تصاویر رسانه ای و نارضایتی از بدن زنان: اثرات تعدیل کننده صفات پنج عاملی

Objective The purpose of this study was to examine how the Five-Factor personality traits moderated the effects of exposure to idealized images on body dissatisfaction in women. Method Sixty-four college women completed the NEO-PI and the Eating Disorder Inventory and were then randomly exposed to images of either thin fashion models or heavier, (“plus-sized”) models. Following presentation of the stimuli, participants completed a second body esteem measure, which was the dependent variable. Results Women high in neuroticism showed significantly greater shifts in body esteem following exposure to media images than did less neurotic women, feeling more dissatisfied with their bodies after viewing idealized images and more satisfied with their bodies after viewing heavier women. Each of the other traits was associated with more favorable self-appraisals following exposure to the idealizing images. Conclusions Of the Five-Factor traits, the harmful effects of idealized images seem to be limited to women with relatively higher levels of neuroticism. These results suggest that the harmful effects of media images may not be as pervasive as is widely believed.

Although there is evidence that idealized images may lower body esteem in some women, results have been contradictory with some studies reporting negative effects (Irving, 1990 and Stice and Shaw, 1994), some no effect (Champion and Furnham, 1999, Halliwell et al., 2005 and Martin and Kennedy, 1993), and some actually reporting positive effects (Henderson-King and Henderson-King, 1997, Joshi et al., 2004 and Mills et al., 2002). Overall, it appears that viewing thin media images generally has an adverse effect on female body image; however, effect sizes are small and heavily contingent on study design, specific measures, and characteristics of the participants (Groesz et al., 2002 and Tiggeman, 2002).