This document reports on an investigation focusing on how the content of introductory college psychology texts' content related to physical attractiveness and self-esteem. The primary objective of this study was to review how recently published life-span developmental texts present physical development in middle childhood as related to traditional…

Despite abundant research relating physical attractiveness and social skill, no studies have systematically assessed the influence of social behavior on perceived attractiveness. This study experimentally investigated how exposure to positive, negative, and neutral childhood behaviors influences ratings of physical attractiveness and other social…

Although there has been much research on the link between femininity and female appearance, body image, and eating disorders, there has been little research with respect to the behavior of eating itself. Recent literature has indicated that an individual's perception of a women can be affected by the amount of food that the woman is perceived as…

Dissatisfaction with body image among women has become a major psychological and physical contemporary problem. This study is among the few to empirically suggest that overall body satisfaction is strongly related to perceived discrepancy of one's body image from ideal societal standards of attractiveness. This study also identifies the personal…

An examination of the interaction of social and cultural influences on body image development may yield an explanation for the development of eating disorder behavior, especially in understanding the special problems facing women athletes. There appear to be two major sociocultural factors influencing the development of body image in the…

To examine older women's appearance self-perceptions, a study surveyed two groups of older and younger subjects. The control group consisted of 93 female undergraduate students at a state university in West Virginia. The test group consisted of 85 non-institutionalized females aged 55 to 93, from senior centers, craft groups, church groups, and…

Based on people's implicit expectations about how high and low self-monitors will present themselves, it was hypothesized that observers would be able to infer dispositional characteristics of the two personality types from their clothing preferences. To test this hypothesis, prototypical wardrobes were empirically constructed for the high and low…

Due to concerns that body shape preferences contribute to eating disorders among women, a new method to assess observer preferences for female body shapes was devised. In prior studies women have preferred thin models, but men have preferred models of average weight. In Experiment 1, an underweight female model was photographed in a white top and…

Until recently, understanding about women's health has been traditionally mediated by the medical model, which tends to regard each health problem in a vacuum. Such an approach ignored important considerations, such as body image. In an effort to explore this health factor, a review of the literature regarding women's health and its relation to…

The effects of early versus synchronous onset of puberty and dating on the eating attitudes and behaviors of 79 sixth- and eighth-grade girls were compared. Girls with synchronous onset had higher scores on the children's version of the Eating Attitudes Test and greater body dissatisfaction. Implications are discussed. (SLD)

Teacher effectiveness literature has supported the contention that a recurring theme in examining the qualities and attributes that constitute effective teachers is the use of humor in the classroom. However, most of the research did not appear to consider the potential differential effects on the students' perceptions of teachers' use of humor…