PSYC 325 MT2

mt2

Heterosexual script

Gendered sexual behaviour

Men pursue sex, women are pursued

Messages on sexual risk and responsibility

Little depiction of contraception, discussion of safe sex, physical consequences

Sexualization

A person’s value comes from their sexual appeal/behaviour

Sexual socialization

The process by which our sexual knowledge, values, attitudes, and behaviours develop

Influenced by more than biology: parents, peers, culture and media

Third-person effects

Thinking that media impacts others but not themselves

Cultivation theory

Long-term, repeated consumption of media depictions of sexual themes will shape attitudes and beliefs

Social cognition theory

Media consumers will observe and model sexual behaviour

• Learn which behaviours are appropriate; rewarded vs punished

• More likely to model individuals we identify with, individuals with positive traits

Sexual scripts theory

Sexuality and sexual behaviour determined by “scripts” used to organize and understand sexual encounters

Media practice model

The media user plays a role in what effect media has

Sense of self, identity and lived experiences contributes

Consuming greater amounts of sexual media correlated with

Belief that more friends are engaging in sexual behaviour

More permissiveness towards sex; positive attitudes towards sex outside of committed relationships

Expectations of fewer negative consequences associated with sex, belief that fewer people are using contraception

Ward, Grower & Reed (2022)

Regular viewing of reality TV was the single most consistent predictor of endorsing gendered sexual scripts, particularly among adolescent girls

Consuming greater amounts of sexual media correlated with and predicts

1. Greater likelihood of having engaged in sexual behaviour

2. More sexual partners

3. Having started sexual behaviour at earlier ages

Impact of queer representation on queer consumers

Queer consumers getting info about sex and sexuality in media

Impacts on identity/self-concept and well-being

Positive links to identity affirmation, well-being

Impact of queer representation on straight consumers

May be linked to more accepting views of same-sex relationships

Intergroup contact theory

stereotyping and discrimination can be reduced when individuals from different social groups have contact

Parasocial contact hypothesis

media consumers can form relationships with media characters, which may have similar effects on stereotyping and discrimination

Sexually explicit media and youth

Sizeable proportions of youth access or exposed to porn: 7-98%

Men/boys, individuals high in sensation-seeking, troubled family relationships

Problematic porn use

Individuals report feeling addicted to porn

Feeing out of control or compulsive in their use

Associated negative consequences as the result of problematic use (relationship challenges, distress)

Porn as sexual info

Young adults, in particular, appear to use sexual media as a source of information

Donovan et al. (2026)

Lower overall usage, higher frequency

Boys became less aroused, girls felt less grossed out by it

Desensitization

Body Image

an individual’s perceptions and evaluations of their body

challenges in body image most pronounced in adolescence

As young as 6 years old

Body “ideal” in media

Print: images and magazine articles often convey messages about thin & muscular ideals

Screen media: overrepresentation of thinness, hypermasculinity

Traditional media & body image

Many experimental studies find after being exposed to idealized media, there is an increase in body dissatisfaction

Becker 2002 Natural Experiment

Fijian teenage girls before and after 3 years after the arrival of Western TV

Observed increase in disordered eating and dieting

77% reported that TV had influenced their body image

relationship between (idealized) media consumption and body dissatisfaction

Social comparison theory

we will also evaluate ourselves relative to those seen via media

Tripartite theory

Three major impacts to body dissatisfaction: media, family, peers

Objectification theory

Society often presents bodies as objects

Bodies viewed from the observer’s perspective

Self-objectification

where the individual comes to adopt the perspective that value is based on physical appearance

Social media distinct from traditional media

Social media presents distinct risks because users are both creators and consumers (editing selfies), content originates from relatable peers, feedback is quantified (likes/comments), and access is personalized and continuous

Social media: factors that matter

Different platforms, different types of activities, who/what you are viewing

Coyne et al. (2025)

overall time spent on social media does not predict adolescents' average body esteem at the population level

More negative effects → girls; individuals with higher perfectionism, problematic social media use, baseline eating disorder symptoms

More positive effects → unable to find factors that distinguish between individuals with neutral vs positive associations

Tian et al. (2026)

Compared to control, viewing content from both human and virtual influencers increased body dissatisfaction

Gender in child development

Children begin to identify gender (own and others) starting age 2

Awareness of gender stereotypes at age 2 (more intensive at 5)

Deeper understanding of gender as internal and stable at 7-9

Race in child development

Children can sort by race by 3-4

By 5-10, show racial biases and awareness of stereotypes associated with racial groups

Gender representational disparities

Male characters significantly outnumber female characters across television and film

Race representational disparities

Mass media exhibits persistent White overrepresentation

Impact on Marginalized Group Self-Esteem

Exposure to media stereotypes reduces self-esteem among marginalized groups

Shafer & Rivadeneyra (2022)

The experimental finding that exposure to televised stereotypes significantly reduces social self-esteem specifically among Latino/a emerging adults with high ERI centrality

Ethnic-Racial Identity (ERI) Centrality

The degree to which a person's race or ethnicity is a core, defining component of their overall self-concept

News Overrepresentation of Crime

The media phenomenon where Black individuals are depicted as criminal suspects on news broadcasts at rates significantly higher than actual arrest statistics

Media & Gender: Effects

More media consumption linked with endorsement of traditional gender stereotypes

Content matters: exposure to stereotyped content linked with increased gender stereotypes

Shafer & Rivadeneyra (2022)

In individuals from marginalized groups, exposure to media stereotypes often associated with lower self-esteem

Stereotype Threat Theory

anxiety or psychological burden an individual experiences when placed in a situation where they risk confirming or being judged by a negative stereotype about a group to which they belong

Social Identity Threat

individual feels that their social group identity is being devalued, marginalized, or threatened by external cues

Davis-Delano et al. (2025)

many non-Native persons in the U.S. have not experienced memorable representations of Native Americans