Social media social comparison and identity processing styles: Perceived social pressure to be responsive and rumination as mediators

By definition “fitspiration” (fit + inspiration) is any message designed to inspire or motivate individuals to achieve their fitness objectives. These messages are usually accompanied by an image of a very fit person performing a physical activity. Fitspiration messages seem to be everywhere with more than 12 million results on Instagram alone. This Master of Professional Communication Major Research Paper (MRP) explores the “fitspiration” phenomenon on the social media platform Instagram by examining 50 images tagged with “#fitspiration” during March and April 2017. Informed and analyzed through multiple methods including content analysis, visual social semiotics theory, discourse analysis and social comparison theory, this report seeks to answer the research questions: (1) What are the characteristics of “fitspiration” images on Instagram that are aimed at young women? (2) What messages do these media images convey? (3) What are the implications of these messages on young women? The results of this study suggest that the “thin-ideal” that is embedded in western culture still dominates social media and the “fitspiration” community, which continues to negatively impact young women’s self-esteem and body image. However, based on the findings there is a shift to the “strong is the new skinny” mentality where the captions and comments of each image are overwhelmingly positive in nature with little to no existence of destructive discourses. In an attempt to lessen the effects of such idealized and unrealistic portrayals of female bodies on young women there must be this continued presence of constructive messages and conversations on social media, coupled with education and social media literacy for young females.

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The Influence of Family Context on Identity Processing

Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology ◽

10.1017/prp.2015.6 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

Author(s):

Joaquín Ibáñez-Alfonso ◽

Rong Wei Sun ◽

Gertina J. van Schalkwyk

Keyword(s):

Parenting Styles ◽

Economic Status ◽

Authoritative Parenting ◽

Chinese Sample ◽

Chinese Youth ◽

Processing Style ◽

Processing Styles ◽

Identity Commitment ◽

Parental Authority Questionnaire ◽

Identity Processing

The purpose of this project was to investigate the role of perceived parenting styles in the choice of identity processing and commitment among a group of Chinese youth. Examining the identity processing styles of 209 young people using the ISI-4 (Smits et al., 2008) and Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ; Buri, 1991), we hypothesised that parental styles and family socio-economic status would differentially impact the identity commitment of youth in Macao. The findings corroborated Berzonsky's (2004) model, with minor differences, showing a positive relation between authoritative parenting and informational processing and identity commitment. However, a negative relation between a normative processing style and identity commitment was found in the Chinese sample. Testing for the moderating effect of socioeconomic status showed that authoritative parenting combined with high SES levels lead to the informational processing style.

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Identity Processing Orientation, Cognitive and Behavioural Strategies and Well-being

International Journal of Behavioral Development ◽

10.1080/016502597384785 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 21 (3) ◽

pp. 555-570 ◽

Cited By ~ 71

Author(s):

Jari-Erik Nurmi ◽

Michael D. Berzonsky ◽

Kaisa Tammi ◽

Andrew Kinney

Keyword(s):

Depressive Symptomatology ◽

Cognitive Strategies ◽

Well Being ◽

Self Esteem ◽

Subjective Well Being ◽

Processing Styles ◽

Identity Style ◽

Attribution Questionnaire ◽

Identity Processing ◽

Behavioural Strategies

The aim of this study was to investigate interrelationships among the identity negotiation styles that people use, the cognitive and behavioural strategies they deploy, and their sense of subjective well-being. To examine this, 198 American and 109 Finnish college students completed the Identity Style Inventory, the Strategy and Attribution Questionnaire, Rosenberg’s Self-esteem Scale, and the revised Beck’s Depression Inventory. Results showed that people with an information-oriented identity style reported the highest level of self-esteem, those with a normative style had the most stable self-conceptions, and those with a diffuse/avoidant style displayed the highest level of depressive symptomatology. Moreover, dysfunctional cognitive and attributional strategies, such as expecting to fail and engaging in task-irrelevant behaviour, were associated with low self-esteem, unstable self-conceptions, and depressive symptomatology. Finally, the associations between identity processing styles and well-being were found to be mediated by the cognitive strategies that people deploy.

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