Discussion of Gender Differences in Body Image- Coursework

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DISCUSSION Explanation of Findings Due to the calculations obtained by the Mann-Whitney U test, these prove that the results provide significant evidence in favour of the alternative hypothesis so the alternative hypothesis can be accepted. This investigation found that females are generally more negative about their body image than males and they also tend to perceive themselves as being heavier than they would ideally like to be whereas males have an ideal figure which is either heavier or equal to their current perceived figure. Although there are a few participants in each gender group who held different perceptions about their body image to the majority, this was the overall general trend which is supported by the bar charts and results tables. The pie charts have shown that females do have a slightly more negative perception of their body as the majority of the female group chose a lower value on the body image scale than males. Relationship to Background Research This investigation has provided more support that females are more dissatisfied with their bodies than males. This was found in Harner and Adler’s study where the findings showed that women tend to rate their ideal figure much thinner than the figure they perceive themselves to have. The same findings have been discovered in the study conducted by Fallon and Rozin almost 25 years ago as they found that males chose similar figures for their perceived and ideal body shape or chose ideals that were heavier than their current size whereas females would chose a perceived figure that was much heavier than their ideal. The results obtained from this investigation also mirror the ideas put forward in the cultural ideal hypothesis. The difference between the values marked on the scales for perceived and ideal have a greater difference in female participants than with males which shows that while males move
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