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

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.


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