StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Peer Pressure and Its Influence on Females Appearance Schemas and Body Dissatisfaction - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
This essay "Peer Pressure and Its Influence on Female’s Appearance Schemas and Body Dissatisfaction " discusses families that influences have evaluated the role of peer pressure (particularly the best friend) in predicting various types of weight-loss strategies among their girlfriends…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER95.6% of users find it useful
Peer Pressure and Its Influence on Females Appearance Schemas and Body Dissatisfaction
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Peer Pressure and Its Influence on Females Appearance Schemas and Body Dissatisfaction"

Running Head: PSYCHOLOGY LITERATURE REVIEW ON PEER PRESSURE AND ITS Psychology Literature Review on Peer Pressure and its influence on female's appearance schemas and body dissatisfaction [Writer's Name] [Institution's Name] Psychology Literature Review on Peer Pressure and its influence on female's appearance schemas and body dissatisfaction Most past research on family influences has evaluated the role of peer pressure (particularly the best friend) in predicting various types of weight-loss strategies among their girlfriends. Very little research has investigated peer influences on the eating behaviors of adolescent females or explored strategies that may be more relevant to females (weight gain, muscle increase). Through modeling and encouragement from their best friends, girls with eating disorders were more likely to be rewarded for engaging in these behaviors than girls who did not experience eating disorders. Likewise, Kent and Clopton (2003) found that bulimic girls were more likely to have family members who also experienced weight and eating problems, and Moreno and Thelen (2003) found that bulimic girls were more likely to have best friends who encouraged them to lose weight and restrict their food intake. Benedikt, Wertheim, and Love (2002) and Paxton et al. (2003) found that best friends' encouragement to diet increased dieting behavior among adolescent girls. Dixon, Adair, and O'Connor (2000) also found that peer encouragement to diet (separate questions were not asked for other friends and boyfriend) was associated with both body dissatisfaction and dieting behaviors among adolescent girls. However, there was no overall association between the dieting practices of friends and those of adolescent girls, although boyfriends' dieting behavior was associated with some aspects of their girlfriends' dieting behaviors. Keel, Heatherton, Harnden, and Hornig (2001) also found that although boyfriends influenced their girlfriends' body dissatisfaction but not their eating practices, best friends had a greater influence on their girlfriends' dieting behaviors. In contrast to these findings, Steiger, Stotland, Ghadiriam, and Whitehead (2003) found no difference among binge eaters, dieters, and no dieters in the eating concerns of family members. The authors suggested that rather than an actual eating disturbance, it may be a general tendency toward some form of psychopathology that is associated with eating disturbance among adolescent girls. A follow-up study by Steiger, Stotland, Trottier, and Ghadiriam (2000) indicated that there was some association between girlfriends' and best friends' eating concerns, but that the strongest influence on disordered eating among adolescent girls was psychopathological traits of friends. Other researchers have also reported that friends of eating-disordered adolescents did not differ from control-group friends on dietary restraint or eating disturbances (Evans & le Grange, 2003; Leon, Fulkerson, Perry, & Dube, 2003), although some studies have revealed a relationship between best friends' eating restraint and that of their girlfriends but not of their sons (Ruther & Richman, 2003; Scourfield, 2003; Thelen & Cormier, 2003). The results from the aforementioned studies demonstrate a lack of clarity in the extent to which best friends and boyfriends may influence body satisfaction and disturbed eating among adolescent females and girls, with a particular focus on girls. Furthermore, that research has focused on weight loss but neglected consideration of strategies to gain weight and increase muscle tone. These are strategies that may be particularly relevant to adolescent females, but the impact of peer feedback on these strategies has not been explored. It is important to determine the nature of the feedback provided to adolescent females, how it differs from that provided to adolescent girls, and the impact of this feedback on weight gain and strategies to increase muscle, as well as weight loss. Peers also seem to exert some pressure among adolescent girls who adopt extreme weight-loss behaviors. Bulimics report being pressured by their peers to engage in both bingeing and purging (Mitchell, Hatsukami, Pyle, & Eckert, 2001; Stice, Nemeroff, & Shaw, 2000). In contrast, Paxton et al. (2003) claimed that few female friends encouraged dieting, and Gibbs (2001) found that the self-reported number of friends who were currently dieting was not a significant predictor of disordered eating among high school girls. The inconsistency in these findings is probably related to differences in the extent of eating problems among the adolescents in the various studies and to the different measures of disordered eating. A substantial body of literature has evaluated the media's impact on adolescent body image and disordered eating among girls. As for the other sociocultural influences, the media's impact on body dissatisfaction and weight loss among females has been neglected, as well as the research on weight gain and strategies to increase muscles. Because some females who are in early adolescence evidence a desire to increase body bulk, but others evidence a desire to increase muscle tone (McCabe & Ricciardelli, 2001a), we consider these two dimensions separately. This separation also seems to be important given our limited understanding of body-change strategies adopted by adolescent females and the confusion in the literature regarding the use of the terms "increase weight" and "increase muscle." As future researchers address this issue, it may become apparent that the two concepts share a substantial amount of variance, but we cannot assume that this is the case. Cusimano and Thompson (2001) found that both awareness of societal pressures and internalization of social standards of appearance were significant predictors of body image, eating dysfunction, and self-esteem among a group of college women. However, Posavac, Posavac, and Posavac (2002) found in a series of studies that media images were more likely to influence women who already experienced weight concerns, with women with low body dissatisfaction being less likely to respond to media influences. Griffiths and McCabe (2000) found that although perceived views of society predicted body dissatisfaction among adolescent gifts, these sociocultural pressures did not predict disordered eating after the researchers accounted for a range of other biological and psychological adjustment variables. Few studies have examined the combined effects of family, peers, and the media within a single research design. In particular, no studies have examined the impact of these variables on adolescent females and their strategies to increase weight and muscle tone. Levine, Smolak, and Hayden (2003) assessed eating behavior, body satisfaction, and concern about being slender among 385 gifts aged 10 to 14 years. The authors found that the media and teasing and criticism by peer pressure were the strongest predictors of body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness. Family and peers, but not the media, were found to be the strongest influences on bulimic symptomatology among young adult women (Stice, 2002). Stice found that this influence took place through social reinforcement and modeling, a finding that is supported by earlier research. Taylor et al. (2002) found that peers were the strongest influence on weight concerns among high school girls, although the media also significantly influenced concerns about weight. Perceived pressure to be thin from family, friends, dating partners, and the media has been shown to be related to bulimic symptoms (Irving, 2000; Stice, Ziemba, Margolis, & Flick, 2000). Most studies have focused on gifts and on weight-loss behaviors. Whether the same relationships apply to females or to other body-change strategies are unclear. Ricciardelli, McCabe, and Ban field (2000) found that friends, siblings, friends, and the media were perceived by about one third of the adolescent females in their study to have an influence on their feelings about their body and their body-change strategies. However, there were only 40 participants in this study, so it is not possible to extend the findings to adolescent females in general. Obtaining a better understanding of sociocultural influences on body dissatisfaction and body-change behaviors among adolescent females requires inclusion of all the major sociocultural influences--best friend, boyfriend, best male friend, best female friend, and media--within the single study. It is also vital to investigate the impact of these influences on strategies to increase weight and muscle tone as well as strategies for weight loss, because these are behaviors that are more likely to move females closer to the ideal body generated by society. It is also important to obtain a clearer picture of the sociocultural messages for adolescent girls in this broader range of body change techniques. References Benedikt, R., Wertheim, E. H., & Love, A. (2002). Eating attitudes and weight-loss attempts in female adolescents and their best friends. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 27, 43-57. Cusimano, D. C., & Thompson, J. K. (2001). Body image and body shape ideals in magazines: Exposure, awareness, and internalization. Sex Roles, 37, 701-721. Dixon, R., Adair, V., & O'Connor, S. (2000). Peer influences on the dieting beliefs and behaviors of adolescent females in America. Journal of Adolescent Health, 19, 303-307. Evans, J., & le Grange, D. (2003). Body size and parenting in eating disorders: A comparative study of the attitudes of best friends towards their children. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 18, 39-48. Gibbs, R. E. (2001). Social factors in exaggerated eating behavior among high school students. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 5, 1103-1107. Griffiths, J. A., & McCabe, M. P. (2000). The influence of significant others on disordered eating and body dissatisfaction among early adolescent girls. European Eating Disorders Review, 8, 301-314. Irving, L. M. (2000). Mirror images: Effects of the standard of beauty on the self- and body-esteem of women exhibiting varying levels of bulimic symptoms. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 9, 230-242. Keel, P. K., Fulkerson, J. A., & Leon, G. R. (2001). Disordered eating precursors in pre and early adolescent girls and boys. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 26, 203-216. Keel, P. K., Heatherton, T. F., Harnden, J. L., & Hornig, C. D. (2001). Best friends, boyfriends and girlfriends: Dieting and disordered eating. Eating Disorders, 5, 216-228. Kent, J. S., & Clopton, J. R. (2003). Bulimic women's perceptions of their family relationships. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 48, 281-292. Leon, G. R., Fulkerson, J. H., Perry, C. L., & Dube, A. (2003). Family influences, school behaviors, and risk for the later development of an eating disorder. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 23, 499-515. Levine, M. P., Smolak, L., & Hayden, H. (2003). The relation of sociocultural factors to eating attitudes and behaviors among middle school girls. Journal of Early Adolescence, 14, 471-490. McCabe, M. P., & Ricciardelli, L. A. (2001a). Body image and body change techniques among young adolescent boys. European Eating Disorders Review, 9, 1-13. Mitchell, J. E., Hatsukami, D., Pyle, R. L., & Eckert, E. D. (2001). The bulimia syndrome: Course for the illness and associated problems. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 27, 165-179. Moreno, A., & Thelen, M. H. (2003). Peer factors related to bulimia nervosa. Addictive Behaviors, 18, 681-689. Paxton, S. J., Wertheim, E. H., Gibbons, K., Szmukler, G. L., Hillier, L., & Petrovich, J. L. (2003). Body image satisfaction, dieting beliefs, and weight loss behaviors in adolescent girls and boys. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 20, 361-379. Posavac, H. D., Posavac, S. S., & Posavac, E. J. (2002). Exposure to media influences of female attractiveness and concern with body weight among young women. Sex Roles, 38, 187-201. Ricciardelli, L. A., McCabe, M. P., & Banfield, S. (2000). Body image and body change methods in adolescent boys: Roles of friends, friends and the media. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 48, 189-197. Ruther, N. M., & Richman, C. L. (2003). The relationship between best friends' eating restraint and their children's attitude and behaviors. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 31, 217-220. Scourfield, J. (2003). Anorexia by proxy: Are the children of anorexic best friends an at-risk group International Journal of Eating Disorders, 18, 371-374. Steiger, H., Stotland, S., Ghadiriam, A. M., & Whitehead, V. (2003). Controlled study of eating concerns and psychopathological traits in relatives of eating-disordered probands: Do familial traits exist International Journal of Eating Disorders, 18, 107-118. Steiger, H., Stotland, S., Trottier, J., & Ghadiriam, A. M. (2000). Familial eating concerns and psychopathological traits: Causal implications of transgenerational effects. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 19, 147-157. Stice, E. (2002). Modeling of eating pathology and social reinforcement of the thin-ideal predict onset of bulimic symptoms. Behaviour Research and Therapy 36, 931-944. Stice, E., Nemeroff, C., & Shaw, H. (2000). A test of the dual pathway model of bulimia nervosa: Evidence for restrained-eating and affect-regulation mechanism. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 15, 340-363. Stice, E., Ziemba, C., Margolis, J., & Flick, P. (2000). The dual pathway model differentiates bulimics, subclinical bulimics, and controls: Testing the continuity hypothesis. Behavior Therapy, 27, 531-549. Taylor, C. B., Sharpe, T., Shisslak, C., Byrson, S., Estes, L. S., Gray, N., et al. (2002). Factors associated with weight concerns in adolescent girls. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 24, 31-42. Thelen, M. H., & Cormier, J. F. (2003). Desire to be thinner and weight control among children and their friends. Behavior Therapy, 26, 85-99. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Psychology Literature Review on Peer Pressure and its influence on Essay”, n.d.)
Psychology Literature Review on Peer Pressure and its influence on Essay. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1518741-psychology-literature-review-on-peer-pressure-and-its-influence-on-females-appearance-schemas-and-body-dissatisfaction
(Psychology Literature Review on Peer Pressure and Its Influence on Essay)
Psychology Literature Review on Peer Pressure and Its Influence on Essay. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1518741-psychology-literature-review-on-peer-pressure-and-its-influence-on-females-appearance-schemas-and-body-dissatisfaction.
“Psychology Literature Review on Peer Pressure and Its Influence on Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1518741-psychology-literature-review-on-peer-pressure-and-its-influence-on-females-appearance-schemas-and-body-dissatisfaction.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Peer Pressure and Its Influence on Females Appearance Schemas and Body Dissatisfaction

The Effects of the Mass Medias Female Beauty Ideal on Adolescents

By comparing oneself to and attempting to fit such a stringent beauty ideal, female youth faces inevitable failure, resulting in body dissatisfaction, low self-esteem, and/or eating disorders (Heinberg, 1996; Rodin & Striegel-Moore, 1985; Thompson & Stice, 2001).... Specifically focusing on girls' ages 13-17, the goal of this study is to point out the effects the unrealistic female beauty ideal promoted by the mass media has on their self-esteem and body-esteem, given that adolescence is such an influential developmental stage....
13 Pages (3250 words) Research Paper

The Disconnect of Fashion Advertising with Young Females

It not only embraces clothing but also accessories, jewelry, hairstyles, beauty, and body art.... -[Online]Accessed February 2011] With the peer pressure of being socially accepted in different environments, fashion is even more so an issue with the younger generation of females.... Researchers suggest advertising media may adversely impact women's body image' – [Online] [Accessed February 2011] 'For centuries individuals or societies have used clothes and another body adornment as a form of nonverbal communication to indicate occupation, rank, gender, sexual availability, locality, class, and wealth and group affiliation....
52 Pages (13000 words) Dissertation

The Fashion Industry and the Role of the Media in Shapin

Research on this self perception has found discontent among women showing their body dissatisfaction and at a higher rate than males.... The dissatisfaction, which is one of the major issues in a woman's teenage due to perception of one's own physical image (Schwitzer, Bergholz, Dore, & Salimi, 1998; Stice & Whitenton, 2002), is a topic that needs special attention to guard young girls from further worsening their health situation in fear of weight gain (Striegel-Moore & Franko, 2002; Field et al....
68 Pages (17000 words) Dissertation

Pro-Anorexia - Impact on Body Image and Self-Esteem in Normal and Susceptible Individuals

The basic hypothesis to be tested in this study "Pro-Anorexia - Impact on body Image and Self-Esteem in Normal and Susceptible Individuals" is that the self-esteem of individuals with dysfunctional body schema (or individuals with disordered attitudes) is contingent on thinness.... This disorder turns people neurotically anxious to reduce body weight or maintain it at an abnormally low level.... Anorexia nervosa is characterized by the following symptoms:• Refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height (e....
10 Pages (2500 words) Essay

How the Media Affects Diet, Nutrition and Exercise

This type of observation, heard in the background of significant analyses of sociocultural factors (Bordo, 1993; Kilbourne, 1994; Wolf, 1991), focuses concentration on the role of mass media in the development of impracticable standards of beauty, body discontent, and messy eating. ... ass media both support and reveal body shapes, styles of clothing, and other images that signify ("embody") intricate themes of gender, race, class, beauty, identity, desire, success, and self-control in postindustrial societies (Bordo, 1993; Gordon, 1990; Kilbourne, 1994; Nichter & Nichter, 1991; Stice, 1994)....
20 Pages (5000 words) Essay

The Effects on Cognitions Related to Body Image and Self-Esteem

This essay "The Effects on Cognitions Related to Body Image and Self-Esteem" examines the short-term impact on self-esteem and body image of a single brief exposure to a pro-anorexia website (PAW).... Disturbed body schemas increase susceptibility to pro-anorexia websites.... Anorexia nervosa is characterized by extreme anxiety to reduce body weight or maintain it at an abnormally low level.... percent; this is due to starvation which strains the body's organs and physiological processes (Misra et....
40 Pages (10000 words) Essay

Mental Disorders - Anorexia Nervosa

This paper "Mental Disorders - Anorexia Nervosa" focuses on the psychiatric eating disorder that is characterized by a low body weight and a negative perception of body image.... Leon offers a clinical description of anorexic patients as 'conscientious, overachieving, obsessive-compulsive, perfectionistic, shy' and offers the view that the anorexic condition arises because the patients feel anxious and they focus upon gaining control over themselves and their environment by controlling their body weight....
20 Pages (5000 words) Essay

Consumerism as a Subset of Changing Societal Expectations and Its Norms

The ideal self, of how a person would like to be, is moulded by the elements of culture in the advertisements, who serve as the model of achievement or appearance.... The paper describes the studies on consumer behaviour that are in a constant state of flux with a fundamental precept of 'hard selling' as its driving force....
14 Pages (3500 words) Research Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us