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Group-level consequences of communication about physical appearance

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Date Issued:
2000
Summary:
Recent research has looked at sociocultural standards and social comparison to explain body image disturbances (Thompson, 1996). This study uses Latane's Dynamic Social Impact Theory to explore the emergence of group level consequences of discussing these societal standards of physical appearance. It was hypothesized that there would be more clustering, consolidation, correlation and continued diversity amongst the participants opinions by the end of the five week discussion. These hypotheses were not supported by measures of clustering, consolidation, correlation and continued diversity. These results indicate that Dynamic Social Impact Theory alone may not be useful for studying the consequence of group discussion on changing beliefs about physical appearance. More research is needed to determine whether adding an educational component to the program would bolster the effectiveness of Dynamic Social Impact Theory in regard to understanding the process by which people's attitudes about their bodies are changed.
Title: Group-level consequences of communication about physical appearance.
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Name(s): Schwartz, Donna Jill.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Tarantino, Santo J., Thesis advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 2000
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 44 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Recent research has looked at sociocultural standards and social comparison to explain body image disturbances (Thompson, 1996). This study uses Latane's Dynamic Social Impact Theory to explore the emergence of group level consequences of discussing these societal standards of physical appearance. It was hypothesized that there would be more clustering, consolidation, correlation and continued diversity amongst the participants opinions by the end of the five week discussion. These hypotheses were not supported by measures of clustering, consolidation, correlation and continued diversity. These results indicate that Dynamic Social Impact Theory alone may not be useful for studying the consequence of group discussion on changing beliefs about physical appearance. More research is needed to determine whether adding an educational component to the program would bolster the effectiveness of Dynamic Social Impact Theory in regard to understanding the process by which people's attitudes about their bodies are changed.
Identifier: 9780599955899 (isbn), 12724 (digitool), FADT12724 (IID), fau:9605 (fedora)
Note(s): Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2000.
Subject(s): Body image disturbance
Body image
Social psychology
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12724
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.