Social comparisons, reflected appraisals, and mass media: The impact of pervasive beauty images on black and white girls’ self-concepts Pt. 2

Pg 199-200 – “The respondents particularly liked to assess themselves in relation to their reference group by taking quizzes that evaluated them on topics such as relationships…”

~ Checking where one is in terms of a culture leads to identity understanding or identity dissonance. Either one is a stage (or should be) of identity development.

Pg 200 – “Yet, just as the white girls sought to learn about and evaluate themselves in reference to their “media peers” emotions, problems, behavior, and experiences, they did so with their media peers’ physical appearance, though with less enthusiasm.”

~ Checking where one is in terms of a culture leads to identity understanding or identity dissonance. Either one is a stage (or should be) of identity development.

Pg 201 – “Even though they knew that the images were unrealistic, the white girls saw themselves as part of the reference groups being portrayed, and compared their “problems” with adolescent females’ problems. They reported that they often (reluctantly) made social comparisons with the perfect physical appearance of media images because they knew that these images were what “everybody” wants. The minority respondents and a very few of the white respondents did not emulate these feminine images in media, did not bring them meaningfully into peer groups, and seemingly did not make social comparisons unfavorable to themselves.”

~ Not understanding others is a key to developmental processed. It creates dissonance when one does not understand what others want, and dissonance is what leads to development.

Pg 201 – “A key influence of the magazines, then, is that the great majority of white respondents said they wanted to look like the girls pictured therein, even though most saw the images as unrealistic and unattainable.”

~ Identity is not based on what one knows is true, but on what one wants to be. The difference between the two can create dissonance that leads to developmental stage changing.

Pg 203 – “Social psychological work on reference groups and social comparison processes can help to elucidate how the consequences of pervasive media images vary for girls of different ethnicities. Social comparison research suggests that we compare ourselves with similar others, and although media images generally have not been examined as part of reference groups, it is likely that people shown in the media may serve this function for self-assessment (Snow 1983).”

~ Social comparison research might be interesting to study.

Pg 204 – “As a whole, individuals perceive that these cultural products are more important to their best friends than to themselves, more important still to girls in their school, and even more important to female peers in the United States.”

~ The way people perceive identities in others is different than they perceive their own identity. This leads into people not knowing or understanding other persons’ personal histories or cultures. People don’t understand what they are not a part of, nor can they without being a part of it.

Pg 205 – “In addition to “other girls,” the white girls believed overwhelmingly that males are influenced by the unrealistic images and are uncritical of those images.”

~ Identity can be formed by what one thinks, and by what one thinks others think.

Milkie, M. A. (1999). Social comparisons, reflected appraisals, and mass media: The impact of pervasive beauty images on black and white girls’ self-concepts. Social Psychology Quarterly, 62(2). Retrieved November 9, 2008, from JSTOR database.