The Influence Of The Mass Media On Women's Body Image: A Exploration Of Social Comparison Trait And Mode

In the mass media, we can easily find a lot of perfect female images, and women in real life developed the negative body image after exposed to these perfect media images. The analysis of the influential factors of negative body image, was help to prevent its formation, and safeguard the physical and mental health of women. Compared with the family, peer, schools and other influential factors, the mass media get more attention because of its universality and depth. Foreign psychologists had did considerable research on the area of "the influence of the mass media on women's body image", based on social comparison theory. The results showed that the social comparison was moderator or mediator, and our preliminary studies had also found that, compared with the internalization of thin ideal, peer tease and social pressures, the social comparison had greater impact on adolescent's negative body image .But the mechanism needs to be further explored.Based on the existing literature, the study did two related behavioral experiments, to survey the influence of the media on women's body image, in the context of Chinese culture. Experiment 1 studied the influence of different social comparison traits and types of media images on female body image, Experiment 2 studied the influence of different social comparison modes on women's body image. Compared to existing research, this study was more concern to the new media, such as networks, electronic magazines, rather than the traditional media; a more comprehensive study of the negative body image, and not just negative emotions, such as physical anxiety, body dissatisfaction; paid more attention to the internal mechanism of social comparison, was not limited to the external processes and phenomena explorations.The following conclusions were made in this study .First, in the context of Chinese culture, the mass media had negative effects on women's body images, and social comparison was moderator. Second, for social comparison trait, compared to low comparison tendency, the women of high comparison tendency was more vulnerable to the negative impact of the media. Third, for social comparisons mode, compared to similarity comparison, difference comparison had more negative impact on women's body image. Moreover, the article discussed how to use social comparison to prevent women's negative body images in the final.Overall, the article was an applied research of social comparison theory in the field of physical self. It enriched the social comparison theory on the physical dimensions, made clear the internal mechanism of women developed the negative body image, provided related theory for the prevention of women's negative female body images.