Relationship Between Body Image, Self-Esteem and Media - Research Proposal Example

Relationship Between Body Image, Self-Esteem and media Research Questions The purpose of this study is to answer the following questions How is the body image of women portrayed on media? 2) How does body image and low self-esteem leads to eating disorder? 3) What are the factors that influence body image among women? 4) What is the association between body image and self-esteem? 5) How can we educate women to be satisfied with their bodies? This research will look at the issues around the media’s portrayal of women and girl and how it affects their body image and self-identity  Background  Films, television and magazines are full of images of women who are thin and perfect in their appearances. Research has shown that constant publicity of a certain idea can deform our view of reality. We come across very few naked bodies in our regular life. But the situation is different if we are regular viewer of fashion shows and magazines. The body images we see on media are either photoshoped or makeup enhanced. Our views on what women should really look like has been distorted as we are bombarded with countless images of beautiful and thin women .These models are viewed as role models. Before the advancement of media, our ideas of beauty and perception were limited to our own communities. People did not even owned mirrors. They were not exposed to images of face and bodies till the beginning of photography in 1839. The image of "perfection" we see in the media excludes average looking women. In most case body image is linked to self-esteem. Women with bodies that are fat, old or disabled are considered different and opposing to normal and attractive. The normal people are presented as stereotypes rather than as real people. The noisy fat woman, grumpy old woman, and the disabled woman are common clichés in the media. The beauty of normal and real people are not recognized or acknowledged. Distorted view of our own body has been connected to low self esteem. This low self esteem results in eating disorder behavior (Womens Health, 2013). Females are more likely to feel that their weight is too much. The reason might be that they are too much exposed to thin female bodies on media. Research showed that about 88% of young women do not feel positive about their body image or weight. 49 % of teenager experienced eating disorders. 58 % of young girls wanted to lose weight. Only 33 % were satisfied with their body image and weight (Croll, 2005, p. 154-155). In most cases the appearance of women is the basic sign of self-worth. (American Association of University Women, 1994) Ata, Ludden, & Lally performed a study about the factors that influenced young women. The result showed that 62 % of young females were trying to lose weight. The main factors which made these girls insecure and have low self esteem were teasing and pressure from their surroundings (Ata, Ludden, & Lally, 2006). In America around 8 million people suffer from eating disorder. 90 percent of them are women. 80 percent of young girls are afraid of becoming fat. Fifty percent of 10 year old girls hoped to be thinner. This is alarming as these eating disorders might lead to other mental disorders (Croll, 2005). Definition of basic terms used Self esteem Self esteem is how we see our importance to the world. It describes our sense of self worth. It’s like having confidence in one’s abilities (Cherry, n.d.). Body Image Body image is how you view your appearance. It includes whether you feel you are attractive and whether others like your appearance (Raising children network, 2011). Eating Order Eating disorder is a mental disease. It causes grave disorder in a person’s daily diet. The conditions in eating disorder can be eating very small amounts of food or severely overeating (Ananya, n.d.). Purpose of study The media images make it difficult for teenagers to accept their bodies. The girls who watch TV programs showing ultra thin models lose self-confidence. They are more discontented with their own bodies. This results in low confidence. They are exposed to unreal body images. There is a large gap between girls self-image and media image about what girls should be like. Renee Hobbs is working as a associate professor in Temple University According to Renee Hobbs the normal teenager gets about 3 hour media contact daily. In order to copy the media images, girls often take extreme measures. The end result can lead dangerous eating disorders. Elissa Gittes is a pediatrician at Childrens Hospital Pittsburgh. According to Elissa Gittes most of the girls are not happy with their bodies. They put themselves and their bodies in lot of pressure to look similar to media images. (Heubeck, 2006). It is important to educate these girls at an early age. My research paper will cover how the media portrays the body image of women. It will show how this image has destroyed the self esteem of many girls. It is important for young girls and women to understand the reality about the body images shown on media. Other research conclusions Many other researchers have also done research on this topic. There was report published by Social Issue Research Center “Mirror Mirror”. The research findings summary was that we all are obsessed with our appearances. Studies have shown that good looking people get more opportunities in their lives. The good princess is always pretty and the greedy stepmother is ugly and fat. It is not surprising that physical attractiveness is so important to us (Fox, 1997). Another research has been done by Brenda Huebscher. According to research the solution to this problem might be exercise. Author has discussed that there seems to be an encouraging link between exercise activity and self esteem. The author emphasized on having creating a curriculum to educate the students about positive self esteem and health body image. There should be guidance and ways for women to be comfortable in their own body (Huebscher, 2010). Another study was done by David Mellor, Matthew Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, Marita P. McCabe and Lina A. Ricciardelli. It was published in 2010. This research was done to study the connection between body image and self-esteem among men and women of different ages. Participants were selected from general population in Australia. Total 389 people were selected. 150 were men. 239 were women which were between 20 and 86 years. They were given a survey. It was found that low self-esteem was linked with body dissatisfaction. Methods: Participants I will select two groups for research purpose. First group participant would be students. The participants will be selected from a school. For the purpose of this study, I will recruit girls from Grade 8 classes of a junior high school and Grade 10 classes of a high school within the same school. After getting the survey I will do the data analysis. My second group will focus on women older than 25 working in some organization. They will be interviewed personally. All their answers will be recorded on a voice recorder and will also be written down on paper for data analysis. My research design would be cross- sectional. A cross-sectional study nature is an observational one. Research Methods I will obtain quantitative and qualitative data from the participants on the basis of survey and interviews that they will complete for body image and self-esteem The research method would be following 1) Surveys I will conduct surveys on the Internet using social media or email so it can reach out the young girls and women. Body Image satisfaction in women Questionnaire Name: Age: 1. Where do you live? 2. Do you have any certain image of woman in your mind? Yes No 3. Do you read fashion magazines? Yes No 4. How worried are u with weight gain Very much A bit worried Not worried at all 5. Does your weight affect the way you think about yourself? Not at all Sometimes Often 6. How do you feel about your self Proud Content Dissatisfied 7. Describe the ideal body shape? 8. Describe the characteristics of a beautiful woman? 9. How do you make yourself beautiful? 10. How do you make yourself beautiful? 11. Whom do you compare yourself to? (friends, celebrities, models, etc.) 12. How did you learn about female beauty? 13. How often do you compare yourself to other girls? 14. Do you feel pressure from media to change your looks? 15. Do you feel pressure from media to become thin? 16. Would you like to see real images of women media? 17. Please read the following items carefully and indicate the number that describes you best. Strongly agree =1 Agree=2 Neutral=3 Disagree=4 Strongly Disagree=5 a) I have felt pressure from media and magazines to lose weight. b) I compare myself to the people who are in media. c) I have felt pressure from media and magazines to look pretty. d) I wish I look like celebrities and model. e) I want to be very thin. f) Images on media are important source of information about being attractive. g) The images shown on media are distorted. h) I try to be like the people in magazines. 2) I will try to interview young girls and women. For this purpose I will visit schools and offices. The interview will be informal. The interview will have both quantitative and qualitative questions. 3) I will try to observe a group of females the group four hours per week for four weeks. It will mostly be focused on their diet and self image. I will try to find out how the media is affecting their minds and how they feel about themselves. Data analysis: This research is combination of both quantitative and qualitative data research methods. As the research is of exploratory type it is more of qualitative research. One of the quantitative methods used for research is survey. My hypothesis or theory is that body image leads to low self esteem. After organizing and summarizing data, I will do exploratory analysis. In the end I will communicate the results by tables and graphic displays. I will use online survey service called Survey Monkey. It will create, distribute and analyze quantitative questionnaire. Survey answers are collected in real time so I can view the results instantly. Descriptive analysis can also be done. Analysis is done at after completion of each survey. Simple graphic analysis will be done for quantitative analysis of data. Mean, median and mode will be calculated. I will use SPSS (originally Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). This package enables to analyze data more efficiently than a spreadsheet program.  Qualitative research contains open ended questions. I will transcribe the data received from interviews and observational notes into word processing documents. These transcripts will later be analyzed. This Data analysis would be Interim analysis. It would be ongoing and nonlinear process. Throughout data analysis I will write reflective notes on data results. I will divide the data in into meaningful segments like low self esteem, high self esteem, satisfied, media, magazines etc. I will assign codes to those segments. Data would be organized depending on the coding. After organizing a data would be summarized. Summarizing will include enumeration. Relation between data will be established. I will take the help of computer aided qualitative data analysis tool known as Atlas-ti. It will store, retrieve and manage data, search text and create codes to assist in the analysis of data. Revision of codes will be done till the end of research. I will study the data obtained from surveys to learn about relationship between, body image, media and self esteem. I will write a research report that combines my understanding of the topic. I will compare the findings with other researches. I will try to make realistic conclusions and recommendations for further research. Timetable: Timetable shows when I will carry out each stage of my research and how long each part will take.  Decide and understand the topic 1 week Prepare proposal 2 week Complete literature review 2 week Gather data (interviews and survey) 8 week Complete fieldwork 3 week Analyze data 2 week Complete analysis 2 week Complete final report 2 week Make presentation 2 week The primary sources of getting data would be through interaction with women. I will gather data about how they feel about themselves and how media has pressurized them. How they would like to see Real women on media. Ethical issues Ethical issues that come with the research are dishonesty (misrepresenting data or results), discrimination and harming good social values. The main ethical issues related to participants would be privacy concerns, full consent and autonomy. I will take the following steps to resolve these issues. Honesty I will honestly carry out the research. The data and results will not be fabricated or misrepresented. Non-discrimination I will avoid discrimination against any participant on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity or any other reason. Social Responsibility I will try to promote good social values and stop social damage through my report. Privacy All the participants will be guaranteed of confidentiality of their answers. I will guarantee them that the only reason behind the study is for the purpose of research. The results are not meant to evaluate their personalities. It will not label them as having high or low self esteem and it will not decide whether they have body image contentment or discontentment. It will also be clarified to them that the reason is to solely collect their views and there is no right or wrong answer. Consent For students under 18, permission will be obtained from the school’s principals and teachers. A parental approval form and questionnaires will be given to the students. They will be asked to submit the completed survey to their teachers. The approval form will contain full disclosure of the research and the benefits. For online research the consent document will be emailed to them. Autonomy Participants can withdraw from the research at any time. They can ask the given data to be removed from the research. Limitations: There are also risks involved that I may leave out some potential participants from the research unintentionally. There is also risk of distorted results. For example a same person can complete an online survey many times. There is also a possibility that participants may lie about themselves, which could affect the reliability of the data. Time shortage is also one of the factors. It might be possible that women and young girls might not be comfortable in discussing their body image with me. They might not be comfortable around me in focus group. These limitations could obstruct this study. These limitations can be overcome by taking the following actions. For online survey participants will be asked to provide some kind of identification. They will provide their email addresses. A mail will be sent to that particular address for confirmation. This will reduce the chance of skewed results. Participants will be divided into groups to avoid missing out major participants. Participants will be assured that the only reason of research is to solely collect their views and there is no right or wrong answer. It will not label them in anyway. So they can openly discuss their views with me. I will try my best to complete the research within the given time frame. References Ananya M. (n.d.) ) What is Eating Disorder?, Available at:  http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-an-Eating-Disorder.aspx (Accessed: 25th December 2013). American Association of University Women (1994) Shortchanging Girls, Shortchanging America, Washington, DC AAUW Educational Foundation. Ata, R., Ludden, A. B., & Lally, M. M. (2006). The effects of gender and family, friend, and media influences on eating behaviors and body image during adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 36(8). 1024-1037 Brokhoff, M., Mussap, A. J., Mellor, D., Skouteris, H., Ricciardelli, L. A., McCabe, M. P. and Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, M.  (2012) Body Image and self-esteem across age and gender,  Sex Roles, 63(9), pp. 672-681 [Online]. Available at:  http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11199-010-9813-3 (Accessed: 25th December 2013). Cherry K. (n.d.) What is Self Esteem?, Available at: http://psychology.about.com/od/sindex/f/what-is-self-esteem.htm (Accessed: 25th December 2013). Croll J. (2005). Body Image and Adolescents. In J. Stang & M. Story (Eds.), Guidelines for Adolescent Nutrition Services (pp. 155-166). Minneapolis, MN Fox K. (1997) Mirror, mirror - A summary of research findings on body image, Available at: http://www.sirc.org/publik/mirror.html (Accessed: 25th December 2013). Heubeck E. (2006) Helping Girls with body image, Available at: http://www.webmd.com/beauty/style/helping-girls-with-body-image (Accessed: 25th December 2013). Huebscher B. (2010) Relationship Between Body Image and Self-Esteem Among Adolescent Girls, Available at: http://www2.uwstout.edu/content/lib/thesis/2010/2010huebscherb.pdf (Accessed: 25th December 2013). Raising children network (2011) Body Image, Available at: http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/body_image.html  (Accessed: 25th December 2013). Survey Monkey (2013) Available at: http://www.surveymonkey.com (Accessed: 25th December 2013). Womens health (2013) Body Image, Available at: http://www.womhealth.org.au/search?q=body+image&Itemid=256   (Accessed: 25th December 2013). Read More