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Dr. Devendra Singh

Dr. Devendra Singh. At University of Texas Buss, Langlois, etc. Psychologist Food and alcohol addiction Body image and dieting-related research led into his early waist-to-hip ratio studies. Body Image as Psychological Construct.

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Dr. Devendra Singh

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  1. Dr. Devendra Singh • At University of Texas • Buss, Langlois, etc. • Psychologist • Food and alcohol addiction • Body image and dieting-related research led into his early waist-to-hip ratio studies

  2. Body Image as Psychological Construct • Multidimensional self-attitudes toward one’s body, particularly its appearance • Self-perceptions, cognitions, affect, and behaviours • Has moderate relationship with self-esteem and psychosocial adjustment issues • e.g., eating disturbances, depression, social anxiety, sexual frustration

  3. Psychology Today (1972 & 1985) • Popular magazine • Mail-in survey • Stratified random sample • Found that women possess more negative body-image attitudes than men • Shape and weight • Fears of becoming fat • Occur across lifespan, but especially prevalent in adolescence

  4. Cash & Henry (1995) • 803 women • 18-70 years • 19 cities in 5 U.S.A. geographic regions • Representative cross-section of age, race, income, education • Door-to-door; left questionnaire booklet to be collected next day; monetary compensation

  5. Subscales of the MB SRQ • Appearance Evaluation (AE) • 7 items to assess global evaluation of appearance • Body Areas Satisfaction Scale (BASS) • Height, weight, hair, face, upper-, mid-, and lower-torso • Overweight Preoccupation (OP) • Weight vigilance, fat anxiety, current dieting, eating restraint

  6. Results • Sizable minority of women report an overall negative body image • 36% report wholesale body dissatisfaction on BASS • 48% report unfavourable view of their body on AE • 49% report concerns about being overweight

  7. BASS Breakdown Physical Area% Dissatisfied% Dissatisfied/Neutral Face 11.7 30.4 Height 13.4 30.2 Hair 16.3 28.0 Upper-torso 25.1 47.3 Muscle tone 36.9 63.9 Weight 46.0 63.3 Lower-torso 47.4 64.2 Mid-torso 51.0 69.8

  8. Effect of Age and Race • Age-cohort differences significant on AE scale, but not BASS or OP • 18-24 years have more favourable body image than the four older groups (25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-70) • Black women had more favourable body image than Anglo and Hispanic women

  9. Disturbing Trend • Nearly 50% of the women surveyed reported globally negative evaluations of looks and concerns about becoming overweight • Over 33% expressed body-image discontent • Much worse than the 1985 survey • 30% --> 48% unfavourable MB SRQ score

  10. Cash, Ancis, & Strachan (1997) • Learning? • Cultural forces influence body image • Jackson (1992) • Across lifespan, women have poorer body image than men • Gender attitudes • Ideologies

  11. Cultural Norms • Argued that cultural norms and expectations encourage women & girls to focus attention on their physical appearance • Femininity ideals • Role of values, attitudes, gender identities? • Do nontraditional gender attitudes lead to more positive body image?

  12. “Types” • Traditional (T) • Feminist identity (F) • Hypotheses • T associated with greater body-image investment • T has more negative body-image evaluations and affect

  13. 122 female undergraduate students Questionnaire Gender Attitude Inventory (GAI) Gender stereotypes Sexual relationships Societal organizations Male-Female Relations Questionnaire (MFRQ) Social interaction with men Male preference Feminist Identity Development Scale (FIDS) Five stages of feminist development Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (MB SRQ) Study

  14. Results • Did not support idea that development of feminist identity or endorsement of egalitarian social identity --> more positive body image • Also, traditional identity is not responsible for controlling body image issues

  15. Waist-to-Hip Ratio • Not developed by Singh • Measure going back into early-mid 20th century for medical purposes • Reflects distribution of fat between upper and lower body and relative amount of intra- vs. extra-abdominal fat • Measure waist at narrowest point b/t ribs and iliac crest and hip at greatest protrusion of buttocks circumferences

  16. Cutting to the Chase • Basically, Singh’s early work supported a: • Male preference for women with WHRs around 0.7 • Female recognition of male preference

  17. WHRattheOscars(a few years back) 0.74 0.70 0.68 0.71

  18. Amazon overcoming a Greek (c. 350 BC)

  19. Venus (Capitoline type) (Rome copy of Greek, c. 360 BC) Aphrodite bathing (Roman, c. 150 AD)

  20. The Three Graces (by Antonio Canova, 1815-17)

  21. Female/Male Differences • Differences in post-puberty fat deposition patterns • Females: add fat to gluteofemoral region • Males: lose fat from gluteofemoral region and add to central abdomen and upper body (shoulders, neck)

  22. WHR Issues • Age • Health • Reproductive fitness, fecundity • All factor into potential adaptation for mate selection

  23. Sex Hormonal Role • Testosterone: stimulates fat deposits to abdomen and inhibits deposits to gluteofemoral regions • Estrogens: inhibit fat deposits in abdomen and maximally stimulate deposits to gluteofemoral region (and other regions, too)

  24. Android and Gynoid • Body shapes • Healthy body weight range • Highly different from children and elderly • Altering sex hormones alters fat distributions and body shape Image modified from Pioneer Plaques http://www.nd.edu/~jmontgom/ti/GraphicArchive/ Scans/Original%20Files/Pictograph/PioneerPlaque.jpg

  25. Charles Atlas Leo Robert Dave Draper Males: High Testosterone

  26. Lee Haney Dorian Yates Ronnie Coleman El Shahat Mabrouk And… Really High Testosterone

  27. Female: Low Estrogens, High Testosterone(Ms. Olympia 2003)

  28. Children • Pre-sex hormone • Fat deposition fairly similar between sexes • Can be difficult to distinguish by fat deposit form • Clear difference between pre- and post-puberty shapes http://www.tootsiesdancewear.com/members/ 547048/uploaded/132C_4.jpg

  29. Weight • Anorexia to obesity: both interfere with body shape judgments http://www.humanillnesses.com/original/ images/hdc_0001_0002_0_img0094.jpg

  30. Elderly • Circulating sex hormones drop • Females add fat deposits to abdomen • Male muscle mass drops, reducing android shape; fat depositions generally follow earlier pattern • Loss in sex differentiation based on fat deposition

  31. Health • Variety of heritable issues linked to fat deposition patterns • Polycystic ovarian syndrome, advanced cirrhosis, hypogonadism, Klinefelter syndrome, etc. • Obesity itself has numerous complications: cardiac issues, diabetes, stroke, hypertension, etc.

  32. Reproductive Status • Obviously, linked to issues of age • Hormone levels (lutenizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, sex steroids) • Stored energy levels; pregnancy and childrearing is going to be expensive • Concealed ovulation and current fecundity status

  33. WHR Speculation:Pregnant or Plump?(Remember this?)

  34. Pregnancy • Obvious WHR effect • Relatively early indicator of pregnancy http://www.virtualmedicalcentre.com/uploads/VMC/DiseaseImages/2487_pregnancy_ext_440.jpg

  35. Singh (1993) • Manipulated WHR to change perceived attractiveness • If WHR preference is adaptation, should see fairly consistent outcomes • Attractiveness, healthiness, reproductive capacity

  36. Earlier Work on Idealized Figure • Women guess males prefer thin female • Males actually prefer not very thin • Studies utilized body size (thin vs. fat), not shape (i.e., fat distribution) • Singh’s work utilized both size and shape

  37. Stimuli Stimuli • Underweight, normal, overweight • 0.7 to 1.0 WHRs

  38. Results: Young Subjects

  39. Results • Generally, similar male and female patterns in rankings • Used both WHR and body weight to rank • Within weight category, subjects systematically used WHR to infer all attributes • Overall, higher ratings for normal weight than under- or overweight figures, and for 0.7 WHR across weight categories

  40. Results: Older Subjects (30-86)

  41. Results • Again, general agreement between sexes • Unlike younger men, older men didn’t rank U7 as attractive, healthy, or reproductive

  42. Youthfulness • Lack of association between youthfulness and reproductive capacity • In particular, underweights ranked high for youthfulness, but low for reproductive capacity

  43. To Young to Reproduce? • Age estimates • Underweights: 17-19 • Normals: 23-26 • Overweights: 31-33 • Not because underweights are being judged pre-pubescent • Body weight, more than WHR, used for age estimates

  44. Honest Signals • Signals = traits • Honest if signal correlates with/reliably predicts something useful to receiver of signal • Difficult to fake • Too much dishonest signaling will disrupt the system

  45. WHR as Signal • Singh’s work shows males and females attend to WHR • Utilized for a number of determinations • Health, attractiveness, and particular WHRs closely linked • Hamilton & Zuk (1982): sexual selection for signals of good health

  46. Uniquely Human • Gluteofemoral fat deposits • No sexual dimorphism for fat distribution • Development no more than 5-6 mya, likely much more recently http://www.mccullagh.org/db9/10d-17/vervet-monkey.jpg http://s.buzzfed.com/static/imagebuzz/terminal01/2009/4/20/11/hairless-chimpanzee-10348-1240240236-2.jpg http://blog.theavclub.tv/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/chimpanzee.jpg

  47. Bipedalism and Brain Size • Bipedal Australopithecines 4.2-3.9 mya • Brain size increases ~2.7 mya • Newborn ape’s brain about 200 cc, roughly half that of an adult’s • Newborn human’s brain about 450 cc, roughly a third the size of an adult’s • Brain of 675 cc would make human head too large to birth

  48. Ancestral Growth Patterns • Ancestors left apelike growth when adult brain passed about 770 cc • Beyond this, brain would have to more than double from birth • Beginning of helplessness in infants • H. habilis, 800 cc brain; H. erectus, 900 cc brain • Late H. erectus’ (post 800 k) tooth growth pattern like modern humans (and Neanderthals) • Puts birthing and childrearing issues becoming significant somewhere around 1.7-1.0 mya

  49. Fat Stores • Storage fat • Depends on nutritional status; subcutaneous deposits • 8-10% total body weight, both males and females • Essential fat • Includes gender-specific fat, bone marrow, deep fat stores, CNS • 14% of female total body weight; only 2-4% in males • Not utilized for short-term food shortage • “Reproductive fat” for females • Gluteofemoral fat stores primarily used in late pregnancy and lactation

  50. Reproductive Capability • Gluteofemoral fat stores • Energy for gestation and lactation • Proper infant brain development requires lipids and lactose • Differential reproductive success

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