Papers by Gosia (Małgorzata) Kolling (Skorek)
Prior literature examines the direct relationship between personality traits and body esteem. Thi... more Prior literature examines the direct relationship between personality traits and body esteem. This article explores the possibility that self-esteem mediates this relationship. 165 undergraduate women and 133 men (age 18–21; 42.6% Hispanic, 28.9% Asian, 28.5% Caucasian) completed items measuring personality traits (Big Five), self-esteem, and body esteem. Path analyses were used to test for mediation. The analyses confirmed that in both men and women self-esteem mediated the relationship between three personality traits and body esteem: higher levels of conscientiousness, emotional stability, and extraversion were associated with higher self-esteem and consequently higher body esteem. Once self-esteem was included in the model the relationships between personality traits and body esteem were not significant, suggesting full mediation. In addition, the analyses revealed several racial/ethnic differences. In Asian American participants, self-esteem mediated the relationship between conscientiousness and body esteem and between emotional stability and body esteem. In Hispanic Americans, self-esteem mediated the relationship between conscientiousness and body esteem and between extraversion and body esteem. And in Caucasian Americans, self-esteem mediated the relationship between emotional stability and body esteem and between extraversion and body esteem. The most important contribution of this study is evidence for an indirect relationship between personality traits and body esteem, with this relationship being mediated by self-esteem. This has important implications for the study of personality and eating disorders in young adults, most particularly implying a need for more emphasis on self-esteem as a predictor of body image problems.
Viewing idealized body portrayals of men and women in advertising is known to have negative effec... more Viewing idealized body portrayals of men and women in advertising is known to have negative effects on men’s self-esteem and body dissatisfaction, but little research investigates these effects across race/ethnicity. Racial minorities tend to idealize larger bodies than Whites and so might respond differently to advertising influences. We investigated whether exposure to idealized portrayals of male and female bodies in TV advertisements has different effects on men of different race/ethnicity. Additionally, we investigated whether implicit methods reveal different results than self-reports. One hundred and sixty Asian, Hispanic, and White American male undergraduates from a university in California (USA) were randomly assigned to watch TV advertisements portraying thin women, muscular men, or watched no ads. Their implicit self-esteem was measured using the Implicit Association Test, and a questionnaire assessed explicit self-esteem, actual-ideal body discrepancy, and perception of weight-related health-risks. Exposure to portrayals of muscular men decreased actual-ideal body discrepancy in all men. Exposure to portrayals of thin women increased men's implicit but not explicit self-esteem in Asian and Hispanic men only. Both these findings are consistent with a self-enhancing role of exposure to idealized male and female bodies in advertising, which is often referred to as a “fantasy effect”. This study provides evidence that media exposure interacts with culturally local body ideals and so can produce varying effects in different racial/ethnic groups. This result could have important implications for interventions.
This study investigates the presence of different types of gender roles (working and nonworking, ... more This study investigates the presence of different types of gender roles (working and nonworking, functional, and dominance) in 1861 advertisements coming from German, Polish and American magazines from three genres (general interest, women's, men's magazines) published in 2007. A primary contribution of the paper is the cross-cultural comparison and the inclusion of two European countries in which gender roles in magazine advertising have not been studied previously. Moreover, we include roles studied by other researchers in the past, which allows us to cover a broad variety of different types of roles portrayed in magazines from the studied countries and genres and enables a comparison of our results with previous studies.
All sampled ads were content analyzed and comparisons between genders were carried out separately for each genre in every country by chi-square analysis.
Our main results suggest that women and men are shown in different roles in magazine advertising. In particular, women are by comparison to men heavily underrepresented in recreational and family roles in most of the magazines analyzed. The most common nonworking roles for both men and women are decorative and actors are mostly presented in a symbolic association with the product. As far as dominance is concerned, equality between the genders is the most frequently found relationship in ads from all magazine genres. The data for American general interest magazines showed that the trends from the seventies were reversed; recreational and working roles are no longer dominant in the general interest titles, and the portrayal of traditional roles has given up to equality ads.
Finally, we have found a clear standardization of the portrayed gender roles across magazine genres in all studied countries and very few similarities across different genres within individual countries. This result suggests that each genre portrays a unique set of gender roles. Hence, the collapsing of genres as it has been common in previous research may have hidden some underlying differences in gender roles between genres.
Advertising can be seen as one of the most powerful visual forces shaping our society.
and a fellow at the Berlin Studies Centre. M ihaela Dobreva is a graduate of Jacobs University Br... more and a fellow at the Berlin Studies Centre. M ihaela Dobreva is a graduate of Jacobs University Bremen and currently works in sales and marketing. M anuel Adolphsen is research associate in the
Talks by Gosia (Małgorzata) Kolling (Skorek)
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Papers by Gosia (Małgorzata) Kolling (Skorek)
All sampled ads were content analyzed and comparisons between genders were carried out separately for each genre in every country by chi-square analysis.
Our main results suggest that women and men are shown in different roles in magazine advertising. In particular, women are by comparison to men heavily underrepresented in recreational and family roles in most of the magazines analyzed. The most common nonworking roles for both men and women are decorative and actors are mostly presented in a symbolic association with the product. As far as dominance is concerned, equality between the genders is the most frequently found relationship in ads from all magazine genres. The data for American general interest magazines showed that the trends from the seventies were reversed; recreational and working roles are no longer dominant in the general interest titles, and the portrayal of traditional roles has given up to equality ads.
Finally, we have found a clear standardization of the portrayed gender roles across magazine genres in all studied countries and very few similarities across different genres within individual countries. This result suggests that each genre portrays a unique set of gender roles. Hence, the collapsing of genres as it has been common in previous research may have hidden some underlying differences in gender roles between genres.
Talks by Gosia (Małgorzata) Kolling (Skorek)
All sampled ads were content analyzed and comparisons between genders were carried out separately for each genre in every country by chi-square analysis.
Our main results suggest that women and men are shown in different roles in magazine advertising. In particular, women are by comparison to men heavily underrepresented in recreational and family roles in most of the magazines analyzed. The most common nonworking roles for both men and women are decorative and actors are mostly presented in a symbolic association with the product. As far as dominance is concerned, equality between the genders is the most frequently found relationship in ads from all magazine genres. The data for American general interest magazines showed that the trends from the seventies were reversed; recreational and working roles are no longer dominant in the general interest titles, and the portrayal of traditional roles has given up to equality ads.
Finally, we have found a clear standardization of the portrayed gender roles across magazine genres in all studied countries and very few similarities across different genres within individual countries. This result suggests that each genre portrays a unique set of gender roles. Hence, the collapsing of genres as it has been common in previous research may have hidden some underlying differences in gender roles between genres.