Figure Rating Scales: A Novel Measure Of Weight Bias

The obesity epidemic in the United States has grown in epic proportions over past decades. People who are obese experience weight bias, which is defined as any attitude that negatively influences obese individuals. Weight bias has also been documented in many areas of life. Furthermore, cultural differences in attitudes toward weight are salient in the conceptualization and maintenance of this phenomenon. Body dissatisfaction has also been linked to excess weight through negative views of fatness. One traditional measure of body dissatisfaction is figure rating scales. For this study, it was hypothesized that figure ratings presented with pictures of obese individuals would be a novel measure of bias. Discrepancy scores from figure rating scales were highly correlated with established measures of bias. Group differences in weight bias were also examined. Significant differences in bias were observed for race and gender of the depicted obese individuals.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A. in Psychology

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Year dc:date.available

2016

Author dc:creator

• Magness, Joseph Mitchell

Contributors dc:contributor

• Karen A. Christoff
• Mervin Matthew
• Laura R. Johnson

• Figure Rating Scale
• Obesity
• Weight Bias
• Psychology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/794

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:egrove.olemiss.edu:etd-1793