The Mystery of Media Ideal Body Image: Influences on People’s Appearance Self-esteem

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The mass media portray many ideal pictures that might influence audiences’ perceptions about what is desirable and popular. In the field of exploring the relationship between media and people’s perceptions, media ideal body images have received much research attention. Previous studies showed that media ideal body images cause social comparison behaviors (Lennon, Lillethun & Buckland, 1999; Luthe, 2009; Knobloch-Westerwick & Romero, 2011), which were blamed to cause negative outcomes, such as lowering people’s self-esteem (Clay, Vignoles & Dittmar, 2005; Smeesters & Mandel, 2006).
However, the findings have not been entirely consistent. Lennon, Lillethun and Buckland (1999) found that self-esteem was not affected by exposed to ideal images (thin models) and normative (average-size models) images. Holmstrom (2004) found that the longer the media exposure, the better the individuals feel about themselves. Sheldon’s (2010) study focused on college students, viewed as the most vulnerable population, but the results showed that media use was not related to students’ body esteem.
These inconsistent findings indicate that the relationship between media ideal body images and people’s self-esteem should be further studied. This study will study how media ideal body images influence people’s self-esteem by using the social learning theory, social comparison theory, cultivation theory, and cognitive dissonance theory. Through apply these different theories, this study hope to provide some different perspectives, such as media perspective and psychology perspective. And because this study focus on the general media body images, some it could provide information to other different subject, for example the media regulation, the advertisement...

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