The Integration of Learning Theories in Mass Media and Its Implications on Adolescents’ Perceptions of Body Image
Joel Jong – 0332664
Nabila Ramadhani – 0332269
Nabilah Hilsya Hashim – 0328856
Taylor’s University
Background
The prevalence of body-image related issues has become a disconcerting, yet common phenomena that majorly affects a wide disarray of people. To put it into a clearer perspective, years of research and studies on this occurrence has overlooked an acute increase in the number of both women and men reporting their feelings of dissatisfaction towards their bodies. (Garner, D., 1997) One of the most recent findings conducted by Dove explored the statistics concerning females’ perception of their own physical bodies – almost a majority of the sample (which made up of 10 000 females across 13 countries) implied low self-confidence when it comes to their body image. (PRNewswire, 2016) The cross-cultural research also detailed how 7 out of 10 girls are more likely to restrain themselves from eating to conform to their generalized idea of a ‘perfect body’. The same group of girls also reported to be submissive when it concerns their capability to stand up for themselves and their opinions. This project is one of many other researches that have been done on this issue, yet it has essentially illustrated the compounding reality of it. To put it in the words of Dr. Nancy Etcoff (2016); a practising clinical psychologist in Harvard Medical School regarding this problem – low body confidence and essentially, negative body image has becoming a detrimental global issue in which females, regardless of their age and demographics, will and are facing. (Brown, V., 2016) Consequently, these factors can ultimately lead up and eventually grow into an eating disorder which has become the recurring case as 30 million of American people have been diagnosed with the disorder. (Brodeur, M., 2017)
Considering that adolescents, particularly young girls constitute the majority of the victims with body image problems, what can be the major factors that contribute to this problem? Despite the number of reasons that have been discussed by numerous research studies, media influence is the most common theme that each study can agree on when it comes to body-image related issues. Media has been implied as a powerful source due to its subtle nature when it comes to influencing the society’s perception, be it on themselves or the people around them. To put it into context, media can come in the form of print, television and Internet in which it becomes an elaborate gatekeeper that portrays the societal beauty standards, which eventually contributes to the issue of body image among adolescents as they struggle to keep up with them. (Derenne, J. L., et. al, 2006) Being one of the major consumers of media (Canadian Paediatric Society, 2003), adolescents (and even children) are more likely to fall victims to the ‘brainwashing’ of the media as this phenomenon affects during the development of their personality and identity. (Garner, D., 1997) Not only that, the repetitive nature of media in which it continuously portrays common desirable traits to the mass public has caused adolescents to associate these traits with what they should become. For example, media’s constant portrayal of thin models eventually makes impressionable young teenagers to associate ‘thin’ with the norm. This situation can be further explained in terms of Ivan Pavlov’s Theory of Classical Conditioning – learning by association. (Pavlov, I. & Anrep, G. V., 1927) Other than that, the theory of Observational Learning also should not be ignored as it also aids in the media process of influencing its consumers. This is because adolescents learn to imitate the behaviour or even the image portrayed by the media by vicarious learning which sums up what the former theory is all about. (Bryant, J. & Oliver, M. B., 2008) Despite its vague premise, this paper aims to discuss the hypothesis of how media applies these learning theories in influencing young, impressionable teenage girls in building their perceptions towards their body image through the emergent of research studies that have been brought up. In a way, mass media’s application of learning theories and its consequences on the body-image related issues faced by adolescents would be the main highlight of this research paper. Ultimately, this initiative is conducted to investigate and overcome this detrimental issue for the overall betterment of the society.
Literature review
The Integration of Learning Theory of Mass Media
The goal of advertisement media is to make the consumer associate certain things they see to the feelings that are proportionate to them, in other words, associating a product or a belief in their daily lives to a feeling when the conditioned stimulus is seen. For example, an anti-
smoking campaign advert might pair cigarettes to death imagery to provoke fear and to
associate the act of smoking to death. Modern media integrates much of learning theory (operant, classical, social, etc) into their advertisements, or news, or other on-media product. A brief introduction of learning theory, classical conditioning, introduced by Ivan Pavlov, refers to a learning process that occurs when (usually) two stimuli are repeatedly paired; a response which is originally evoked by the second, natural stimulus is eventually evoked by the first, neutral stimulus alone. In advertising, products are often paired with positive or negative emotions, or outcomes to suit the purpose of the advert. An anti-smoking campaign, for instance, may pair smoking to lung cancer via imagery, thus evoking a negative response, which should make it so that people are less likely to pick up smoking. According to Skinner (1991), Operant conditioning, or instrumental learning refers to the learning process in which the frequency or strength of a behaviour is modified by either rewards or punishments. While operant conditioning rarely leads to direct learning through media, it is possible that operant conditioning becomes a reinforcer to certain behaviours. For example, an adolescent girl conditioned via media to belief that thinness equates to beauty may find herself seeking weight-loss exercises. The results of these exercises may increase her motivation based not just on the results itself but prior knowledge based on prior conditioning via media; thinness equates to beauty, thus, if she becomes thin, she becomes beautiful. Alternatively, observational learning refers to learning based on the observations of an observer (the learner) onto a model. This has been the target of many media critics in the argument that violence in media (movies, games, etc.) reinforces the idea that violence equates goodness, or humour in the example of classic slapstick television in children.
Studies involving media and violence against women (Renzetti, C. M., Edleson, J. L., & Bergen, R. K, 2011) explain that violence is learnt via operant and/or observational conditioning. In particular, it suggested that individuals who witnessed violence learnt that violence was a possible tactic to use to get what they wanted. Another study researched the long and short term effects of violent media on children and adults (Bushman, B. J., & Huesmann, L. R., 2006). The study measures aggressive behaviour, helpful behaviour, aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, and physiological arousal to measure the effect of mass media. Results from this study showed that adults were more prone to short term effects of violent media whereas children were more prone to long term effects. Regardless, this shows that (violent) media can and does affect the growth and learning of both adults and children alike. There are several ways in which the public may be conditioned using media. Social Cognitive Theory suggests that people learn based on their observation of others within the context of social interactions, experiences, and media influences (Bandura, 1986). Using celebrities in media to promote a product creates an unconditioned stimulus which leads to positive conditioned responses in the audiences if both the celebrity and product are relevant to them. Even propaganda pieces in media follow various conditioning theories. In this example, social conditioning is used. Anti-Semitic posters like “Der Ewige Jude” or “The Eternal Jew” paints Jews as greedy and pro-capitalist (which was a negative aspect at the time), holding a whip to create the idea of oppression. Many of these posters existed, reinforcing the association that Jews were evil or “against the public”. Historians argue that mass propaganda, fuelled by learning theory, aided to the atrocities in the second world war against the Jews, of which, even the public were not guilty of.
The Idealized Portrayal of Body Image by The Media
By the power of the media, it has been glorifying the portrayment of idealized images of the ‘perfect body’. Numerous empirical studies have reported the acute increment of portrayment of body images that are almost unattainable by the majority of the average individuals. (Spritzer, B. L. et. al, 1999) These can be seen by the plethora of mainstream television shows and movies that showcase female characters that are not only predominantly white, but also having thin bodies with big curves to signify the “perfect body”. Hollywood entertainment media which has dominated world cinema and made a huge impact on the global perspective of the norm. Has become the major proponent to this issue. (Fischer, L.,1976) Impressionable and young viewers seeing the repetitions of these ideals have caused them to make a comparison between the characters and themselves. (Hargreaves, D. A. & Tiggemann, M., 2004) Not only that, a research study conducted by Garner et. al (1980) has found that beauty pageants contestants have grown visibly thinner as it has been reported that their hip to bust ratio measurements have suffered a significant decrease in size. In the context of models, magazines such as Rolling Stones and Vogue have been looked upon by different studies regarding the number of articles on body-related topics – there were almost a hundred of different advertisements regarding dieting lifestyles in the majority of women magazines. (Silverstein, et. al, 1986) Moreover, this constant viewing of idealized body image can also be seen in children shows which are critical as children has becoming one of the major viewers as they spent an average of five hours a day watching popular shows on TV. (Robinson, Callister & Jankoski, 2007). In these shows, even though there were a small amount of slightly overweight children, these actors were usually playing the secondary roles, being the ‘sidekick’ to the more perfect, thin main characters. The main characters are the considered the heroes of the shows and seen possessing other positive qualities such as having a favourable love life. In the long run, Robinson et.al suggested that these young children would observe these common themes on television and other mediums and inevitably started associating these qualities of the common beauty standards of what society wants. Ultimately, all of these portrayals by the media (television, magazine, beauty pageants) would have a significant impact on the perception of young children towards body-image ideals. (Hargreaves, D. A. & Tiggemann, M., 2004)
The Consequences of Media’s Portrayment of Beauty Standards on Adolescents’ Self-Image
In this review, we will specifically talk about the effects of mass media and learning on body image and any consequences they may have on the personality building and self-image of
adolescents. One such paper on this topic is Harrison and Cantor (1997) study on “The
Relationship Between Media Consumption and Eating Disorders. Harrison and Cantor
(1997) suggested that the women’s drive for thinness came from their positive relationship
with women’s magazines and its links that connect thinness to positive consequences which
were a cause of eating disorders.
Mass media has been found to have several effects on various amount of age groups. However, a study by Eyal and Te’Eni-Harari in 2013 found that adolescents are one of those age groups that may got significantly impacted by mass media due to the social and emotional processes that are happening during this age, which includes searching for personal uniqueness through experimentation, developing the personal identity, and an increase in peer pressure. Since adolescence is a period where they hit the puberty, experience hormonal as well as body mass and shape changes (Steinberg & Morris, 2001), they may take all the body image perceptions into a great consideration (Polce-Lynch, Myers, Liewer, & Kilmartin, 2001). During adolescence, cognitive changes are still happening and, by the exposure of media, they may develop an ability to distinguish central and media messages, especially those body-image-related contents, and may generate arguments and their reasoning to oppose these ideas or contents (Potter, 1999). When a child grew up into an adolescent, their ability to analyze the situations in terms of its cause and effects, and to make hypothesis out of them, becomes more complex (Piaget, 1950). In addition to that, Keating in 1990 stated that by having this higher-level of thinking, they were able to think about their future in order to set their personal goals. This means that, when an adolescent is exposed to a media showing a content that are perceived as favorable, it is more likely for them to set a goal to achieve that favorable behavior or image. For instance, when a teen saw a model on a media got praised for their “perfect body”, they would think that they might get the same favorable consequences when they have that “perfect body” too.
Moreover, not only does teenager or adolescent put a greater concern on defining themselves, but they also struggle with physical changes, as they try to compare themselves with others (Jones, 2001; Mueller, Pearson, Muller, Kenneth, & Turner, 2010). The physical changes that they are experiencing may strongly influence their global self-esteem, especially for females (Harter, 1990a). All these developmental changes happening during adolescence may be one of several reasons behind taking in body-image perceptions into consideration, which may then contribute on building their self-image.
Western shows, including the models and actors that appear in the shows, has been known causing great impacts on showing the world how the “perfect body” should be. As can be seen on their shows, the body that usually appears there are those small, skinny, and thinner bodies that are actually below the average level (White, Brown, & Ginsburg, 1999). An overweight people are rarely portrayed as a beauty or favorable characters, instead, they are usually portrayed as a non-desirable characters with negative-traits, and less likely to be included on the romantic relationships (Fouts & Burggraf, 1999; Greenberg, Eastin, Hofschire, Lachlan, & Brownell, 2003). By seeing these shows with those image of a “perfect body” as defined by the media, body dissatisfaction may then appear throughout the viewers, which one of them is the adolescents. The adolescents would conditionally strive to reach their body size as similar as those that are shown on the media. A study done by Makino, Tsuboi, Dennerstein in 2004 found that adolescents concerns more about their body sizes, which then affect their eating habits, including their food intakes, diet, and how these eating habits affect their appearance . Furthermore, another study by Abebe, Lien, & von Soest in 2012 found that even though body-image perception is shaped generally in adolescence due to their psychosocial developments, girls are the one that tend to be more concern about this particular phenomenon (Askew, Hagel, & Morgan, 2015). In addition to that, Bessenoff in 2006 stressed the importance of how the appearance of human model with the “perfect” thin and skinny body relates to the level of happiness, and may then lead to an increase in body dissatisfaction, depression, and low self-esteem.
Serious effects can also emerge when the objective standards of body weight and shapes are not being considered as something to rely on anymore. A study by Myers and Biocca, in 1992, shown that people, especially females, still consider themselves to be overweight even though, in reality, they actually are not. This is due to the fact that cultural messages, in a form of “body-image” perception through mass media, shapes the unrealistic perception of their body shape. The most common serious effects on body dissatisfaction include anorexia and bulimia nervosa. Anorexia is a type of emotional disorder which makes a person, especially young women, keep perceiving themselves as being fat and that their fear of being fat begins to become abnormal (Hornby & Deuter, 2015). This abnormal fear of being fat leads the person who suffer from anorexia to stop eating, leading them to an unhealthy yet dangerous weight loss. Another negative consequence from body dissatisfaction is bulimia nervosa, which Is a type of disorder where people blindly binges or consumes huge amounts of foods within a short period of time, and try to get rid of the excess calories they gain from this binging afterwards in a harmful way (Kidder, Oppenheim, & Young, 2009). Although the effect of bulimia nervosa is not as visible and dangerous as anorexia, but still, those who suffer from this particular disorder, in order to get rid of the excess fats, they are intentionally harm themselves by self-induced vomiting or even taking laxatives.
Discussion and Recommendation
The present discussion has looked into the different aspects of media and its overall impact on the perception of impressionable young girls towards idealized body-image in the entertainment world. A perspective on the mechanism and the role of media has been discussed to better understand the unique, agenda-setting nature of media as the application of various learning theories have been implicated to enhance the effects it has on the younger generation. These learning theories are mainly comprised of the classical conditioning and observational learning that are predominantly found in the perception of the target population. However, limited research has been done regarding this angle of perspective in which the power of media in deciding the norm for the society especially when it comes to the general beauty standards that are accepted globally. Future researchers should consider looking into the effective nature of media when it comes to influencing younger generation through using repetitive associative methods (classical conditioning) and modelling (observational learning) as this topic is significant in creating more acute awareness among impressionable girls to not be deceived with what they are shown in their everyday life. This is critical to the cognitive development and social perception building of these young girls in what they perceive as a “perfect body”. Not only that, there should be an emergence of studies conducted to investigate the effects of media portrayal of idealized bodies on young boys as well. While there has been an increase in studies pertaining to male adults, however, research on their younger counterparts are much less in comparison. This group should be highlighted as young boys are going through this phenomenon as well as they are being fed by images of what masculinity is supposed to be like. Issues such as ‘toxic masculinity’ can be further discussed to elaborate the impact of mass media towards their attitudes and perception.
Knowing how important it is to understand how mass media could form a bias perception of body image, especially among adolescents, there are several things that can be done to tackle the issue into getting worse. As we all know, parents are the first agent that have the responsibility to raise their children, including keeping their children away from being biased and getting a wrong views or perception on body-image. Based on the Body Image Survey that was done by Gardner, in 1997, he suggested several ways to alter our body-image perception. First of all, it is important to not relying on the general views of appearance made by media or people nor thinking about them too much, instead, we need to ignore our appearance and what others think about it, and find other things to do to make us forget about our appearance. Doing things that we love, either sports or music or cooking, or anything, may help us to forget the negative thoughts about our appearance. Secondly, it is important to bear in mind that, no matter how our body looks like or how it appears to be, what matter the most is how it functions. We have to appreciate our body for what it has done to us, for helping us becoming a fully functioning human, and to help us perform our daily activity. The next thing to do is to limit the exposure of mass-media, either printed or online, that expose models who are captured as having the “perfect body”, as it could only make us compare our own body with them, and later on would grow more negative thoughts about our body. Last but not least thing that can be done is, if the other three suggestions are not effective enough to reduce the body-image bias, professional help is the one that needs to be seeked. If there’s a sign that there would be a tendency to have health problem caused by our negative thoughts on body image, such as bulimia nervosa or anorexia, before it’s getting worse, it’s really important to get a help from professionals. They would give us counseling sessions or even therapy to help us “healed”.
Summary
In conclusion, the current study addresses a few important aspects pertaining to the subject which involves the impact that conditioning methods in media have on the public, particularly adolescent females. Previous researches and empirical studies on the topic of media influence, body images and adolescent’s perceptions have been interpreted and studied within the context of this current discussion to propel and extend further explanation on this subject. The largest strength of this research is that the topic is largely relevant to modern society, considering the widespread use of mass media and how a large majority of people have been influenced by affecting advertising strategies, even, if not especially outside the context of body image. That said, this paper is not without any limitations in its results. Significantly, the fact is that research data used within this paper is not found based on primary experimentation, observations, or any self-report measures but rather are interpretations of other studies, and thus may not be as conclusive as primary data. Furthermore, we are unsure if the results obtained can be fully generalisable towards a non-Western public considering that most data are obtained from the West, and a Western audience. Additionally, the primary focus of this study is based on adolescent girls, thus, a majority of the data provided comes from only
adolescent girls. We are thus lacking in concrete studies of male, and possibly transgendered
individuals, and also that of older people. Results on body image and consequences of such
are thus not generalized to this fraction of the public. Through writing this paper, our group has gained further insight on the media’s use of conditioning methods in manipulating emotions, and the negative consequences of that. These include both physiological and psychological effects such as forced anorexia, bulimia nervosa, low self-esteem, depression, dangerously over or under estimating their weight, possibly use of potentially harmful chemicals for beautification reasons.
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Appendixes
The main articles for this research (literature review) have been attached in following pages.
Please turn to the next pages.