Publication Date
2018
Document Type
Dissertation
Committee Members
Daniela Burnworth (Committee Member), Cheryl Meyer (Committee Member), Jeremiah Schumm (Committee Chair)
Degree Name
Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between perceived sociocultural pressures and internalization of the thin ideal and to determine whether or not high levels of feminist identity development moderate this relationship. The study also investigated the relationship between internalization of the thin ideal and body dissatisfaction and whether or not high levels of feminist identity development moderated the relationship. Two multiple hierarchical regression analyses were performed using data collected from a female undergraduate student sample (N=403) from Wright State University. These data were derived from a survey containing the Perceived Sociocultural Pressure Scale (PSPS; Stice & Argas, 1998), the Body Stereotype Scale-Revised (IBSS-R; Stice, Marti, Spoor, Presnell, & Shaw, 2008), the Body Areas Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BASS-R; Petrie, Tripp, & Harvey, 2002), and the Feminist Identity Development Scale (FIDS; Bargad & Hyde, 1991). Findings showed that while pressures and internalization and internalization and body dissatisfaction were significantly and positively correlated, high levels of feminist identity development did not moderate the strength of these relationships. The findings of this study indicate that future research is necessary to pinpoint specific aspects of feminist identity that may serve to protect women from internalization and/or the development of body dissatisfaction. Furthermore, this study highlighted that further research is necessary in order to better understand how and why women with higher levels of feminist identity development tend to perceive more sociocultural pressure to be thin than their less feminist counterparts.
Page Count
69
Department or Program
School of Professional Psychology
Year Degree Awarded
2018
Copyright
Copyright 2018, some rights reserved. My ETD may be copied and distributed only for non-commercial purposes and may not be modified. All use must give me credit as the original author.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
