The thin ideal : the role of positive and negative expectancies.

Abstract

Media often portrays women of an unattainable stature. This unattainable stature is commonly referred to as the thin ideal. Women in media, especially fashion models, have become significantly thinner over the last several decades resulting in a widening body image discrepancy. Varieties of variables have been examined to understand body image incongruency. Steinberg (2004) developed the Thinness Expectancy Questionnaire and was the first to apply expectancy theory to body image research. The current study examined expectations and sociocultural attitudes of thinness in relation to Body Mass Index and body size of fashion models and found that women exposed to thin ideal images reported greater negative expectations of thinness. Specifically, females who viewed advertisements portraying thin models reported significantly greater negative expectations (M = 3.17, SD = .79) than females who viewed advertisements portraying average sized models (M = 2.54, SD = .86). Keywords: thin ideal, body image, eating disorder, eating pathology, thinness, expectations.