CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

A literature review gives scholars information and direction on the subject of their study. It

displays academics' and researchers' earlier published work in the relevant topic (Sekaram,

1992). The review of the study highlights the significance of body image for females and its

complexity. This chapter examines the historical foundations of society's perception of body

image and how important it is to women's self-concepts and to ascertain the degree to which

certain sociocultural factors (parents, peers, and the media) are indicative of problems with

young adults' body image.

2. 1 Background

Body image is a sociocultural construct formed by one's own perception of oneself as well as the

perceptions of others. Reviewing previous body image studies is the first step towards

understanding how the concept of body image has changed throughout time. In light of this,

contemporary standards of female beauty are discussed and a contrast between perceived and

sociocultural ideal body images is made. John Horton Cooley (1902) coined the phrase "the

reflected or looking glass self" to describe social self-concept; it's worth mentioning that the

"mirror" metaphor is still used in many studies today. In Human Nature and the Social Order,

Cooley (1902) highlighted that social interactions with others play a role in shaping one's sense

of self. This marked the beginning of the twentieth century for the concept of body image in the

social and medical fields. He argued that "others" act as a social mirror, reflecting the opinions

one seeks to understand oneself. Cooley concluded that as these opinions are internalized over

time, they become integrated into one's sense of self.

Nowadays, many women believe that being skinny makes one attractive, and the majority of

women are unable to meet the criteria of beauty since they are based on an unrealistically low

body weight (Walsh and Devlin, 1998). According to Schulken et al. (1997), the focus placed on

thinness in modern American society contributes significantly to the development of eating

disorders, and many women turn to extreme means to reach their ideal of beauty (Guzman,

2003). Individuals who fall short of society's standard of beauty frequently experience body

dissatisfaction, which is linked to negative body evaluations and continuous dieting (Herman,

1995).

According to a survey done on elementary school students, 80% of girls as young as the fourth

grade said they were following a diet (Sloan, 2003). Dieting can trigger the emergence of

clinically documented eating disorders, body image abnormalities, and negative body image

impressions when paired with other activities. Young adults seem to be most susceptible to

eating disorders and body dissatisfaction (Mintz and Betz, 1988). According to Schulken et al.,

1997, when one looks at universities from organizational, community, and societal perspectives,

it is not surprising that university women have a high frequency of body dissatisfaction and

disordered eating behaviors. Schulken et al. (1997) suggest that at the organizational level, the

university plays a significant role in shaping weight-related behaviors by providing a community

context in which these behaviors are enacted. As a societal institution, the university setting

influences social values that guide students' choices and decisions regarding eating habits and

weight control. Subsequently, humans are fundamentally impacted by body image, which

profoundly impacts our emotions, self-perception, interactions with others, and, ultimately, how

we live.
Negative body image judgments lead people to believe that other people are attractive and that

their size and form indicate a lack of personal success, according to the National Eating

Disorders Association (2004). Individuals with poor body image are more prone to experience

depressive symptoms, social isolation, low self-esteem, and preoccupation with losing weight.

They also have an increased risk of developing an eating disorder (NEDA, 2004). According to a

study by Mossavar-Rahmani et al. (1996), women were more likely to be on a diet if they

perceived their body size was amiss. Stuhldreher and Ryan (1999) also discovered comparable

trends, demonstrating that dieting, avoiding fat and high-fat foods, using laxatives and diet pills,

and desiring to lose weight were all substantially correlated with a distorted body image.

2.2 Influence of Socio-cultural Factors

According to Thompson and Heinberg (1999), culture is primarily responsible for the promotion

of slender body ideals and clearly dictates how women should and can achieve this goal. In

Westernized cultures, the thin ideal, which denotes a thin or slender figure with low body fat,

thin thighs, narrow hips, long legs, and a toned physique, is the dominant appearance ideal for

women (Thompson and Stice, 2001). Over the years, this ultra-slender body image has been

promoted as the societal standard of female beauty, which is unattainable for most women

(Thompson et al., 1999). The more women are exposed to the thin ideal, the more they perceive

it as the cultural standard and strive to attain it. This disparity between a realistic, achievable

body shape and the thin ideal often leads to body dissatisfaction and behaviors such as dieting,

strict dietary control, and heightened concerns about shape and weight. Ultimately, the thin ideal

is driven by cultural influences, especially Western ideals that emphasize thinness for women.

Cultures differ in how they interpret body image, and even within the same culture, various

people will interpret it in different ways. The concept of an ideal body image is influenced by
societal expectations, but ultimately, the individual strives to achieve the desired body image. As

a result, the person begins to acquire attitudes and body image perceptions that may (to varying

degrees) diverge from those of the culture. People are guided by their views and attitudes to

adopt behaviors that will help them realize their preferred body image. This involves taking part

in particular exercise regimens and eating habits. The individuals involved in these behaviors

may or may not be aware of the beneficial or negative effects on their health.

Moreover, research has shown that in Pakistan, societal pressures to attain the ideal body shape,

both directly and indirectly, contribute to body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. Families,

particularly parents, and peer groups often reinforce these cultural appearance norms by

encouraging women to strive for thinness or by making critical remarks about their weight.

While family and peers have considerable influence, mass media is the primary driver of cultural

and social appearance standards for women.

2.3 Parental Influence

The family plays a crucial role in imparting values, beliefs, and customs throughout a child's

upbringing. Parents typically serve as primary role models, conveying their messages to their

children. Children's perceptions of body image are shaped by observing and receiving feedback

from family members. For female adolescents, daily interactions with their families expose them

to comments about their physical development. Through these interactions, the family

communicates how the adolescent's body image compares to the sociocultural ideal.

While scholars have paid great attention to the fact that cultural standards have shifted to

unrealistic thinness, they have not placed as much emphasis on comprehending how social

pressures to conform to the ideal figure impact eating disorders and body image (Murray et al.,

1995). Considering the "more immediate sub-cultural influences, such as parents who may
transmit sociocultural messages to their daughters," Benedikt et al., (1998) proposed that it

could be worthwhile to investigate these factors. Studies on body image and parental influence

have mostly concentrated on the role of the mother (Kaplan, 1997; Wertheim et al., 1997).

According to research of Birch, 1990, parents may intentionally or inadvertently shape their

children's eating habits from an early age by influencing their body standards and food-related

ideas. It has come to light that parents seem to devote an incredible amount of time, energy, and

money to their children's appearances (Heinberg and Thompson, 1995). In instance, some moms

only give their babies skim milk out of concern that they would grow up to be "chubby." Levine

and Smolak (2002) noted that direct remarks about weight, body, and eating habits were

powerful forms of parental influence. In particular, parents often became more critical of their

daughters' appearance as they entered adolescence.

In a similar study, Kaplan (1997) interviewed 24 young women from diverse backgrounds, aged

between 19 and 35 years, with an average age of 22. She examined their perceptions of their

adolescent experiences and found that parents began focusing on their daughters' appearance

during adolescence. Some parents pressured their daughters to adopt a more feminine image and

conveyed expectations about the ideal female body. Negative remarks from parents about their

daughters' body image were remembered as particularly hurtful. Conversely, when parents were

satisfied with their daughters' body image during adolescence, it was reflected in the daughters'

own body image satisfaction.

2.4 Peer Influence

According to Burns and Farina (1992), there is broad agreement among people regarding how

physically beautiful other people are. Consequently, this could establish the basis for the growth

and sustenance of unfavorable body perceptions and harmful endeavors to elevate one's physical

appeal or attractiveness. Influences from peers can be rather strong, especially in adolescence.

Oliver and Thelen (1996) discovered that girls were more prone than boys to report eating and

body-sharing conversations, as well as to think that being skinny makes one more likeable. The

extent to which this has been held was proven to be a predictor of issues with body image and

weight.

Two components of peer encounters may influence internalization and body image, according to

research. These elements include peer judgment of appearance and appearance discussions with

friends (Jones et al., 2004). The social context of friendships is shaped by discussions about

appearance among friends, which is crucial for the increasing intimacy that occurs during

adolescence. Appearance talks support the establishment of body ideals and serve to focus

attention on appearance-related issues. In a relaxed, social context, regular chats with friends

serve to reinforce appearance standards, expectations, and conventions.

There is a wealth of research on peers' criticism of looks, particularly in adolescence (Eder et al.,

1995). It has been discovered that poor body image and critical remarks about one's appearance

are significantly correlated. There is proof of this direct correlation between female students

from elementary school and college. Peer criticism not only causes a negative experience with

one's own body, but it also plays a role in the internalization of the key components of acceptable

cultural appearances. This is because the experience of being the target of peer criticism can
reinforce the value of appearance to peers and emphasizes desirable appearance attributes (Jones

et al., 2004). Additionally, researchers have discovered that the "group" environment may

promote restricting eating beyond what is considered normal (Vaismann et al., 1996) and that

friends and peer groups are labeled as "potential sources of sub-cultural influence" (Wertheim et

al., 1997). According to research, people in friends’ circle share similar views, as well as

physical and social characteristics like looks and habits like drug and alcohol usage.

In social psychology, these sociocultural influences are fundamentally real. Festinger (1954)

discovered that attitudes and actions that the group values are prone to be shared by its members,

and that the idea of the social ideal is highly significant to young women in society. Research

clearly shows that our perceptions and feelings about ourselves can be influenced by our peers.

According to Festinger's 1954 theory, people prefer to base their assumptions about themselves

on their own self-reflections. Festinger postulated that if someone is unsure about a particular

quality, they will evaluate the quality in relation to others in order to determine where they stand.

Character, aptitudes, and strengths are a few examples of traits for a person. The foundation of

Festinger's Theory of Social Comparison Process was the process of assessing oneself in relation

to others in the social context.

According to this hypothesis and the extensive study it has produced, social comparison might be

the main mechanism by which knowledge is gathered. This implies that people could define

themselves more by their place in their social context rather than by an objective benchmark

(such as a chart listing healthy weights) (Thompson et al. 1999).

2.5 Media Influence

The media has made the thin ideal inescapable, as women are continuously exposed to pictures

of unattainable thinness in movies, ads, publications, and other media.

In addition to family and peers, the media is one of the three primary determinants of body

image. Therefore, the media greatly influences how the ideal woman is portrayed. In fact,

according to Groesz et al. (2002), the media is the most potent of the three factors. Pervasive

messages about the ideal woman are directed towards both adult women and young girls. Since

many of them are aware of the thin ideal, enabling internalization—the acceptance of others'

beliefs that being thinner is preferable—to occur well before the girls reach adulthood (Cash &

Smolak, 2011). Acoording to Levine and Chapman (2011), the internet, video games, television,

movies, and magazines are all considered forms of mass media. These sources are now a

common occurrence in people's daily lives of all ages. Girls and women have numerous

opportunities to be influenced by the thin ideal due to their extensive exposure to diverse media.

It may be a causative risk factor for body dissatisfaction because of the powerful mass media's

influence and its capacity to impose standards of beauty and physical appearance. Several

experimental investigations have shown a causal relationship between media exposure and

factors linked to body image in female participants, including body dissatisfaction. For instance,

an experimental study was carried out by Halliwell and Dittmar (2004), to investigate the impact

of commercials featuring a model with a petite physique, a standard-size model, and no model on

women's body-focused concerns. According to the authors' findings, women viewing

advertisements featuring thin models, who internalized the concept of the ideally slim exhibited

higher levels of body-focused fret than those who viewed advertisements featuring models of

medium size or no models at all.

Adolescent boys and girls participated in an experimental study by Hargreaves and Tiggemann

(2004) in which they saw television commercials featuring either no appearance-related pictures

or body ideal images—that is, skinny ideals for girls and muscular ideals for boys. It's interesting

to note that the authors discovered that girls experienced a significant rise in body dissatisfaction

after watching the idealized advertising, but not boys.

The media is a potent surrogate that spreads sociocultural messages. According to Strasburger

and Wilson (2002), their signals are cumulative, nuanced, and indirect. Media has always had a

role in the lives of today's youth. They use it when they wake up, take it with them when they go

to bed, and so on. Young people use media for one-third to one-half of their waking hours.

Therefore, adolescents are undoubtedly receiving messages from the media. The ideal body

image of society is mostly communicated through the media. Every day, it is on display. And

teenagers today are more enamored with superstars than they were in the past.

According to Signorelli (1997), 69% of the girls in the survey expressed a desire to have a

television character's appearance. When it comes to acting, singing, dancing, or fashion

modeling, the majority of female superstars represent the ideal of being slender.

The media conveys to adolescents the idea that celebrities are content, well-liked, in charge, and

have a choice of partners (Grogan, 1999). The thin ideal message is undoubtedly glorified by the

media. Over time, the ideal body image promoted by the media has overwhelmed female

adolescents. With the help of this widely used visual symbol, female teenagers may absorb and

modify the message presented in the media. It serves as the benchmark by which women can

assess how they now feel about their bodies. In turn, this contrast between the ideal body images

of today and those of the media typically shapes the attitudes and actions of youngsters.
According to Strasburger and Wilson (2002), female teenagers are under pressure to conform to

the portrayal of women with perfect physiques in various media such as magazines and

television. According to studies on the media, television programs, magazines, and music videos

are the favored forms of amusement for young women in their twenties. These mediums have an

impact on young women.

2.5.1 Media in General

Sixty-seven Australian sixteen-year-olds who participated in the Tiggemann et al. (2000) body

concern study were interviewed. They listed the fashion industry, the media, and peer pressure as

some of the sociocultural factors that influenced their desire to be skinny. According to

Tiggemann et al. (2000), for these teenage girls, media was the most common and significant

predictor. They stated that they came to believe that being thin was the standard in society since

they were constantly exposed to images of slender women in the media. Even though this group

understood that achieving the ideal of thinness was unattainable, they yet valued trying to be

slim. The girls also mentioned that when they were slim, they felt more self-assured.

Interestingly, though, the desire to lose weight did not always indicate that girls were dissatisfied

with their bodies. This study basically showed that adolescents' desire to be slim and the

standard of the thin ideal were impacted by the media; nevertheless, a negative attitude toward

one's body was not always the result of the disparity between the current body image and the

societal ideal.

Garner's survey study (1997) looked into the widening discrepancy between desired and current

body images. According to Garner's (1997) research, forty-three percent of the women said they
felt self-conscious about their weight because of the media's portrayal of "very thin or muscular

models". Furthermore, forty-eight percent of the women said that they were inspired to lose

weight by the extremely slim models to achieve the same body type. He found that the media had

a slightly selective effect, as it primarily affected people who were unsatisfied with their size and

appearance. Actually, fifty-six percent of the women said they were unhappy with the way their

bodies looked, with young women being particularly affected. Women expressed greater

dissatisfaction with their body image when Garner compared his three research using body

image surveys. Results from surveys conducted in 1972, 1985, and 1997 showed that

respectively, twenty-five percent, thirty-eight percent and fifty-six percent of women said they

were dissatisfied with their bodies. According to the author, more women than ever before were

disenchanted with the way they felt about their bodies. According to Garner (1997), "thinness

has become the preeminent yardstick for success or failure, a constant against which every

woman can be measured."

Posavac (1998) carried out three trials in a social comparison research with 370 college females,

aged 18 to 25 in a university setting, to ascertain how media exposure altered body worries.

According to research by Posavac et al. (1998), most young women may become more

concerned about their weight if they are exposed to the media's ideal. The study hypothesized

that social comparison is the source of the impact of media exposure on women's body concerns.

Additionally, when exposed to the media ideal, women who were content with their body image

did not alter their opinions. Although they could not determine why, the researchers observed

that the participants' body concerns were not significantly affected by the slides of attractive

college women that were shown during the trial.