Advertising and Appearance Anxiety

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the powerful and persuasive nature of advertising and how it is utilized as a tool to impact and objectify messages and media influences throughout various cultures. The paper particularly focuses on the effect that advertisements have on appearance anxiety, especially within the adolescent female population and discusses the reasons for its impact.

From the Paper:

"Gender is predominantly linked to the female population when it comes to body dissatisfaction, particularly adolescent females because so much of their identity is tied to their physical attributes, or lack thereof (Green, 2003). Research reveals that women far outweigh men in terms of lower body dissatisfaction and media pressures confirm their anxieties (Dittmar, et al, 2004). Studies reveal that women have a higher dissatisfaction in specific areas such as hips, thigh, body fatness and weight (Russell & Cox, 2003). Women's tendencies are to continually compare their own body images to other women as a means of self assessment, typically ending in body dissatisfaction (Tiggemann, et al, 2004). The physical changes are evident in both girls and boys reaching puberty with opposite results inferred for girls who increase their body fat and boys who decrease their body fat and increase muscle tone (Davison & McCabe, 2006)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Brown, A. & Dittmar, H. (2005). Think "Thin" and Feel Bad: The Rose of Appearance Schema Activation, Attention Level, and Thin-Ideal Internalization for Young Women's Responses to Ultra-Thin Media Indeals. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, Vol 24, No. 8, 1088-1113.
• Davis, D., Brewer, H. & Weinstein, M. (1993). A Study of Appearance Anxiety in Young Men. Social Behavior and Personality, 21(1), 63-74.
• Davison, T.E. & McCabe, M.P. (2006). Adolescent Body Image and Psychosocial Functioning. The Journal of Social Psychology, 146(1), 15-30.
• Dittmar, H., & Howard, S. (2004). Thin-Ideal Internalization and Social Comparison Tendency as Moderators of Media Models' Impact on Women's Body-Focused Anxiety. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 23, No. 6, 768-791.
• Green, S. P. (2003). Predictors of Body Image Dissatisfaction in Adult Men and Women. Social Behavior and Personality, 31(3), 215-222.

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