Contents

CHAPTER 6: Independent Groups Designs 189FIGURE 6.1In the United States, 99% of young girls aged 3–10 have at least one Barbie, and the typicalyoung girl has eight Barbie dolls (Rogers, 1999).Manipulation Dittmar et al. (2006) used the control technique of manipulationto test their hypotheses about girls’ body dissatisfaction. The three conditionsof the independent variable allowed these researchers to make comparisonsrelevant to their hypotheses. If they tested only the Barbie condition,it would be impossible to determine whether those images influenced girls’body dissatisfaction in any way. Thus, the neutral-image condition created acomparison—a way to see if the girls’ body dissatisfaction differed dependingon whether they looked at a thin ideal vs. neutral images. The Emme conditionadded an important comparison. It is possible that any images of bodies mightinfluence girls’ perceptions of themselves. Dittmar and her colleagues testedthe hypothesis that only thin body ideals, as represented by Barbie, wouldcause body dissatisfaction.At the end of the story, the young girls turned in their picture books andcompleted a questionnaire designed for their age level. Although Dittmar and hercolleagues used a number of measures designed to assess the girls’ satisfactionwith their body, we will focus on one measure, the Child Figure Rating Scale.This scale has two rows of seven line drawings of girls’ body shapes ranging