General rationale

Seite 1

Rationale for study

Self concept clarity is the extent to which individuals have a clear and coherent sense of their own personal identity, and is a component of the self that is distant from the evaluative component, associated with resilience and wellbeing (Vartanian et al., 2014)

Individuals who lack a clear personal identity might turn to external sources as a means of defining themselves (Vartanian et al., 2014)

Poor sense of self > internalisation of societal standards > body dissatisfaction > development/ maintenance of eating disorders (Vartanian et al., 2014)

Low self-concept clarity leads to conformity and tendency to base ones self-worth on body weight then leads to internalisation

Connection between low self-concept and body dissatisfaction and eating disorders

"Normative discontent" -body dissatisfaction stable across lifespan (Rodin et al in Webster & Tiggemann, 2003)

Rationale for gender part of study

At all ages women attach greater importance to the attractiveness of their body than men (McCabe, Ricciardelli, 2004)

Men were more satisfied with their bodies than women and considered themselves to be more attractive (McCabe, Ricciardelli, 2004)

Strongest predictor of body dissatisfaction for men was internalisation of social standard of appearance (McCabe, Ricciardelli, 2004)

"lean mesomorphic muscular ideal" (McCabe, Ricciardelli, 2004)

For young women body dissatisfaction has a large impact on their global self-evaluation (Webster & Tiggemann, 2003)

For self-concept clarity to be important in understanding body image difficulties there needs to be the presence of internalisation of societal standards of attractiveness, and this is specific to women (Vartanian, 2009)

self-concept clarity associated with internalisation for women for not for men (Vartanian, 2009)

Rationale for why we think individuals will be influenced in the moment by stimuli

Psychologists have assumed that the working self-concept is dynamic: determined by the social situation at a given time and by the person's current goals, affect, or motivational state (Kanagawa, Cross and Markus, 2001)

Overall the self as active and dynamic may fruitfully expand understanding o the role of the conceptual self in behaviour (Kanagawa, Cross and Markus, 2001)

Evidence that mass media does promulgate a slender ideal that elicits body dissatisfaction (Goesz, Levine and Murnen, 2001)

Self-concept mediates and regulates on-going behaviour (Markus and Wurf, 1987)

Self-concept as dynamic, active , forceful, capable of change (Markus and Wurf, 1987)

Self-concept adjusts in response to challenges from the social environment (Markus and Wurf, 1987)

The influence of self-concept may not always be overt, but instead manifests subtly which aspects of the self concept are accessible and dominant, nature of self-presentation (Markus and Wurf, 1987)

Systematically implicated in all aspects of social information processing (Markus and Wurf, 1987)