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The Development of Self Efficacy in Young Women...
 
 
 
The Development of Self Efficacy in Young Women in Relation to the
Perception of Attention to Sexuality as Power in Advertising Images
 
 
 
 
 
Cecelia Baldwin
Associate Professor
Journalism and Mass Communications
San Jose State University
San Jose, California 95192
(408) 924-3287
home: (408) 934-1461
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Submitted to the Research Session of the Visual Communication Division
 
 
The Development of Self Efficacy in Young Women in Relation to the
Perception of Attention to Sexuality as Power in Advertising Images
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
        This empirical study examines the hypothesis that attention to sexuality, in
advertising, is viewed as power by young women, power being defined as self
efficacy or a personal power enabling one to control one's own life.  The
researcher's previous qualitative study developed the hypothesis of sexuality
and power in examining 'at risk' teenage mothers.  (1)  This empirical study
provides a quantitative analysis of a general population of young women's
perceptions as it examines the hypothesis in relation to the development of self
efficacy in young women.  It has been argued that the desire to make decisions
and affect outcomes, that is to exercise control, is a basic feature of human
behavior. (2)  Taylor and Brown have demonstrated that the illusion of control
involves the erroneous belief that one can produce a positive outcome when there
is not an actual contingency between response and outcome. (3)   It is this
perceived illusion of control that is being studied.  A research instrument
using stimulus response, with response based on attribution, was designed to
measure the perception of 'attention to sexuality' as 'power' in women's fashion
magazine advertisements.
        The study statistically affirms the hypothesis that  the young women in the
study are perceiving sexuality as power, in advertising images, from women's
fashion magazines.     Although women's stereotypical portrayals and exaggerated
sexuality in advertising have been studied for some time, the hypothesis that
this exaggeration is being perceived as a personal power is a new hypothesis.
The results significantly showed, not only perception of sexual attention as
power, but  also demonstrated a  difference in the strength of the perception
between two groups of young women, one, a mainstream high school group of young
women enrolled in a non-college bound curriculum, and the other an advanced
placement (or honors) group of young women.  Both groups had a significantly
higher perception of 'power' in images with exaggerated sexual attention, than
in the images with little or no sexual attention.  Although still significant,
the perceptions of students in  advanced placement classes were not as strong as
the perceptions of the mainstream high school students, for images of sexual
attention.
         Sixteen advertisements, from women's fashion magazines were used as stimuli.
The subjects responses were analyzed as to the correlation of attention to
sexuality in each advertisement, with  attributes of personal power and/or
attributes that lacked  personal power  that the subjects had indicated for each
advertisement.
        Previous studies have shown that young women often act out resistance through
the exaggeration of sexuality.  (4)  This study suggests that this may be
occurring because young women are taking what they have been shown as an
empowering characteristic (their sexuality) and are exaggerating it.  As the
study suggests, an exaggerated use of sexuality may be seen as a source of
power.
 
Literature Review
        Pease states that the social communication of advertising offers messages that
symbolically link people as representatives of social structures and processes.
Social scientists have employed semiotic theory to discern the values and
beliefs that are widely shared among the public (5).  Leiss et al. adds that the
implicit and explicit social statements present in advertising. Leiss et al.
concluded that the advertising message contains two levels of meaning: the
explicit surface message and the implicit message below the surface. (6)
        As both Cox and Kuypers have pointed out semiotic theory is utilized to
explain how individual roles and identities are partly determined through the
transference of meaning through the advertising of products. Eventually, the
labels persons ascribe and receive may result in both positive and negative
self-fulfilling prophecies (7, 8).
        Kellner emphasizes that girls negotiate and construct their own gendered
identities through different definitions of what it means to be a woman from the
media. (9)  Many studies have centered on  female portrayals and the sexist
depiction of women. (10,11,12,13,14,)    In a study of wellness and fitness ads
Rudman and Hagiwara found approximately two-thirds of the advertisement
photographs examined portrayed women in sexually exploitive poses inappropriate
to their activity. (15 )    And although Sullivan and O'Connor point out that
advertising has shown a wider range of occupational roles for women, they also
found an increase in the portrayal of women in purely decorative roles, when the
presence of a physically attractive and sexy woman was unrelated to the
advertised product. (16)  Ferrante discusses how youth, beauty and sexuality are
stressed in advertisement showing women. (17)  Soley and Kurzbard have shown
that there has also been found to be an increase, in advertising, of sexuality
and sexual availability. (18) Boddewyn and Kunz demonstrate how sexy body shots
are used to advertise diverse types of products from clothing and perfume to
cars and power tools. (19)  Hall and Crum look at  alcohol and beer advertising
and the use of continued sexual exaggeration.  (20)  We can look at these images
and say we are not affected by them because we know the portrayal is unreal and
many are even laughable but Rankow has demonstrated that even when we believe we
are not affected by them we are indeed still affected by them.  (21)
        Wicks  and Yanni have researched the cognitive process of how individuals
construct models from television content.  (22, 23) Marcus has examined this
construction as a part of self development in demonstrating how individuals
construct mental models of themselves,  call self-schemas. (24)  Previously we
have seen Gallager demonstrate that a young woman's perception of her body is a
psychological construct, often developing a distorted body image of herself.
(25)  Meyers and Biocca  have examined this social construction of self and
reveal that advertising and programming provide some of the social cues in the
construction of self.  They found that a young women's perception of her body
can be changed in just 30 minutes of television viewing.  The social cues of the
media influence which attribute groups will be most important in that
individual's self-schema. (26)
        In studies of body image it has been shown that media messages develop
stereotypes of what actually is beauty, success and health. (27)  In developing
these stereotypes Joseph has also shown that advertising can develop the feeling
of being in control. (28)  Judgments of personal control not only influence how
people operate in various activities but also determine which activities and
environments they choose to expose themselves to.  Perceived control has great
power to affect the course of our lives by influencing the types of choices we
make.    Deci and Lent have shown that the area in which perceived control
clearly has the most impact is on educational and career choices. (29,30)  Pinto
and Worobetz have showed how individuals with a external locus of control have
less self esteem and are less resistant to advertising's influence. (31) When
perceived control is thought to be 'attention to sexuality' young women may act
on this perception and disregard other ways to develop self efficacy.  Young
women are particularly  vulnerable to illusions of perceived control.  Hamburg
has shown that issues of control and self-determination loom large in
adolescence.  Physiological changes, transitions to new school environments and
friendship groups, and increasing desire for intimacy and bonding threaten the
adolescents sense of control and predictability. (32)
        While there is a large body of research that addresses the proliferation of
attention to sexuality in advertising,  there has not been  research to link
this proliferation of attention to sexuality with the perception of personal
power or self efficacy that these images may be creating.
 
 
Methods
        My subject population consisted of two different targeted groups to be
analyzed, a group of young women who were 'advanced placement' or honors high
school students, and a group of students who were not enrolled in advanced
placement classes nor on a college bound curriculum.  A coordinator selected
subjects on a first come first serve basis thus giving a random sample of the
target groups with the only subject variable being an even age distribution in
each group.  Each group consisted of 17 to 20 people.  "If the effects of the
independent variable are strong, we should be able to detect them with about 10
to 20 subjects per group.  A moderately strong effect should show up with about
20 to 30 subjects per group.  Weaker effects may be detected through larger
groups."  (33)  Therefore I have analyzed for a strong to moderately strong
effect.         The independent variables consisted of 16 print advertisements from
women's fashion magazines.  These served as stimuli for the study.  A ranking of
1 to 4 was given each ad, as to the degree of sexual attention.
        To gather responses for the dependent variables of power and lack of power
another scale was developed for the response portion of the study. The response
portion of the study was based on attribution.   Attribution was chosen for the
response portion because pretests showed difficulty in giving an evaluation
score of strength or power with a numerical basis  (such as the 1-4 scale) when
trying to evaluate an advertisement.  When applying attribution in pretests
there was agreement as to the uniformity of meaning and correlation of a ranking
of power.
        The experimental design was both a between-subjects design allowing conclusions
to be drawn by making comparisons between the responses of different groups of
subjects, and a within-subject design allowing responses to be compared within
the group to the different dependent variables.   To accomplish the between
subject-design I ran a one-way ANOVA statistical analysis on each set of
advertisement that are coded as high exaggeration of sexuality  and another
one-way ANOVA statistical analysis for each set of advertisements that are coded
as low or no attention to sexuality.  To accomplish the within-subject analysis
I used two-tailed independent t-tests on each group.
 
Parts of Study
        First part:  Sixteen stimuli (print advertisements) were selected from the
women's fashion magazines.  Women's fashion magazines were chosen because MRI
(Media Rating Index) showed women's fashion magazines as the type of magazine
that was most popular with the age group of young women. Selected ads included
portrayals that had a range of sexual attention, from little or no sexual
attention, to ads that had a high degree of attention to sexuality.  Myself and
two colleagues evaluated overall sexual attention.  A scale from l-4 was used.
[1= no sexual attention, 2= some attention, 3= some exaggerated sexual
attention, 4= very exaggerated sexual attention]
        Of sixteen ads, four were ranked #1, (little or no sexual attention)  four ads
were ranked #2, (some sexual attention)  three were ranked #3, (some exaggerated
sexual attention) and five were ranked #4 (very exaggerated sexual attention).
This study evaluated the responses from those ads ranked #1 (little or no sexual
attention) and those ads ranked #4 (exaggerated sexual attention).    For the
purpose of statistical analysis only advertisements that have been rated as #1
(little or no sexual attention)  and #4 (very exaggerated attention to
sexuality) were analyzed for significance.  This furthers the reliability of the
clear differences of sexual attention between the advertisements.  All
advertisements were used as stimuli so that the subjects didn't have any
potential awareness that high and low sexual attention was being studied.  They
appeared as a cross section of advertisements in women's magazines.  All the ads
were from women's fashion magazines so the images did not include a more extreme
exaggeration of sexuality as can be found in magazines aimed at sexual
attention, such as Playboy, Penthouse, etc., or specialized male audience
magazine such as automotive or motorcycle magazines.
        The criteria for exaggerated sexuality was  showing cleavage, viewing breasts
or nipples through clothing and very short skirts and overall increase in
skin/body exposure.   All ads rated #4 included at least two of the criteria.
Ads ranked #3 had one of the above criteria and exposed less of the body.  Ads
ranked #2 had bared shoulders and or bared backs or were in unnatural  poses,
such as legs were spread apart.  Ads ranked #1 were fully clothed and without
any of the previous criteria.
        Since  there would be a range of ethnic backgrounds in the subjects, ads from a
variety of fashion magazines were chosen: Cosmopolitan, Mademoiselle, Ebony,
Jet, Essence.  Additionally Cosmopolitan Espanol and Vanidades which are aimed
at a Hispanic-American audience and the fashion magazine TTO2 which is aimed at
an Asian-American audience, where also used. These were used to show visual
representations of different racial and ethnic groups.
        Second part:  The response portion of the study was based on attribution.
Young women were shown the above advertisements and chose from a series of 8
"remarks" that determined how they felt about the portrayal of strength or power
of the female.  The attributed "remarks" were taken primarily from a case study
that involved young women's responses to advertising, (34) so they were
idiomatic rather than academic.   "Remarks" that were to be attributed to the
women in the ads were coded numerically (on a scale of 1-4) to evaluate degree
of strength or power.  (This coding was evaluated and agreed upon by two other
researchers.)  The attributions that were given the highest and lowest degree of
personal power were developed from Rodin et al as they examined self efficacy as
control (35) as discussed in the literature review.  These highest attribute of
personal power was, "She gets what she wants in life."  The lowest was, "She
doesn't control her own life".  Other examples of attributes were "She has
confidence", "She is weak", etc.  Small groups of five subjects viewed
individual copies of the stimulus (16 ads) and filled in the response
questionnaire.
        Attribution was chosen for the response portion because pretests had shown
difficulty in giving an evaluation score of strength or power with a numerical
basis.  (such as the 1-4 scale)  When applying attribution there was agreement
as to the uniformity of meaning and correlation of a ranking of power.
        Third part:  Power and sexual attention were analyzed to evaluate power as a
function of overall sexual attention.  The set of advertisements that contained
high attention to sexuality and the set of advertisements that contained low or
no attention to sexual were the independent variables with the attributes of
power and lack of power being the independent variables.  Two  one-way ANOVA
statistical analysis was used to compare between group differences.  Two-tailed
independent t-tests were used to compare within group differences.  A p value <
.05 was used.
 
Subjects
Group one:  Mainstream group
Nineteen subjects in this group completed the study, between the ages of  14 and
18.   These young women were enrolled in high school but were not taking any
advanced placement or honors classes. They were from a high school in an
ethnically mixed middle and upper middle class school district.  (See
demographic information below)
 
Group two: Advanced placement or honors group
Seventeen subjects completed the study, between the ages of 14 and 18.  These
young women were enrolled in advanced placement classes on a college bound
curriculum.  They were from the same high school as the above subjects.
 
For both groups a high school teacher acted as coordinator and asked for
volunteers to be in a study about advertising.  All subjects received a $10.00
honorarium.
 
Ethnic Enrollment in School District in l992
Caucasian = 3,101, African-American = 625, Asian = 2,l56, Filipino =1,256,
Hispanic = 1,578, Pacific Islanders = 100, Native-American =91  (total 8,898)
SAT scores ranked in the middle area with a verbal of 403 and math at 514.
A middle to upper-middle class suburb with an average home cost of $275,000. *
 
*all district information is according to Santa Clara County '94,  published
McCormack, l994.
 
Findings
 
        The study found the hypothesis, which claims the perception of the equating of
sexuality and power in advertising to be upheld.
        Since the primary aim of the study was the analysis of power  the responses in
terms of the attribute rated the highest for power as one dependent variable and
the attribute rated the lowest for power was analyzed as the other dependent
variable. Two separate two tailed t-test were conducted on both the independent
variables, ads with high sexual attention and ads for low sexual attention.
Significance was found at the <.005 level upholding the perception of power in
the ads for sexual attention.  (See table 1.)   In both groups there is a
significantly higher indication of the highest attribute of power in the ads
that have a high attention to sexuality (averaged means of 4.05 and 3.59) than
in the indication of the lowest attribute of power (average means of 1.05 and
l.06)  Both groups perceived the ads with the highest amount of sexual attention
to be "powerful."  Both groups gave the ads that were of  little or no sexual
attention  a significantly lower indication of the attribute of power. (See
tables 3 and 4)
 
                        Table 1
 Two tailed independent t-tests (paired samples)
                   of Mainstream Group
                 Number of                2-tail
 Variable          pairs      Corr      Sig         Mean          SD
 of Mean
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 HS_HP*                                                   4.0526        .705
    .162
                    19       -.410    .081
 HS_LP*                                                    1.0526        .970
    .223
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
    Mean          SD       SE of Mean       t-value             df
 2-tail Sig
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  3.0000       1.414          .324              9.25             18
    .000
 95% CI (2.318, 3.682)
 
 *HS = ads with high sexual attention
   HP = attribute with the highest rating of power
   LP = attribute with the lowest rating of power
 
 
                            Table 2
Two tailed independent t-tests (paired samples)
            of Advanced Placement or Honors Group
 
                      Number of                2-tail
 Variable              pairs      Corr        Sig         Mean          SD
 of Mean
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 HS_HP*                                                        3.5882
1.326
    .322
                    17                  .045    .864
 HS_LP*                                                        1.0588
1.478
    .358
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
    Mean          SD        SE of Mean       t-value             df
2-tail Sig
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
  2.5294       1.940          .471                5.38             16
    .000
 95% CI (1.532, 3.527)
 *HS = ads with high sexual attention
   HP = attribute with the highest rating of power
   LP = attribute with the lowest rating of power
 
 
                                             Table 3
Average means for the Mainstream group's indication of highest attribute of
power and lowest attribute of power in ads with the highest rating of sexual
attention.
 
  Mean              Standard Deviation          Standard Error                  N
Highest attribution of power indicated
4.05                    .70                             .16                     19
Lowest attribution of power indicated
1.05                    .97                             .22                     19
 
Average means for the Advanced Placement or honors group's indication of the
highest attribute of power and lowest attribute of power in ads with the highest
rating of sexual attention.
 
  Mean              Standard Deviation          Standard Error                  N
Highest attribute of power indicated
3.59                    .1.33                           .32                     17
Lowest attribute of power indicated
1.06                    1.4                             .36                     17
        When looking at the individual advertisements it is interesting to view the
percentages at which the students gave indications of power and lack of power
for each ad.  It is also interesting to note that of the advertisements that had
little or no sexual attention there is only one ad that is rated as high as the
some of the advertisements with exaggerated sexuality.  The researcher actually
selected this particular ad because the imagery appeared to be more engaging
than with most ads with little sexual attention and wanted to see its potential
difference.  Although it didn't have as high a percentage as most advertisements
with sexual attention, this demonstrates that it is possible to have ads with
little or no sexual attention also give a perception of power.
        Again the mainstream high school students indicated a higher percentage of
power (average 82.1%) in the ads rated highest for sexual attention that the
advanced placement  students (average 72.8%).  Mainstream high school students
also indicated a higher percentage of power (average 45.3%) for the ads of rated
highest for sexual attention than those rated lowest for sexual attention
(37.3%).  But of course the importance of this in the the comparison of ads with
highest sexual attention and lowest sexual attention.  Both groups had a much
higher indication of power for the highest rating for sexual attention
(mainstream = 82.1% and advanced placement  = 72.8%)  compared with a much lower
indication of power for the ads rated lowest for sexual attention (mainstream =
45.3% and advanced placement  = 37.3.)  Once again illustrating the strength of
the hypothesis. (See tables 4 and 5)
 
                                             Table 4
Percentage of subjects indicating the highest rating of power for each ad rated
highest for sexual attention.
 
Average Percentage for mainstream high school students (N=19)
 82.1%
Average Percentages for advanced placement  high school students (N=17)
  72.8%
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                            Table 5
Percentage of subjects indicating the highest rating of power for each ad rated
lowest  for sexual attention.
Percentages for mainstream high school students (N=19)
Average percentage:  45.3%
 
Percentages for advanced placement  high school students (N=17)
average percentage:  37.3%
 
 
        Two one way ANOVA analysis using the sum of each answer as to the rated
indication of power showed a statically significant difference at  <.05 of the
perception of power between the groups of those ads rated very exaggerated
sexual attention and those ads rates little or no sexual attention.  It showed a
significant difference between the groups in perception of power in ads with
images with little or no sexual attention.  With the advanced placement
subjects indicating a higher association of power in ads with little of no
sexual attention than the mainstream subjects had indicated.   (See table 6)
        This indication of overall power was derived by using the sum of the response
for power.  The groups showed a significant difference in the overall perception
of power between the groups in both the ads rated for highest attention to
sexuality and those rated lowest for sexuality.  This indicates that there may
be factors at work that allow the advanced placement students  to begin to
refute the equation of sexuality and power.  ( See table 7 and 8)
 
 
                                        Table 6
                    Analysis of Variance Between Groups
        D.F.            Sum of the Squares      Mean Squares    F Ratio     F Prob.
        2                       129.4555        64.7277  4.3192     .0183
Mean of mainstream group =17.00000
Mean  advanced placement  group = 13.2353
significant if mean - mean is >+2.7373
 
 
 
 
                                Table 7
  Sum of means for high association of power with four ads
  rated highest for exaggerated sexuality
  Means for Mainstream high school  students
  Means     Standard Deviation      Variance            N
  3.32                  .82                     .67             19
  3.47                  .90                     .82             19
  3.74                  .81                     .65             19
  3.79                  .79                     .62             19
average mean: 3.58 for mainstream students
  Means for advanced placement  students
  Means Standard Deviation          Variance            N
  2.65                  1.00                    .99             17
  2.76                  l.15                    1.32            17
  3.06                  1.20                    1.43            17
  3.24                  1.03                    l.07            17
average mean: 2.93 for advanced placement  students
 
 
                                    Table 8
  Sum of means for high association of power with four ads
  rated lowest for exaggerated sexuality
 
 Means for Mainstream high school  students
  Means     Standard Deviation      Variance            N
  3.05                  .85                     .72             19
  3.37                  1.01                    1.02            19
  3.47                  1.22                    1.49            19
  3.36                  .79                     .65             19
average  mean:  3.312 for mainstream students
 
Means for advanced placement  high school students
  Means     Standard Deviation      Variance            N
  2.29                  1.21                    1.47            17
  2.47                  1.28                    1.64            17
  2.53                  1.12                    1.26            17
  2.97                  1.14                    1.32            17
average mean: 2.565 for advanced placement  high school students
Discussion
 
        Many young women feel powerless to control their own lives.  This is often
shown in rebellion against their schools, their families, etc.  They are in
resistance to their cultures, to society.  Previous studies conducted by both
Thomas and McRobbie suggest females don't act out their resistant behavior in
the same manner as their male counterparts. (36,37)  In studies of young girls'
resistance they have been shown to create their resistance through the
exaggeration of their sexuality.  Both McRobbie and Thomas emphasize the ways in
which these girls use sexuality as opposition to authority of school or to
middle-class definitions of femininity.   The young women that are emphasizing
their sexuality are often seen as desiring attention.  But this study suggests
it may very well be a learned interpretation of the perception of attention to
sexuality as power, thus distorting the development of self efficacy.
        Cultural symbols are learned through interaction and then those symbols are
mediated through interaction.  Self-definition is social in nature; the self is
defined largely through interaction with the environment. Kellner states that
the media are forms of pedagogy that teach us how to be men and women.  (38)
The cultural symbols arranged by advertising and the media in general (in this
case, exaggeration to sexuality) may not only be giving young women a distorted
self-definition but the mediation of those symbols and that self-definition may
be causing them to act on distorted perceptions  and to exaggerate their
sexuality to gain personal power or control in their lives.
        These young women's "resistance" may be the actual learning process of their
limitation in our society and their seeking to control what they have learned to
be their only source of  power, their sexuality.  As advertising communicates
images of sexuality as power, young women may reproduce advertising's equating
of sexuality and power in their development of self efficacy, and therefore may
not learn the true lessons of empowerment but reproduce further disempowerment
in the guise and hope of empowerment.
        Although this study statistically affirms the hypothesis, and both groups had a
high association of sexuality with power, the advanced placement  students'
perceptions were somewhat less, which demonstrates that the young women in the
mainstream group are more affected by these images.  Possibly due to dedication
to education or intelligence the advanced placement  students may be able to
view empowerment in other ways thus helping them to somewhat refute the equation
of sexuality and power.
        Although it can be speculated that all advertisements employ physically
attractive communicators this is different than communications of sexual
attention.    It is not this study's intent to suggest that advertising is the
only way in which young women learn to equate power with sexuality.  The
entertainment media and other cultural values may contribute to that message.
                As Fine has pointed out, young women need to understand their sexuality
authentically.  (39)  They should not see their sexuality as barter for power.
When sexuality is seen as power young women may not only loose their ability to
create an authentic sexuality but they may not recognize or develop the
strengths they possess that could truly allow them to control their own lives.
        Continued study is needed.   The equation of sexuality and power needs to be
studied furthered as do the ways in which young women may be able to refute this
equation.  The advanced placement or honors group leads us to believe that there
may be factors that we can identify that may be allowing young women to refute
this equation but certainly the single factor of intent to go to college appears
to only partially refute the equation because there is still a significantly
greater association of power with attention to sexuality in the advanced
placement or honors group as well.
 
 
 
NOTES
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Perspective. Mental Health Psychological Bulletin, l03 l93-210, l988.
4.      McRobbie, Angela, and Garber, Jenny, Girls and Subcultures, Hall, Stuart,
and Jefferson, Tony, eds... Resistance Through Rituals. London: Hutchinson,
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5.      Pease, O.  The responsibility of American Advertising. New Haven: Yale
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6.      Leiss, William; Kline, Stephen; & Jhally, Sut, Social Communication
in Advertising: Persons, Products and Images of Well Being. New York: Methuen,
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The Development of Self Efficacy in Young Women in Relation to the
Perception of Attention to Sexuality as Power in Advertising Images
 
Abstract
        This empirical study examines the hypothesis that attention to sexuality, in
advertising, is perceived as self efficacy, or a personal power enabling one to
control one's own life.  Semiotic theory provides it's framework. The subject
population consisted of two groups of young women, average high school students
and advanced placement high school students.  The hypothesis was upheld in
independent t-tests.  Additionally, ANOVA analysis revealed significant
differences  that may help young women to refute this perception.