Social comparison theory refers to the constant self-judgments against others in order to see how we measure up due to the need for self-evaluation.(Andsager,J.L., 2011). There are two types of comparison. Firstly, downward comparison refers to the process where individuals compare to others who are less than themselves to feel better about themselves. This will result in a boost of self-esteem and aiding individuals to keep their status quo. Secondly, upward comparison refers to the process where individuals compare themselves to someone better. This will in result in either self-dissatisfaction or motivation for self-improvement. According to Andsager (2011), exposure to thin ideal in media may lead to social comparison, where media consumers compare themselves to people in the media (E.g. diet product ads) using mostly upward comparison, which would lead to an increase in body dissatisfaction and a decrease in …show more content…
In my opinion, the use of the experimental method and survey are the best research methods for this study. Through the use of a pre-test and post-test experiment with a treatment and a control group, one would be able to show the effect of exposure to diet product ads models on college male students. However, one should take into account that the result of this experiment is probably not generalizable to all college male students since each individual may have different levels of neuroticism and may be affected or not affect by media images in different ways. In addition, with the help of issuing surveys during pre-test and post-test would allow me to know the participant’s feelings about their body satisfaction through their self-reports both before and after their exposure to the diet product ad. However, one should account for socially desirable responses from the participants when using the survey method. As participants may be able to guess the purpose of this study and hence give socially desirable responses when completing the surveys for both pre-test and post-test in order to make themselves look better.
In this research study, college male students from all regions of America would be randomly selected. This proposed study is particularly interested in finding out the effects of exposure to advertisement models of diet product ads to college males. College males are chosen as the research