Connie Kalble Green & Christopher UNIV 391 26 January 2012 Reflection A: The Exploration of Eating Disordered Behaviors

For the past two and a half years I have worked under the mentorship of Scott Leon, Ph.D. and Ashley Rolnik, M.A. in the Psychology Department at Loyola University Chicago. We have worked on several projects together, centering on the relationship of popular media and advertisement to the body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviors of college women. Research has shown that the consumption of thin-depicting media, especially magazines, is positively correlated with increased levels of body dissatisfaction and eating disordered behaviors (Cohen, 2006). Recently, the media has been reprimanded for the glamorization of celebrities with eating disorders and for insufficiently illustrating the gravity of these disorders. Little is known about the effects of this glamorization on the primary consumers of this medium, college women. In the spring of 2011, we recruited one hundred and ten college women who were currently enrolled in Introduction to Psychology. Upon their registration for the experiment, participants completed the Eating Attitudes Test (Garner et al., 1982) in order to determine if participants exhibited high or low levels of disordered eating attitudes and behaviors. Seven days later participants were randomly assigned into one of three conditions. The first condition included a Shape Magazine cover of a thin model in a swimsuit accompanied by a short eating disorder narrative. This narrative briefly illustrated that while the model depicted is a successful

recording artist, she is struggling with an eating disorder and does not enjoy a lot of time with her friends or family, due to her high levels of exhaustion. The second condition included the same Shape Magazine cover, but was accompanied by a neutral narrative. This anecdote detailed the successes of the recording artist, while depicting her carefree lifestyle. Finally, the third condition solely featured the Shape Magazine cover, identical to the ones featured in conditions one and two. All three conditions were followed by the same established measures. Measures of body dissatisfaction (Eating Disorder Inventory-2; Garner, 1991), self-objectification and body shame (The Objectified Body Consciousness Scale; McKinley & Hyde, 1996), selfesteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale; Rosenberg, 1965), and positive and negative affect (Positive and Negative Affect Scale; Watson & Clark, 1994) were completed by all participants. High levels of body dissatisfaction, self-objectification, and negative affect (or negative emotions and feelings), low levels of self-esteem and positive affect (or positive emotions and feelings) have been shown to have a relationship with eating disordered behavior. The initial Eating Attitudes Test (EAT) scores were then matched with the conditions to which participants were assigned and their responses to the measures in order to run analyses. While the way we observed the effects of media on eating disordered behaviors was through a quantitative lens, implementing an experimental survey design, it could also be conceptualized in a qualitative manner. One method of collecting data with a qualitative approach would be to conduct focus groups. Researchers could employ methods of purposive sampling, selecting for one group of college women with high levels of disordered eating and another group with low levels of disordered eating. Participants

would be shown the Shape Magazine cover, or another example of thin-depicting media, along with the different narratives and asked to share their responses with the group. A moderator could ask participants to reflect on the ways in which the model makes them feel inferior and insecure. Open-ended questions could be used to explore how threatened participants feel after seeing the model and hearing the narrative. Sample questions to determine body dissatisfaction could include: What are the positive features of the model? What are the negative features of the model? After viewing this image, what features of your own would you change to look more like the model? In order to understand participants levels of self-esteem, the moderator could ask participants to consider their life achievements and to expound on the qualities participants do and do not like about themselves. The moderator could then read off a list of feelings, both positive and negative, and ask the respondents to list things that make them feel this way. These types of questions would allow women, with both high and low levels of eating disordered behavior, to express their levels of self-esteem, body dissatisfaction, their levels of body consciousness, and the positive and negative emotions that are aroused by the image and narrative presented by the moderator. All of the responses of the participants could then be complied into a transcript that is ready to be coded. Since it is hard to know what emotions and feelings will be discussed by the participants, it would likely work to the researchers advantage to use inductive methods of coding. Another interesting method of qualitative data collection could be a journal study. Researchers could purposively recruit participants with both high and low levels of eating disordered behavior. Researchers could email participants everyday for a set period of time with the link to a news article either glamorizing eating disorders, illustrating the

dangers of eating disorders, or neutral articles and ask them to keep a daily diary in response to the articles. Participants would have the opportunity to anonymously speak their minds, without feeling judged by either the moderator or the other members of the focus group. While this may be a great opportunity to collect the freely offered opinions of participants, there is no way to ensure they will mention any issues they have with their own bodies or negative feelings they may have after viewing the image and reading the article. Similar to the data collected in the focus group, researchers can then code the data inductively in order to run analyses. Social media has recently become an important part of our culture. There are many websites known as pro-ana sites that serve as a support group for those with Anorexia Nervosa. Pro-ana sites are not support for those looking to overcome their eating disorder, but for those looking to become a more successful anorexic. Researchers could conduct a content analysis on pro-ana websites coding for examples of body dissatisfaction, positive and negative affect, self-objectification, body shame, and self-esteem. Researchers could propose the usage of several other lifestyle-oriented or media-focused message boards as a control group, which would use the same codes derived from the experimental group. While qualitative methods could be employed to observe the relationship of eating disordered behaviors and a multitude of other factors as moderated by the media, quantitative methods, such as surveys and established scales have been proven more effective and predominant in the field. The cutoff scores produced by measures have all been validated and seen as a common language among social psychologists.