Date of Submission

Spring 2017

Academic Programs and Concentrations

Psychology; Psychology

Project Advisor 1

Thomas Hutcheon

Abstract/Artist's Statement

Past research presents complex developmental processes exclusively experienced by biracial individuals in relation to their identity and self-perception. Therefore this proposed study investigates the relationship between racial identification type and body dissatisfaction among young biracial Japanese White-American women. In Experiment 1, post-categorization of biracial individuals into distinct racial identification types including WD (White Dominant), JD (Japanese Dominant), and WJI (White-Japanese Integrated), between-group differences in ideal body preferences were examined. In Experiment 2, all participants were asked to complete a 6-minute writing task about one of their parent’s racial heritage that corresponded to their priming condition prior to the reporting of their ideal body preferences. In study 3 all participants were asked to report their ideal body preferences, self-ratings, and body dissatisfaction. The first hypothesis was that there would be between-group differences in ideal body preference among the WD, JD, and WJI groups. Secondly, I hypothesized that WJI individuals would report ideal body preferences corresponding to their priming conditions due to their flexible racial identification, while WD and JD participants would show insignificant differences from preferences reported in Experiment 1. Finally, I hypothesized that body dissatisfaction levels would be contingent on the level of discrepancy between self and ideal body ratings for WD and JD individuals while WJI individuals would exhibit generally higher body dissatisfaction. Results supported all three hypotheses. Between-group differences were observed in ideal body preferences, a priming effect was observed exclusively for WJI individuals, and WJI individuals showed overall high body dissatisfaction independent of discrepancy between self and ideal body ratings which was not the case for WD and JD participants.

Open Access Agreement

On-Campus only

Creative Commons License

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