Discussion Essay, Research Paper
We handed out 60 surveys, using convenience sampling, in the cafeteria at Marianopolis College.We got back 50surveys. 23 of the respondents were male and 27 female. The results we found supported our hypothesis. Females seemed to have a negative body-image where as the males perceived their bodies positively. Through-out the first part of our survey, questions 1 to 11, we noticed the same trend.The males answered almost systematically never to all the questions where as the females tended to answer mostly sometimes and often.When we asked “I find it hard to shop for clothes because I think things look fat on me” 73.9% of the males and 18.5% of the females answered never. Just by these two figures we can easily see the different perception that each gender has about their body. Females are far more complex than the males, and envisage themselves as being fat. Males are confident about their body and perceive it positively. Also 22.2% of the females answered always to this question. This number is very significant, it clearly illustrates the females high insecurity level towards their body. To the question “I think my body is unattractive” 52.2% of the males and 11.1% of the females answered never. Once again we notice the males positive perception compared to females negative one. Males seem to be less preoccupied than the females about what their body looks like.This could explain why the males have such a positive view of their body. Females on the otherhand seem to always worry
about what their body looks likes and what the other people think about them. 70.4% of the females sometimes feel that other people must think their body is unattractive.This explains their insecurity level as well as their complexity. In the second part of our survey the findings are more interesting. The males are consistent in what they think their current body looks like, what they consider attractive and what they regard an ideal body, corresponds to #4 on the scale. The females on the other-hand are very inconsistent.What they consider ideal(#2), attractive(#3) and current(#4) are very different. This consitency reflects the genders body-image. The males ,contrary to the females, seem to proud and confident about what they look like. The females insecurity is clearly reflected here. Our survey was well structured and helped us support our hypothesis.Yet it had its flaws and limits.First of all we would reconstruct the second part of our survey to make it more comprehesible. None of our respondents clearly understood what they where asked to do. We would also try to make our survey less bias. In the future we will hand out more surveys and escape the bounderies of Marianopolis College to get a more valid and reliable sample. We will also intergrate an extra independent variable to our survey to get more interesting results. In conclusion, the findigs supported that gender influences the perception of body-image.The males, unlike the females seemed to perceive their bodies positively.