Body Image as a function of Advertisement Exposure and Eating Competency Skills

For a Psychology research method course, I conducted an experiment involving 13 subjects (7 females; 6 males) age 20-23.

The subjects completed an ecSatter Eating Competency Questionnaire, which rated their eating competency (competency is the absence of external eating, such as overeating, undereating, skipping meals, counting calories, feeling guilty about eating, etc). They were then shown a four-advertisement series. 50% of subjects viewed advertisements composed of diet-food images and "media ideal" figures, two of which were celebrities; the other two being unidentified models. The other 50% viewed non-diet foods, and "regular" sized people, two of which were also celebrities, and two unidentified models. Subjects were then asked to complete a BIQL (Body Image Questionnaire).

The results were quite interesting. While I assumed, as is commonly predicted, that diet advertisements and thin idealization in the media has a harmful effect on some people, I didn't realize to what extend.

My results showed that those with low eating competency skills (these are people that are likely concerned about their weight, and may be prone to crash diets) have lower mean body image scores than high competent eaters (regardless of the advertisement they viewed).

My results also showed that those who view the diet advertisements had lower mean body image scores than those who viewed the "regular" advertisements (regardless of eating competency).

Most interestingly, my results showed that the negative effect of viewing the diet advertisements was much worse among the "low eating competency" group than the "high eating competency" group on body image score. In other words, those with low eating competency are much more likely to be effected negatively by ads than people with healthy, competent eating skills.

While these results are obviously limited (very small sample size, non-representative samples, etc.), it brings some interesting ideas to mind.

For one, maybe an interesting approach to improving body image is to teach eating competency. This could include general nutritional knowledge, mindful eating exercises, and cooking classes.

Conversely, perhaps working upon improving body image would lead to an improvement in eating competency.

Another idea worth investigating is the use of these "media ideal" images in behavioral therapy, as a means to desensitize individuals to these images, to prevent their negative effects on self body-image.

Perhaps results like mine would persuade clinicians to be more judicious when choosing reading materials for their waiting rooms. (I don't know how many times I've been lured in by the "Lose 10 pounds in ONE WEEK" headlines while waiting to see my therapist!)

I hope to continue learning about this topic, and hopefully work toward finding a way to minimize the harmful effects of the media on body image.

A Brief Introduction

Summer has left me with idle time to think, which means a couple of things:


1. I'm overflowing with thought, and since I'm a hermit, I have nobody to let it spill out upon.

2. I've come to develop fairly strong opinions on certain matters that I feel I ought to put in writing, "just in case."

3. I need something to do to occupy some of this time, and since I'm a perfectionist, writing blogs takes me a decent amount of time. (Write, review, re-write, review, edit, review, add, review, minimize, review...)


I don't necessarily intend on sharing this with anybody, but if I feel that I've come up with something worthwhile, perhaps I will. As of right now, I don't think many people are interested in my thoughts. Don't underestimate how serious I am in my hermit ways.


In time, I hope to take small adventures (road trips, if you will) with my camera to capture some images from around Michigan. At this point, I plan on tracking my trips and images on this blog.