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AIMS The aims of this study were to investigate the impact of different types of social comparisons made by individuals living with visible differences. Social comparisons are related to adjustment, so that those with good adjustment report fewer appearance-related comparisons than those with poor adjustment (Halliwell, 2002). This study aimed to explore the types of comparisons made by poor and good adjusters in more detail. We planned to examine the outcome of experimentally induced social comparisons between individuals identified as good or poor adjusters. BACKGROUND It has been argued that social comparisons are a universal and necessary tendency (Festinger, 1954). In view of previous research, it was surprising that the results of study 1 indicated only a small effect of social comparison processes. These processes did however feature in the qualitative data derived from interviews with participants in study 3. In view of the emphasis on appearance specific cognitive processing evident in study 1, it may be that the lack of impact of social comparison processes is an artefact of the generalised measure used. In view of this possibility, and in the light of an acknowledgement of the complexities of social comparison processes by specialist researchers in this area (Halliwell, 2002), this study was designed to explore appearance specific social comparison processes in more detail. The hypothesis was that good adjusters are less likely to make appearance-related social comparisons than poor adjusters. A fuller understanding of the differences between comparison tendencies between good and poor adjusters will facilitate an enhanced model of intervention consistent with and building on current best practice. METHOD This study was an experimental study conducted via the internet. The study was conducted as an investigation of perceived social skills. Participants viewed an image of an attractive woman and listened to an audio-tape of her in conversation. They were then asked to rate the woman’s social skills. In the first condition they were given no instructions about the specific comparisons to be made between themselves and the woman. In the second condition they were asked to rate the woman and themselves in relation to a number of specific domains including “appearance”, so they were forced to make an appearance-related social comparison. Participants then completed a measure of state mood and body image. We intended to compare the content of the comparisons made by “poor” and “good” adjusters (as defined by scores on the DAS24 in the cross sectional study) in each condition. Hypotheses 1) In the absence of any instruction about social comparison (condition one), poor adjusters will report less body satisfaction and more negative mood than good adjusters because they will have engaged in an appearance-related social comparison with the target. 152
2) In the second condition, when an appearance comparison is forced, there will be no difference between body image and mood reported by poor and good adjusters. All of the participants will have been forced into upward appearance-related social comparisons. Participants We aimed to recruit a sample of 60 women who had taken part in the initial cross-sectional study. However, from the women who indicated that they would be happy to be contacted for follow up, we were only able to invite 40 women to participate. Of these women, 13 completed the study, 4 in the forced comparison condition and 9 in the no-comparison instruction condition. RESULTS Unfortunately, this small sample meant that we did not have enough statistical power to test the hypotheses about poor versus good adjusters. We did examine whether the social comparison instruction condition had an impact overall. There was no statistically significant difference between body satisfaction amongst women who had been forced to make an appearance-related social comparison (mean = 4.45, SD= 0.99) and those who had not (mean = 2.98, SD = 1.23), t (11) = .53 (NS). Neither was there a significant difference between mood reported by those in the forced comparison (mean= 1.23, SD= 0.50) and those in the no comparison instruction condition (mean = 1.33, SD = 0.50), t(11) = .56 (NS). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION The sample recruited to the current study was too small to be able to test our hypotheses. In order to achieve an appropriate sample we would have needed a 100% response rate, clearly this was not realistic. Unfortunately, we could not examine our research questions in the current study. However, as the theoretical links between social comparisons, adjustment to appearance and body dissatisfaction apply to the population in general we are currently running this study with undergraduate students. This should be completed by November 2009 and will provide some evidence relevant to the hypotheses investigated here. 153
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Identifying the psychosocial factor
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Follow-on Studies: Emma Halliwell,
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Warwick Site (Lead: Dr. Rodger Char
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SECTION 3 Page OVERALL SYNTHESIS OF
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Study 3 3.1 Response rates for resp
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Introduction EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This
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The Impact of Appearance-Related Di
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Research Further investigation shou
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Participants were recruited from ho
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BACKGROUND & RATIONALE FOR THE RESE
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The challenge of developing compreh
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STAGE ONE (Inputs/Predisposing Fact
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In order to address the first aim o
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Role of the advisory panel in the r
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credit is due to Anjte Lindenmeyer,
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INTRODUCTION The largest part of th
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South West (via the Bristol site) a
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INPUTS/ PREDISPOSING FACTORS Age Ge
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Appearance-related processing Valen
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Anger/hostility The Refined Aggress
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RESULTS Due to the size of the data
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Figure 4.1(b) Comparative box-and-w
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Table 4.2 Correlation of quantitati
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Table 5.1(c) Frequency of number of
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Table 6.1(a) Frequency and percenta
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Table 7.1 summarises the degree of
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Figure 7.1(a): Scores on the DAS 24
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10.1 Appearance-related Social Anxi
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HADS Anxiety, and the relative magn
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10.4 Aggression When entering the v
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elatively small but statistically s
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11. Clinic Specific Data In order t
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Table 11.3: Percentage of participa
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anxiety was in the low to mild rang
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Visibility and areas of concern The
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affect and 46% for both anxiety and
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likely they are to have difficultie
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Information Attention Encoding/Stor
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such as shame, were omitted. Where
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RATIONALE In an attempt to offer pa
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FINDINGS Theme I. Descriptive Accou
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easts made her ‘flat chested’ a
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confidence to other people’s reac
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them noticing: ‘I try to hide my
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5.) Time Structures What was striki
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STUDY 3 LONGITUDINAL QUANTITATIVE S
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Table 3.1 Response rates for respon
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Table 3.4 Regression Model for DAS2
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Table 3.6 Regression Model for Depr
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Table 3.8 Regression Model for Posi
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0.016), and optimism (r = -0.183, n
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and follow up). However, focusing o
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SUMMARY • Twenty-six participants
Page 114 and 115: There were ten well adjusted stable
Page 116 and 117: Stage 1 - predisposing factors - ch
Page 118 and 119: Appearance schema - beliefs about o
Page 120 and 121: “I’m in charge ...I think that
Page 122 and 123: “Only when people don’t underst
Page 124 and 125: appearance anxiety and coping with
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Page 130 and 131: SUMMARY • This study aimed to exp
Page 132 and 133: A focus group methodology was chose
Page 134 and 135: any situation. Strategies involved
Page 136 and 137: CONCLUSIONS Whereas previous resear
Page 138 and 139: SUMMARY • Nine focus group interv
Page 140 and 141: RESULTS Eight key themes were ident
Page 142 and 143: 2e. Medical Interpretation There wa
Page 144 and 145: “I think I am nicer to a person w
Page 146 and 147: 6d. Generational differences Elders
Page 148 and 149: • The myths about the foetal diso
Page 150 and 151: SUMMARY • Vitiligo is a condition
Page 152 and 153: identified themselves as South Asia
Page 154 and 155: “…my parents would have been de
Page 156 and 157: 2a. Appearance shame and disgust Ma
Page 158 and 159: much…sometimes I just want to bec
Page 160 and 161: For respondents like AA (described
Page 162 and 163: study 6, that in addition to indivi
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Page 168 and 169: SUMMARY • Participants (n=38) too
Page 170 and 171: leaving 82 invitations not responde
Page 172 and 173: The vignettes alternated between de
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Page 176 and 177: SUMMARY • The study involved the
Page 178 and 179: METHOD Participants Student sample
Page 180 and 181: Clinic attendees On the anxiety sub
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Page 184 and 185: SUMMARY • Semi-structured intervi
Page 186 and 187: Seven key themes were identified an
Page 188 and 189: “I've heard tell that a lot of pe
Page 190 and 191: 4. Physical adaptation From so smal
Page 192 and 193: 6. Emotional impact & Emotional sup
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Page 196 and 197: SUMMARY • This study investigates
Page 198 and 199: Table 12.1 Demographic data by grou
Page 200 and 201: variance in anxious mood was accoun
Page 202 and 203: appearance of younger people (Harri
Page 204 and 205: SUMMARY • This study is recruitin
Page 206 and 207: METHOD Participants GPs from across
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Page 210 and 211: The results of each study have been
Page 212 and 213: Others expressed dissatisfaction wi
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Age Gender Ethnicity Relationship s
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Whilst the main thrust of this rese
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a strong evidence base in other are
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Nurses in a counseling role, clinic
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210
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This series of studies represents t
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Ben-Tovim, D.I. and Walker, M.K. (1
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Crocker, J., Voelkl, K., Testa, M.
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Greenberg, L. S. and Safran, J. D.
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Macgregor, F., Abel, T.M., Brut, A.
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Pollard, L., Choy, E.H. and Scott,
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Scheier, M.F., Carver, C.S. and Bri
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Wright, G.E., Parker, J.C., Smarr,
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