Body Image and Eating Behavior Social Norms in the College Population: Finding Inconsistencies between Perceptions and Actual Attitudes and Behavior

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Brennan, Julie Ann
Language:	English
Published:	The Ohio State University / OhioLINK 2002
Subjects:	Psychology
Online Access:	http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392901057

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spelling	ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-osu13929010572021-08-03T06:22:23Z Body Image and Eating Behavior Social Norms in the College Population: Finding Inconsistencies between Perceptions and Actual Attitudes and Behavior Brennan, Julie Ann Psychology Within the college population, a high risk of body image and eating disturbances has been found and is on the rise. This study responded to this rise of disturbance by exploring a possible intervention strategy based on the social norms theory. The social norms theory states that individuals often incorrectly perceive the behaviors and/or attitudes of their social group to be different than their own; overemphasizing the negative behaviors and underemphasizing the positive behaviors. In these cases, the incorrect perceived norm actually may be detrimental to individual behavioral choices. By publicly correcting these misperceptions, negative behavior and attitudes that were once seen as “normal,” are hypothesized to decrease. This approach has been effective in reducing binge drinking at numerous colleges, but has not been attempted in the area of body image and eating disturbances.This study attempted to provide evidence that this approach might be effective to reduce body image and eating disturbances. This was completed by analyzing the difference between college students’ actual body image behaviors and attitudes and the perceptions of other college students’ behaviors and attitudes. In addition, gender differences were analyzed and examined.Participants included 180 undergraduate students (102 male and 78 female) enrolled in an introductory psychology course at a large midwestern university. The measures that were administered included the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire, Sociocultural Attitudes toward Appearance, Eating Attitudes Test, Attitude toward Overweight Questionnaire, Contour Figure Rating Scale, Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, and a demographic questionnaire.A paired samples t-test revealed that body image misperceptions do exist among college students (both genders) on all tested measures, overestimating negative behaviors and attitudes and underestimating positive behaviors and attitudes. A MANOVA analyses indicated that gender differences exist for the evaluation and importance of appearance, overweight preoccupation, the acceptance of societal standards, eating disturbance behavior, figure dissatisfaction, self-esteem, and attitudes toward overweight individuals. Of particular importance is that 95% of body dissatisfied females wanted to lose weight, whereas, half of dissatisfied males wanted to lose weight and half wanted to gain weight.These results suggest that the social norms theory is applicable to body image issues. Further research needs to explore how a social norms approach might be best implemented due to gender differences in the college population. In addition, male body image may need to be explored more extensively with additional measures that address issues regarding attempts to gain weight rather than just lose weight. 2002 English text The Ohio State University / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392901057 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392901057 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.
collection	NDLTD
language	English
sources	NDLTD
topic	Psychology
spellingShingle	Psychology Brennan, Julie Ann Body Image and Eating Behavior Social Norms in the College Population: Finding Inconsistencies between Perceptions and Actual Attitudes and Behavior
author	Brennan, Julie Ann
author_facet	Brennan, Julie Ann
author_sort	Brennan, Julie Ann
title	Body Image and Eating Behavior Social Norms in the College Population: Finding Inconsistencies between Perceptions and Actual Attitudes and Behavior
title_short	Body Image and Eating Behavior Social Norms in the College Population: Finding Inconsistencies between Perceptions and Actual Attitudes and Behavior
title_full	Body Image and Eating Behavior Social Norms in the College Population: Finding Inconsistencies between Perceptions and Actual Attitudes and Behavior
title_fullStr	Body Image and Eating Behavior Social Norms in the College Population: Finding Inconsistencies between Perceptions and Actual Attitudes and Behavior
title_full_unstemmed	Body Image and Eating Behavior Social Norms in the College Population: Finding Inconsistencies between Perceptions and Actual Attitudes and Behavior
title_sort	body image and eating behavior social norms in the college population: finding inconsistencies between perceptions and actual attitudes and behavior
publisher	The Ohio State University / OhioLINK
publishDate	2002
url	http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392901057
work_keys_str_mv	AT brennanjulieann bodyimageandeatingbehaviorsocialnormsinthecollegepopulationfindinginconsistenciesbetweenperceptionsandactualattitudesandbehavior
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Body Image and Eating Behavior Social Norms in the College Population: Finding Inconsistencies between Perceptions and Actual Attitudes and Behavior

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