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Psychological Study at SBC Shows Impact of Media on Body Image
By Janika Carey '07
STAFF WRITER

A psychology experiment conducted at Sweet Briar by Italian Assistant and exchange-student Serena Marchitelli revealed that the media in America has significant influence on how young girls perceive of their bodies.

Last semester, Marchitelli, who graduated Suma Cum Laude from the University of Urbino in Italy, receiving the equivalent of a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology in 2005, came to Sweet Briar College in order to start the first part of her study. The topic of her research was to compare the impact of American and Italian magazine ads and TV commercials on young girls—both in America and in Italy.

Marchitelli said she focused on advertisements because they are known to promote a body ideal that is young, skinny and beautiful.

The question was: how do theses images influence the way in which young women see their bodies? This mental perception of one’s physique is called “body image.” If one has a negative body image, psychologists say he or she suffers from an intense degree of “body dissatisfaction,” which can manifest itself in depression, social introversion, negative self-esteem, or eating disorders.

While there are many factors that can shape a person’s body image, such as negative comments from others about one’s appearance, or patterns of eating disorders in the family, Marchitelli chose to focus on the media.

60 Sweet Briar-students of different years and majors participated in the experiment, which entailed watching a 20-minute video, compiled of scanned magazine ads and TV commercials.

17 Italian and 17 American magazines were used, due to popularity, as well as four hours of video material each. In order to create a perfect sample of what women are exposed to every day, the images were divided into categories (e.g. beauty, food, health), and 10% of each category were included.

It is important to note that the number-one category for American magazine ads was make-up (and other beauty products), followed by clothes, whereas the Italian ads revealed a primary focus on clothes, followed by food.

Half of the girls watched American clips, while the other half was exposed to Italian advertisements. Since slogans and sound had been cut out beforehand, none of the students knew which one they were watching.

Before and after viewing the material, each of them had to fill out a so-called “Figure Rating Scale,” indicating the body type they believed resembled their real figure, and then marking the one they thought was ideal. In order to prevent the participants from remembering the body types they had marked first, the images were mixed up.

Marchitelli explained that in order to determine the level of body dissatisfaction, numbers are assigned to each body type, and the difference between the perceived body type and the ideal image is the number of body dissatisfaction: if a participant believes herself to be a number 6, but considers a number 3 her ideal, the body dissatisfaction will be “minus 3.”

In contrary to other recent psychological studies finding that body image is a fairly stable concept, the results showed a significant discrepancy between pre- and post-test body perceptions. This means that the level of body dissatisfaction was significantly higher after viewing the material. However, the level of body-dissatisfaction in those viewing the Italian clips remained mostly the same, whereas the American clips proved to be much more influential on the viewer’s psyche.

Psychology-professor Dr. Roberta Sadler, who collaborated with Marchitelli on this project, said she did not expect these results because it had never been studied that way.

“What really surprised me is that this small amount of time could give that significance,” Sadler commented.

While Marchitelli believes that the results may not be representative of all young American girls, given the fact that Sweet Briar is a private woman’s college, Sadler disagrees.

“Women here aren’t different from others,” Sadler said. However, she believes that there are differences between American and European girls, stating that she expected higher dissatisfaction in Americans.

Sadler explained that American commercials appear to be more sexualized than those from Italy. An example of this difference would be a commercial for milk: whereas the Italian milk-ad showed a little boy drinking milk, the American one featured a young, beautiful woman.

As Marchitelli pointed out, this difference may be due to the fact that Italy is a predominantly catholic country in which sexual images are less acceptable than they are here.

The second part of the study will help create a clearer picture of the similarities and dissimilarities among Italians and Americans: are Italian girls equally affected by American commercials? Or is body image more stable in Italy than it is here?

After her exams in June, Marchitelli will be licensed as a psychological counselor. She is hoping to continue school and eventually receive a PhD, which would give her the opportunity to teach and do more research in the future. Marchitelli said it would be interesting to investigate the body image-phenomenon among men as well.