Body Image Of College Students And The Relations Of It With Social Comparison And Media Involvement

Body image is individuals` objective,comprehensive and evaluative summarization of its body characteristics. Body image, a mental phenomenon acquired and finished with growth, is a concept changing with our mental state,environment and body experience. Since the individuals` body image more time forms after the comparison with others or the figures propagated by media, it is unavoidably influenced by the attention of individuals in the comparisons and propagations about the ideal body images. The paper emphasizes on discussing that social comparisons and media involvement whether and how influence the body image of college students, which is helpful for them to find the most suitable comparison method to form positive body images and avoid the passive ones.The author investigates the whole situation of college students` body images before discussing the influence of social comparisons and media involvement in study 1. The Body Image States Scale (BISS) is used to review whether the students` body images are obviously different in the aspects of areas,gender,major and BMI index. Basing on the study 1, the BMI index being the covariate variable, the first experiment of study 2 starts with the directions of social comparisons and media involvement to discuss the influence of them to boys and girls. BMI index being covariate variable, the second experiment starts with the methods of social comparisons and media involvement to discuss the influence of them to boys and girls.The conclusions are got from the analyses and discusses of the above two studies in this paper as following:(1)The college students are generally satisfied with their body images, but in a low degree. Their body images are obviously different in the aspects of gender,grade and major. The scores of boys` body image are distinctly higher than that of girls; the scores of body images of freshmen are distinctly higher than that of juniors; the scores of students of arts` body image are higher than that of students of science. The body images of the same BMI grade have not obvious difference. Nevertheless, the students with normal BMI have the highest evaluations of their body images. The fatties` are lower, and the thinners` are the lowest. The scores of the south students` body image have few differences with that of north ones. (2) The scores of upward social comparison are lower than that of downward social comparison. The scores of high media involvement are lower than that of low media involvement. There is an obvious triple interactive effect among the gender,comparison directions and involvement. The main effect of comparison directions is very distinct. For example, when the testers are males, the scores of their body images of upward social comparison are obviously lower than that of downward social comparison when the involvement is high. The scores of their body image of downward social comparison are distinctly higher than that of upward social comparison when the involvement is low. The results of female testers are same with that of males. To males, the main effect of media involvement is obvious whether in upward social comparison or in downward one. In the upward social comparison of males, the scores of body image of high media involvement are distinctly lower than that of low media involvement, which is opposite in downward social comparison. Nevertheless, to females, whether in upward or downward social comparisons, the main effect of media involvement are either distinct.(3) In similarity comparison, the testers` body images get higher scores in high media involvement than that in low one. In difference comparison, the testers` body images get lower scores in high media involvement than that in low one. There is an obvious interactive effect among the gender,comparison directions and involvement. The main effects of media involvement under other situations are very distinct but under the situation of female similarity comparison. When the testers are in the similarity comparison, the body images get higher scores in high media involvement than that in low one, and the result is opposite in the difference comparison. When the female testers are in the difference comparison, the scores of high media involvement are obviously lower than that of low one. Only in the similarity comparison of high media involvement, the body images of college students are obviously different, and the scores of boys are distinctly higher than that of girls. Under the high media involvement, the scores of body images in similarity comparison are obviously higher than that in difference comparison, regardless males or females.