running head: BODY IMAGE CONCERNS BETWEEN MALES AND FEMALES

Body Image Concerns Between Males and Females

Amanda F. Allison

Central Magnet School

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Body image is said to be a subjective picture of one's own physical appearance

established both by self-observation and by noting the reactions of others. This is often

confused with self-confidence, which is a confidence in oneself and in one's powers and

abilities. (Webster, 1953) It is said that children with negative body image concerns are more

likely to be depressed, anxious, and suicidal than those without intense dissatisfaction over their

appearance. ("Negative Body Image Related To Depression, Anxiety And Suicidality," n.d.)

Vicarious conditioning is the learning of various attitudes, feelings, beliefs and emotions, not

through direct exposure to a stimulus, but through observing how others react to it. ("Vicarious

Conditioning," n.d.) Vicarious Conditioning is a factor in why, from a young age, people are

struggling with negative body image. One of the stimuli affecting children's body image at a

young age are Barbie dolls.

Barbie dolls, since they first came onto the market, have attracted criticism for giving

young impressionable girls an unrealistic idea of what the female body should look like. In

1963, the doll came with a book entitled How to Lose Weight with instructions not to eat. This

is incredibly unhealthy for a young girl wanting to look like her pretty doll. It was said to be

important that young people embrace diversity and feel happy with who they are. The new dolls

will appeal to millennial moms who are more socially conscious of the dolls previously

unrealistic proportions, teaching future generations that they do not have to look a certain way to

be considered pretty. (Ellis-Petersen, 2016)

Almost immediately children start becoming exposed to things that will influence how

they see themselves. From comments from family members such as I looked just like you when

I was your age (Bulik, 2012) when they now are obese, the toys they play with, to the shows

they watch and the pictures literally everywhere they are bound to see, these stimuli become
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worse and worse as they grow up as well, with more importance stressed on the way they look

and more criticism from others. Low body image is typically associated with teenage girls. This

is thought to be due to unattainable media standards, but all ages and both genders can have low

body image.

One study examined the extent of media exposure and early adolescents body image and

their relationships. It was conducted through a series of questionnaires distributed in the

homeroom classes of seventh and eighth graders. This would last no longer than one class period.

They responded individually to the surveys, while the research assistants sat in the rooms making

sure it remained quiet and answer any questions they may have had. This study included 182

males and 209 females with an age range of 12 to 15. A total of 391 participants provided usable

data for the study. Each participant was asked to indicate the average number of hours they

watch television, surf the internet, and play video games on weekdays and on weekends. They

also chose a favorite same-sex television character while indicating their name and what content

they appear in. They then indicated the extent of their PSR (parasocial relationship), motivations

to compare, and social comparison with the favorite character. A total of 191 characters were

chosen as favorites by participants in the study, which were then analyzed and three photographs

from an online database were chosen and analyzed for the characters beauty, attractiveness, and

extent of grooming (Eyal & Te'eni-Harari, 2013).

Not only are women affected by body image, but so are males as shown in Hannah

Weisman, Elaine Patten, Marcus Montanez-Leaks, Mercedes Yee, Allison Darcy, and Varvara

Mazina et als research into male body image. They used the Male Body Image Concerns Scale

(MBICS) which was formed in the idea from another study done concerning the prevention of

eating disorders. There were 61 males within the age range of 14-18 studied in the 9th through
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12th grade levels. Researchers created six items which asked for the participants weight, shape,

and muscle size concerns, as well as a desire to become more fit and healthy. The Male Body

Attitudes Scale (MBAS), a 24-item scale of male attitudes toward their body, was also used.

These scales were used just to see the percentages of men showing dissatisfaction with their

bodies. (Weisman & Patten, 2014)

An experiment done by David Frederick was focused on cultural associations concerning

body image. He examined whether Asian American women or white women would proclaim to

have poorer body image, and if the different social and cultural pressures that Asian American

women face day to day could explain this. He focused on appearance evaluation, which is the

degree to which people enjoy their appearance, the way they are, and believe they are attractive

and others find them attractive as well. Frederick took a group of 87 White and 95 Asian women

within the ages of 18-30 attending UCLA. A majority of the women indicated to be born in the

US or living in the US for at least 10 years. First they found no significant differences between

Asian women born in Asia and those born in America, so the group became one as just Asian

American. The women completed the Appearance Evaluation subscale. Their responses were

each averaged where the higher scores would indicate a more positive evaluations of appearance.

They also did a Face Dissatisfaction Frequency measure to assess how frequently people have

a negative reaction concerning their faces. Their findings showed consistent with their hypothesis

that Asian American women would report lower appearance evaluation and more

dissatisfaction with eye appearance than White women. (Frederick, 2016)

In these three studies there were limitations and implications. In Keren Eyal et als study,

data was collected among a nonrandom sample of adolescents in two schools, so data cannot be

generalized to other populations. It is also possible that other variables not considered in the
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study can explain the relationship between media exposure and body image. David Fredericks

study was limited to only Asian American and white women that attended the universities in the

two states, which reduced the ability to generalize the findings to other populations. There

were also concerns with the use of BMI in the examination, participants may not have accurately

reported their height and/or weight. In Hannah Weismans study, the constraints on time limited

the process of item generation and refinement, not allowing time for the rigorous instrument

development guidelines (such as having content experts review the items). A formal pretesting

was not done and her sample size was relatively small.

The previous studies read did not directly test body image of males against females. The

studies read did help identify the differences that males and females have concerning body

image, and they gave good background information into body image. The present study will

explore the differences in body image between males and females. This is to see if one gender is

more likely to have a lower body image than the other through a series of questionnaires and

images of the participants.

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References

Bulik, C. M. (2012). The woman in the mirror: How to stop confusing what you look like with

who you are. London: Walker Books.

Ellis-Petersen, H. (2016, January 28). Barbie finally becomes a real woman with a more

realistic figure. Retrieved from

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jan/28/barbie-finally-becomes-a-real-

girl-with-more-realistic-figure-and-skin-colours

Eyal, K., & Te'eni-Harari, T. (2013). Explaining the Relationship Between Media Exposure and

Early Adolescents' Body Image Perceptions. doi:10.1027/1864-1105/a000094

Frederick, D. A. (2016). Body image and face image in Asian American and white women:

Examining associations with surveillance, construal of self, perfectionism, and

sociocultural pressures. Body Image, 16, 113-125. doi:10.1016/bodyim.2015.12.002

Lloyd, J. (2012). Body image can affect more than just teens. Lifestyle.

Negative Body Image Related To Depression, Anxiety And Suicidality. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/060606224541.htm

Vicarious conditioning. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://behavenet.com/vicarious-conditioning

Webster, N. (1953). New collegiate dictionary. A Merriam-Webster. Springfield, MA: G. & C.

Merriam.

Weisman, H. L., & Patten, E. (2014). Validation of a Six-Item Male Body Image Concerns Scale

(MBICS). doi:10.1080/10640266.2014.925768