A qualitative exploration of the health promotion effects of varying body size in photographs analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

As levels of obesity continue to rise worldwide so do the number of public health campaigns designed to help address this problem with advice and information on how to stabilize or decrease weight. However, few studies have explored the influence of visual images, and specifically photographs, in weight-related health materials despite their widespread use in publications and online. We carried out qualitative individual telephone interviews with eight women who were actively engaged in managing their weight. They viewed a series of photographs of slim and overweight women demonstrating healthy behaviors such as engaging in physical activity or reading a food label. Responses were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The two core themes that emerged were the motivating/de-motivating effect of body size representation on health behavior intentions, and the social implications of being overweight. Participants liked and appeared motivated by the images of larger women, actively seeking out social comparisons. Implications of these findings in the development of health promotion messages are discussed.     

Gender displaying television commercials: A comparative study of television commercials in the 1950s and 1980s

Recent researchers have argued both that there has been change in the way gender is portrayed in television commercials and that gender images have remained stereotypical. Comparing television commercials from the 1950s/early 1960s to commercials from the 1980s, this study explores the issue of how much, if any, change has occurred in gender images. Additionally, the study focuses on the gender display of main characters and the circumstances under which it varies. Results indicate that there has been change in the images of women but not men. The activity that women are pictured in significantly changed from the 1950s to the 1980s, and a change in activity has the strongest effect on the display of gender.Partial funding for this research was provided by the Academic Senate of the University of California, Riverside. Statistical assistance was provided by Masako Ishii-Kuntz. Research assistance was provided by Kathryn Bigelow, Saralyn Caloff, and Eloy Zarate. We gratefully acknowledge the use of films housed at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Our thanks to the anonymous reviewers atSex Roles for their helpful comments.     

The Impact of Actual and Perceived Changes in Body Weight on Women's Physical Attractiveness

To determine whether small changes in body weight are likely to alter women's physical attractiveness, 100 college students were asked to select the more attractive photograph of 33 young women. Each of these 33 women were photographed twice, separated by an 8-ween interval during which all of them changed weight. These pairs were presented in varied orders to control for the effects of order and side of presentation. All photographs showed women in a standardized pose and attire with their faced masked. Lighter targets were not consistently selected as more attractive though 66% of the pairs of photographs differed in perceived attractiveness. The percentage weight difference between the photographs in each pair did not significantly alter the level of preference for one of the photographs. Nonetheless, photographs did tend to receive higher attractiveness ratings when the targets were perceived as weighing less. The results suggest that attractiveness varies more as a function of perceived than actual weight and that small changes in weight may not have a reliable influence on physical attractiveness.     

Women’s physical attractiveness and short-term mating strategies

The current study examined the relationship between women’s physical attractiveness – as rated by themselves and a set of third-party raters – and their mating strategy and sexual experience. Male (N = 105) and female (N = 113) undergraduates rated the attractiveness of face and body photographs of 93 female undergraduates. Attractiveness ratings – particularly bodily attractiveness ratings – were significantly related to women’s mating psychology and behavior. More attractive women reported more sexual experience and a less restricted sociosexual orientation. In addition, some traits better predicted women’s perception of their overall attractiveness, and this pattern was further linked to mating strategy: more sociosexually unrestricted women showed a stronger relationship between bodily traits (i.e., body mass index) and overall attractiveness than less sociosexually unrestricted women. Discussion focuses on the findings that a woman’s mating strategy is linked to both her self-perceived and objective measures of attractiveness, particularly bodily attractiveness.     

Orangutans (Pongo abelii) and a gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) match features in familiar and unfamiliar individuals

Great apes can perceive images as representative of corresponding real-life objects. Coupled with the potential advantages of identifying specific members of one’s species and mounting evidence for individual recognition in other non-humans, it seems likely that great apes would have the ability to identify conspecifics in photographs. The ability of four orangutans and a gorilla to match images of individuals of their own and a closely related but unfamiliar species was examined here for the first time. First, the subjects matched photographs of familiar conspecifics taken at various time points in a delayed matching-to-sample procedure (Experiment 1). Second, they matched different photographs of unfamiliar individuals of a different species (Experiment 2) at above chance levels. These results suggest that the subjects matched photographs by matching physical features, not necessarily by recognizing the identity of the individuals depicted. However, they also quickly learned to select photographs of familiar individuals when these photographs were paired with photographs of unfamiliar individuals of their own species (Experiment 3), and three subjects showed transfer to novel images of familiar and unfamiliar individuals. Thus, the findings support the idea that subjects attended to physical features to identify individuals that they could categorize on the basis of familiarity.     

Picture this: emotional and political responses to photographs of the Kenneth Bigley kidnapping

The use of photographs to augment media reports of kidnapping victims in Iraq has sparked debates over the effects of such images on the public and, ultimately, the politics surrounding the event. We considered the effects of such images in a sample of British university students during the 2004 kidnapping of British citizen Kenneth Bigley. Drawing on emotions theory, we examined the effects of graphic images on emotional reactions and attitudes towards negotiations. Half of the participants were exposed to photographs of the victim that had recently been published in a national newspaper. The other half were not shown any images. As predicted, the photographs increased fear reactions amongst participants compared to no photograph controls. Fear and sympathy, but not anger, predicted attitudes towards negotiation. The photographs used in this study thus indirectly increased participants' support for negotiating with and submitting to the demands of the captors. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Something in the way she moves: biological motion,body shape,and attractiveness in women

Most previous research into the attractiveness of women’s bodies has relied on static stimuli such as line-drawings or photographs, particularly focusing on the role of body-mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). However, real attractiveness judgments are invariably made on moving bodies, and movement may contain important information about attractiveness. We measured the importance of movement in attractiveness judgments by using motion-capture to isolate dynamic cues from 37 female walkers, and compare ratings of 75 participants made on these, static photographs, and the original videos. Multiple regression analysis revealed that both dynamic and static cues were important in the attractiveness of women’s bodies. Furthermore, BMI and WHR predicted attractiveness, but BMI was more important in dynamic rather than static cues, while WHR was important for both static and dynamic cues. These findings suggest that movement plays a crucial part in the attractiveness of female bodies and cannot be ignored in studies of human mate choice. Furthermore, dynamic and static cues may contain differential information related to female body shape, which further research should attempt to elucidate.     

To Picture or Not to Picture: Levels of Erotophobia and Breast Self-Examination Brochure Techniques1

People's level of erotophobia influences their acceptance of sexually related situations, including the likelihood of engaging in sexually related health care such as breast self-examinations (BSE). Female college students (n= 61) completed a measure of erotophobia and read a BSE brochure that either did or did not contain instructional photographs showing a woman's breasts. As hypothesized when the brochure contained photographs, women high in erotophobia felt less competent in giving themselves BSE and were less likely to claim that they did things to improve their health. When the brochure contained no photographs, women low in erotophobia thought that the information was easier to understand and that BSE was more important.     

Role of attention, memory, and covariation-detection processes in clinically significant eating-disorder symptoms

Cognitive theorists implicate a role for cognitive processing of shape- and weight-related information in the maintenance and potential etiology of eating disorders. The present study examines the role of women’s processing of information regarding other women’s body size and affect in eating disorder symptoms among young women. 253 female undergraduates completed attention, memory, and covariation-detection tasks that presented full-body photographs of young women, as well as an eating-disorder measure. High-Symptom women, relative to Medium- and Low-Symptom women, showed greater relative attention to body size than affect, better memory for body size and worse memory for affect, and enhanced sensitivity to the manipulated covariation between body size and affect. All participants perceived an illusory correlation between body size and affect. These findings suggest that cognitive theories may be extended usefully by considering processing of other-relevant and affective information, as well as the role of covariation-detection processes in eating disorders.     

The Role of Organization in the Learning of a Sensori-Motor Task

Two experiments investigated the ability of five- and six-month-old Guatemalan infants to discriminate human faces visually and to associate faces and voices differing in age and sex. The 32 infants in Experiment I discriminated between photographs of a man, a woman, and a seven-year-old boy. They did not, however, discriminate between photographs of two men, two women, or of two seven-year-old boys. The 24 infants in Experiment II were presented three different pairs of photographs of faces. One pair consisted of a man and a woman, another of a woman and a child, and the third of a man and a child. Voices appropriate to each pair of photographs accompanied the presentation of the visual stimulus. Looking at the woman and child seemed to be influenced by the presentation of a woman's voice and a boy's voice. Appropriate voices did not alter looking behavior with regard to the woman and man or the man and child.     

Television and conceptions about sex roles: Maintaining conventionality and the status quo

This paper explores the image of men and women in annual sample of primetime network dramatic television programming, and the relationship between television viewing and espousing sexist views of the roles of men and women in society. The analysis revealed that sex role images, over the past 10–15 years, have been quite stable, traditional, conventional, and supportive of the status quo. The cultivation analysis, a secondary analysis of data from the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) General Social Surveys, provides some evidence that television viewing may be related to more sexist views of women's role in society.     

Bare’ing it all for the Camera: Women’s Experience of Having Erotic Photographs Taken

One area in which a change in women’s sexual behavior has been observed is in the growing number of women who are having erotic photographs taken of themselves by professional photographers. The current research is an attempt to learn more about this unstudied phenomenon. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 women who have had erotic photographs taken by a professional photographer. The interviews were subjected to thematic analysis. The women described the erotic photography experience as having positive implications, such as increased body esteem and feelings of empowerment, as well as giving the women the ability to see themselves as sexual and an opportunity to celebrate their bodies. Having erotic photos taken also provided women with the opportunity to create a sexual image in a photograph on their own terms. The findings provide insight into the changing nature of attitudes about women’s sexuality.     

Sex role attitudes of self and those inferred of peers,performance, and career opportunities as reported by women in nontraditional vs. traditional training programs

Compared to 135 women in traditional training programs (health care — nursing assistantship), the 151 women in nontraditional training programs (trades and technology — welding, drafting, electronics engineering technology, air conditioning technology, metal fabrication, etc.) were expected to report more egalitarian sex role attitudes and to perceive their peers in the program as more egalitarian also. They were expected to demonstrate greater academic success than traditional women in these nontraditional programs. Overall support was found with the exception that nontraditional women in the nontraditional program expected more difficulties than the traditional women outside than program. These findings were interpreted as reflecting person by environment fit and the consensual validation of sex role attitudes made possible by perceived similar-minded peers. The greater difficulties foreseen by women in the nontraditional program suggested systemic discrimination in the work force outweighed person by environment fit, in the women's assessment of nontraditional career opportunities.     

The Representation of the Body Self in Human Figure Drawings

The matching of 25 frontal drawings of the female human figure with 25 frontal photographs of the college women who drew the figures was attempted by 30 male graduate psychology students and 30 women religious graduate students of art. The drawings and photos were arranged in envelopes according to a balanced lattice design, and presented to each of the judges in different envelopes in an order determined by randomized latin squares. Both groups matched the drawings with the photographs of the same Ss at significantly higher than chance expectancy (p<.01). These findings suggest that this matching technique may be of some value in testing the hypothesis of objective body self projection in human figure drawings.     

The effect of neutral and negative colour photographs on children's item directed forgetting

Intentional forgetting is an active process relying on cognitive mechanisms (e.g., rehearsal strategies and inhibition) developing during the elementary school years. Colour photographs might be rehearsed differently in memory than words, and therefore result in a different developmental pattern of intentional forgetting than previously acknowledged. Moreover, negative material is thought to be particularly reliant upon inhibitory mechanisms in order not to be encoded in memory. Thus, children's item-directed forgetting (DF) might develop differently both in relation to colour photographs in general and for negative pictorial stimuli in particular. The aim of the present study was to investigate item DF for colour photographs of neutral and negative valence in sixty-five school-aged children (8–12 years of age). In the present study, a DF effect was revealed irrespective of age for neutral images as well as negative images. Results are discussed in relation to potential mechanisms underlying item DF for colour photographs and how these affect development of intentional forgetting.     

Role portrayals of men and women in print ads

The study examines role portrayals of men and women in Indian magazine ads. Fourteen hundred ads of 2006–2007 were collected from men’s, women’s, and general interest magazines and were content-analyzed. Results reveal that women in Indian magazine ads are primarily portrayed in traditional roles such as concerned with physical attractiveness, housewives and sex objects. Contrarily, men are portrayed in sex appeal, authority figures, career-oriented, and outdoor roles. Men and women are also portrayed in egalitarian roles. While in most product categories, men are portrayed as sexually appealing, authority figures, in activities outside home, and as career-oriented, women are depicted as concerned with physical attractiveness, as housewives, and sex objects. Some product categories also depict women in egalitarian roles and as outdoor and adventurous. Men’s magazines portray men and women in highly traditional roles. Contrarily, women’s and general interest magazines portray women in more modern roles. Findings support an incremental change in contemporary role portrayals compared to past.     

Suppressing and Priming the Motivation for Motherhood

In study 1, 148 married and unmarried childless Israeli women (mean age?=?25) indicated how often they think about having a child, their desired age for having a child, and justified not being mothers, with or without being primed with photographs of babies. Priming and marital status impacted the motivation for motherhood and the justifications for not being mothers. In study 2, the same procedure was used with 137 unmarried, childless Israeli women (mean age?=?24) whose gender role orientation was assessed. The impact of gender role orientation and priming on the motivation for motherhood and the justifications for not being mothers were complex, with femininity playing a much greater role than masculinity. The findings were discussed in the context of the myth of motherhood and its influence on the lives of women.