical Review Of Evidence For A Causal Link Between Media, Negative Body Image, And Disordered Eating In Females." Journal Of Social & Clinical Psychology 28.1 (2009): 9-42. Academic Search Premier. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
Their first study was composed of 443 college students from two large universities in the Midwest. The participants were offered credit in their introductory psychology classes in return for their participation. They completed a questionnaire as part of their participation. 52% of the participants were men, and 48% were women. 94% were between the ages of 18 and 25. Only the 404 students that had complete data were used to set up the model that the experimenters formed. The second study tried to show any coincidence between the findings of American students and international ones.
Out of all mental illnesses found throughout the world, eating disorders have the highest mortality rate. Anorexia nervosa is one of the more common eating disorders found in society, along with bulimia nervosa. Despite having many definitions, anorexia nervosa is simply defined as the refusal to maintain a normal body weight (Michel, 2003). Anorexia nervosa is derived from two Latin words meaning “nervous inability to eat” (Frey, 2002). Although anorexics, those suffering from anorexia, have this “nervous inability to eat,” it does not mean that they do not have an appetite—anorexics literally starve themselves. They feel that they cannot trust or believe their perceptions of hunger and satiation (Abraham, 2008). Anorexics lose at least 15 percent of normal weight for height (Michel, 2003). This amount of weight loss is significant enough to cause malnutrition with impairment of normal bodily functions and rational thinking (Lucas, 2004). Anorexics have an unrealistic view of their bodies—they believe that they are overweight, even if the mirror and friends or family say otherwise. They often weigh themselves because they possess an irrational fear of gaining weight or becoming obese (Abraham, 2008). Many anorexics derive their own self-esteem and self-worth from body weight, size, and shape (“Body Image and Disordered Eating,” 2000). Obsession with becoming increasingly thinner and limiting food intake compromises the health of individuals suffering from anorexia. No matter the amount of weight they lose or how much their health is in jeopardy, anorexics will never be satisfied with their body and will continue to lose more weight.
Nio, T. (2003). Cultivation and social comparison of the thin-ideal syndrome: The effects of media exposure on body image disturbance and the state self-esteem of college women. School of Journalism in the Graduate Scho, 105-113.
Ciccarelli, Saundra, and White, J. Noland. Psychology Second Edition. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc. 2009. Print.
The Open University Press Davis, S.F. and Palladino, J.J. (1995) Psychology. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice Hall Website : http://www.webref.org
There are many young adults that suffer eating disorders and depression due to the vast amounts of media they soak in everyday that tells them to look and behave a certain way to be “cool” or be accepted. Derenne and Beresin (2006) examined that exposure to mass media its correlation with eating disorders. They found that the constant exposure to commercials, TV, and movies, contributes to a negative outlook on teen bodies. This dissatisfaction of body image causes eating disorders, such as bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa. The media drives teens to be less confident, triggering a physiological response resulting in hunger (Masheb & Grilo, 2006). This in itself is a consequence of depression, and usually a common side effect associated with individuals suffering. Eating disorders also tend to give individual’s suicidal tendencies, therefore suicide rates are fairly high amongst patients with anorexia or bulimia nervosa (Derenne and Beresin, 2006). Similarly, binge eating disorder (BED), is the emotional overeating of food, is also affected by depression (Masheb & Grilo, 2006). Young adults are bombarded with both male and female models that create unreasonable expectations of exterior looks causing unhappiness of oneself, and idealization of other people. Idolization leads to comparing and jealousy, enhancing to the negative feelings already being experienced. When negative feelings begin to accumulate, there is more food intake to swallow the pain, thus causing obesity. A difference in terms of gender prevalence for BED, it is actually equal for both sexes (Masheb & Grilo, 2006) where as bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa is more popular among females (Strober et al,