Halliwell & Diedrichs, 2014: Critiquing beauty ideals and myths in group sessions decreased body dissatisfaction among adolescent girls over a month
Reference:
Halliwell, E., & Diedrichs, P. C. (2014). Testing a dissonance body image intervention among young girls. Health Psychology, 33(2), 201.
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Adolescent girls took part in weekly 20-minute small-group sessions for 4 weeks that described the thin ideal for women, the costs of this, writing a letter to a teenage girl struggling with her body image to persuade her not to, critiquing beauty ideals and myths (e.g., “Most models and actresses are a healthy weight”) and role-playing efforts to encourage a person (the proctor) to resist severe dieting. As compared to girls in a no-treatment control condition, those in the treatment condition were less dissatisfied with their bodies and less likely to internalize a thin body ideal a week later. A month later, their body satisfaction was more resilient to thin ideals represented in advertisements in teen magazines.
Psychological Process:
Need
Need to BelongWhat Desired Meaning is At Stake?
What is the Person Trying to Understand?
To Feel Connected, Included, Respected, and Valued by OthersApproach to Desired Meaning
What about it?
Link Belonging to a Behavior or Attitude to Motivate Positive ChangeHow?
Psychological Question Addressed
Are social norms that contribute to negative behaviors accurate or valid?Are social norms that contribute to negative behaviors accurate or valid?Changing beliefs about social norms to motivate positive behaviorsPsychological Question Addressed
Are social norms that contribute to negative behaviors accurate or valid?Psychological Process 2:
Psychological Process 3:
Social Area:
Health
Intervention Technique:
Increasing commitment through action, saying-is-believing