Pierre Wilhelm, Athabasca University, AB Dorina Miron, Phoenix University, AZ Lucian Dinu, University of Louisiana at

Lafayette, LA

Female viewers’ attention to relational cues in movie melodrama

& body esteem

1/06/2012Faculty of Business Research Forum 1

Body esteem research guided by social-comparative theory (Festinger, 1954)

Research emphasis: manipulation(s) of beauty images & study of female viewers’ comparative thinking s

Research challenge: study of female viewers’ response to beauty appeals & social-relational cues in media narrative

Problem

1/06/2012Faculty of Business Research Forum 2

Viewers’ attention to referential and inferential meaning - denotations & connotations- :Processing beauty images (Blanton & Staple, 2008; Grabe, Ward, & Hyde, 2008; Groez, Levine & Murnen, 2001; Tiggeman, 2003) (Barthes, 1977; Frey, 1999)Processing relational meaning (Banse, 2008; Leary & Baumeister, 2000; Planalp, 2006)Processing mediated relational meaning (Bremond, 1964, Brown, 1991; Cohen, 2001, Propp, 1958)

Background

1/06/2012Faculty of Business Research Forum 3

RQ 1. To what extent does female viewers’ attention to onscreen relational meaning about beauty affect their body esteem?

Research Question

1/06/2012Faculty of Business Research Forum 4

Participants Instruments Analyses: correlational & thematic (coding) Test movie: Real women have curves (HBO,

2002)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG1L3wIIxlc

Methodology

1/06/2012Faculty of Business Research Forum 5

Results – Pretest descriptive stats & correlations

1/06/2012Faculty of Business Research Forum 6

• stable family and peer support• moderate media viewing habits• unstable school relations and expectations • high level of comparative thinking about media images of

beauty• peer, parental, media influence & desire to diet + exercise to

look good• peer influence over appearance & worries about own and

others’ appearance

Note: body esteem, health, exercise, & beauty related attitudes conflicted

with relational thoughts

group body esteem increased slightly: all measures viewers responded to movie appeal, characters , setting & narrative implications of looking good, including worries, registered in all social

dimensions post-test tension between parental and peer influence & appearance pre-test concerns about exercising and friends’ teasing were mitigated

but overall sense of insecurity transferred to a school setting a desire to diet remained very strong

Note: Pervasive climate of social expectations and concern endured

1/06/2012Faculty of Business Research Forum 7

Posttest stats & correlations

height – 4; weight – 3; looks – 2, body as is – 2 strongest sense of peer esteem & school support weakest sense of family support weakest self control monitored her looks highly valued a thin look responded well to realistic appeal in movie was overwhelmed by mother-daughter scene of conflict situated herself between both in movie = strong parasocial

effectNote: viewer activated a relational mindset (schemata) that raised

the acuteness of her self-evaluation, an unconscious process (Blanton and Staple, 2008)

She demonstrated poor self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997) in the face of parental expectations (Gustafson et al. 2010)

Inferential background relational knowledge biased interpretation & effect

1/06/2012Faculty of Business Research Forum 8

Case 336 –body esteem worsened

N = 17 Very strong family and peer support Poor academic and relational success at college Poor body esteem and high tendency to value media images Strong self-efficacy Perceived mother-daughter conflict positively in terms of

“respect” influenced by her own relational schemata

Note: Inferential background relational knowledge biased interpretation and effect - a conscious process

1/06/2012Faculty of Business Research Forum 9

Case 335 – Improved body esteem

parents very wealthy but divorced moderate peer support very poor school support valued a thin ideal and desired to look like actresses responded to movie with third person thinking about

effects on others strongest measure of self-control referred to her step mother constantly criticizing her

appearance to actresses’ in movie - Note: relational adversity likely strengthened her coping

skills background relational knowledge neutralized effect

1/06/2012Faculty of Business Research Forum 10

Case 334- no change at all

Certain forms of relational knowledge guide the communication process involved in comprehending complex movie appeals structured in onscreen comedic drama:

a general climate of social expectation was heightened by movie melodrama that influenced interpretation

viewers’ response in terms of efficacy (Bandura, 1997) to these social expectations influenced their body esteem

Inferential background knowledge guided how viewers interpreted referential meaning = articulation of two levels of narrative

some viewers’ activated relational schemata biases in response to interpersonal - social expectations (Planalp, 2006) regarding beauty.

Viewing drama and conflict unsettled background relational knowledge that prompted viewers to reassign feelings of esteem to

relational information not denoted onscreen.

Conclusion

1/06/2012Faculty of Business Research Forum 11

Findings are limited by small sample and lack of experimental comparisons

Pre-test results should more readily highlight viewers’ comparison with actresses, their own body perception, & perceived compliance with body ideals,

Post test results should more readily assess the behaviour of actresses, and onscreen interplay in terms of appropriateness

Further research should examine viewers’ response to social expectations with reliable measures of self-efficacy.

1/06/2012Faculty of Business Research Forum 12

Limitations

Questions?

1/06/2012Faculty of Business Research Forum 13