Ideal Body Shape Essays

Ideal Body Shape Essays Ideal Body Shape Paper Ideal Body Shape Paper The results showing that Asians chose a thinner ideal body shape than the rest of the ethnic groups is supported by the study conducted in 1991 by Mumford et al. These studies demonstrate how influential media images can be on a persons perception of the ideal body shape and how these images may contribute to a sense of dissatisfaction of ones own body image. This can be dangerous as this can ultimately lead to an eating disorder in a search of perfection. he researches hypotheses are mainly based around the behavioural model and doesnt take into account that body image may be affected by a biochemical imbalance (Keesey and Corbett 1983), a means in which a woman can remain children to avoid responsibility (Freud), negative self-evaluation (Fairburn et al 1999), family conflict (Minuchin et al 1978), pressure to succeed or struggling fro a sense of identity. Improvements could be made to the study by implementing a more efficient and unbiased sampling technique such as stratified sampling; increasing the sample size; take age into account when selecting participants. A suggestion for a follow up research would be to see if ideal body shape changed depending on the length of time that an immigrant originating from a country outside Western society has been living in the United Kingdom and therefore the length of time they have been exposed to Western ideals of attractiveness. References Fairburn, C.G., Cooper, Z., Doll, H.A. and Welch, S.L. (1999) Risk factors for anorexia nervosa, Archives of General Psychiatry, 56, pp.468-76. Keesy, R.E. and Corbett, S.W. (1983)Metabolic defence of the body weight set-point, in A.J. Stunkard and E.Steller (eds) Eating and Its Disorders, New York: Raven Press. Minuchin,S., Rosman, B.L. and Baker, L. (1978) Psychosomatic Families: Anorexia Nervosa in Context , Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press. Mumford, D.B., Whitehouse, A.M. and plattes, M.(1991) Sociocultural correlates of eating disorders among Asian schoolgirls in Bradford, British Journal of Psychiatry, 158, pp.222-8. Nasser, M. (1996) Comparative study of the prevalence of abnormal eating attitudes among Arab female students of both London and Cairo universities, Psychological Medicine, 16, pp.621-7.