Investigating how a media literacy education intervention tool affects women’s self-objectification, self-esteem, and body satisfaction was the first purpose of the study. Secondly, participants’ perceptions of media literacy education interventions and of media imagery were explored. Objectification theory was used as a framework for understanding media imagery effects. One hundred and eighty three participants completed the online study. Participants were mainly recruited from the undergraduate Psychology participant pool at the University of Saskatchewan. The control group (n = 99) viewed a compilation of magazine advertisements and completed measures of self-objectification (i.e., the Self-Objectification Questionnaire), self-esteem (i.e., the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale), body satisfaction (i.e., the Body Image States Scale), and media attitudes (i.e., the Media Attitudes Questionnaire). The intervention group (n= 84) received a media literacy education intervention tool (i.e., the Evolution video, by Dove), viewed magazine advertisements, and completed the same measures of self-objectification, self-esteem, body satisfaction, and media attitudes. The intervention group also completed open-ended questions about their perceptions of the intervention. Analyses included independent t-tests, Pearson correlations, descriptive statistics, and thematic analysis. Results indicated no significant differences between the control and intervention conditions for self-esteem, self-objectification, body-satisfaction, and media attitudes. Although significant correlations were found, most were in the direction that did not align with the predictions. A descriptive analysis indicated that women’s perceptions of themselves are negatively affected by media material. The thematic analysis demonstrated that viewing the intervention was both positively and negatively perceived. Results and limitations of the current study are discussed. Implications for practice and future research are also identified

Past research has examined body image and eating-related outcomes of exposure to mass media. This research has generally found that such exposure is a significant risk factor for body image disturbance and disordered eating. However, a causal relationship has not yet been firmly established. Several theories, including objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997), have attempted to explain this relationship with some success. The current study had two primary goals. First, it was designed to further explore the potential causal relationship between mass media exposure and body image and affect disturbance. Second, it attempted to go beyond individuals' body image and explore how exposure to objectifying media influences people's judgments of others. Briefly, the results revealed that exposure to media that objectify women was related to state body image disturbance, anger, and anxiety. Gender and internalization of cultural appearance ideals frequently played an important role in these relationships. Exposure to objectifying media did not predict participants' judgments of women's competence or attractiveness. However, interesting gender differences were observed.

Self-objectification is the process by which women take on a third-person perspective in evaluating their physical appearance and sexual attributes. Objectification theory states that self-objectification may lead to negative mental health outcomes in women; a growing body of cross-sectional and experimental research supports the connection between self-objectification and the experience of shame, disordered eating, depression, and sexual dysfunction. This study sought to evaluate an intervention designed to reduce self-objectification behaviors and beliefs in order to prevent the development of disordered eating, depression, and sexual dysfunction. An efficacious prevention program using cognitive dissonance induction was adapted to target self-objectification. The efficacy of the self-objectification dissonance intervention was evaluated in comparison to an expressive writing control condition. The self-objectification intervention was also compared to an existing empirically supported cognitive dissonance intervention targeting beliefs regarding the thin-ideal to determine whether or not this intervention provided added benefits in reducing risk factors for disordered eating and depression. A sample of 119 undergraduate females was recruited to participate in the study. Participants were randomized to one of three conditions: the self-objectification dissonance intervention, the thin-ideal dissonance intervention, or the expressive writing control group. All participants completed a baseline assessment and two intervention sessions over a three week period. One month following the completion of the second intervention session, participants were asked to complete a follow up assessment. Change in target outcome variables from baseline to post-intervention were evaluated using hierarchical linear models. Maintenance of treatment outcomes from post-intervention to 1 month follow up was evaluated using mixed factor analysis of variance. Results indicated that significant changes in outcome variables (body shame, disordered eating, body satisfaction, depression symptoms, and sexual self-consciousness) and mediating variables (self-surveillance, self-objectification, thin-ideal internalization) were associated with all three groups. The self-objectification dissonance intervention was associated with a greater reduction in self-surveillance compared to the control group but not with the thin-ideal dissonance intervention. For all groups, there were no significant changes in outcome and mediating variables from post-intervention to 1 month follow up. Participants in the self-objectification dissonance intervention, though, did continue to experience a decrease in self-surveillance over the one month follow up period compared to the thin-ideal dissonance group. Overall, results did not support that a self-objectification dissonance intervention is associated with significant reductions in eating disorder and depression risk factors above and beyond a general expressive writing task and existing intervention programs. These findings suggest that there is limited utility in specifically targeting objectification processes in prevention programs. Implications of study findings for future eating disorder and mental health prevention program designs are discussed.

Historically, cultural pressures to be thin and their effects on women (e.g., body dissatisfaction, disordered eating) have received considerable attention from researchers and clinicians. However, acknowledgement of cultural pressures on men to be muscular and lean is much more recent, as are men's increasing rates of body dissatisfaction and body-changing behaviors (i.e., drive for muscularity, nutritional supplement/steroid use, excessive weightlifting). The increasing presence of idealized lean, muscular men in the media may be one of the influences on men's increasing body dissatisfaction, although studies examining the relationship between viewing these idealized portrayals and men's drive for muscularity/body satisfaction have yielded mixed results. Additionally, individual difference factors that may influence this relationship need further investigation. The purpose of this study was to address these two areas of research. It was hypothesized that men exposed to idealized television portrayals of lean, muscular men would report higher muscle/body fat dissatisfaction and drive for muscularity attitudes scores compared to men exposed to television portrayals of average-looking men. Additionally, it was predicted that men who report higher perfectionism, neuroticism, and drive for muscularity, and who more strongly endorse traditional attitudes about the male role, would report higher drive for muscularity and muscle/body fat dissatisfaction at post-test compared to men who report lower perfectionism, neuroticism, and drive for muscularity, and who are less concerned with traditional male role norms. Two-hundred-thirty-five undergraduate men at The University of Texas at Austin participated in the online study. During Phase 1, participants completed questionnaires assessing drive for muscularity, muscle/body fat dissatisfaction, perfectionism, neuroticism, and attitudes about the male role. One week later, they were randomly assigned to either the muscular-image or average-image group to complete Phase 2. After viewing television commercials corresponding with their experimental groups, participants again completed all pre-test measures. Results suggested that men in the average-image group (rather than the muscular-image group) with high drive for muscularity experienced greater body fat dissatisfaction than men with low drive for muscularity. Interesting findings regarding the relationships among perfectionism, neuroticism and drive for muscularity/body dissatisfaction also emerged. Implications of the study, strengths, limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed. / text

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published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

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In this dissertation, I use the ethnographic case study of the United Arab Emirates to illustrate a much larger phenomenon that involves young women worldwide in the throes of identity negotiation at a time of accelerated global flows of information, foods, fashion, media images, fashions, health information, and health and self-enhancement products. My research utilizes ethnographic and anthropometric information as a means of investigating the ways in which these global flows are affecting the physical bodies, attitudes, behaviors, perceptions of self, and perceptions of community in a sample of young, female, Emiratis living in the UAE in the Arab Gulf in the twenty-first century. I employ biocultural methods and perspectives to examine bodies-as-products and bodies-as-projects in this cohort, focusing on health, beauty, and self-presentation projects. I also focus on the uncertainty and accompanying psychosocial stress that these women are subject to as a result of juggling globalized, "modern" opportunities and lifestyles on the one hand with local expectations and regulations on the other. Key to these analyses is the acknowledgment of the synergy between biology and culture, and the effects of both local and global factors on this synergy.

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