Authors

Mary Fuller

Publication Date

11-1988

Advisor(s) - Committee Chair

Aaron Podolefsky, Joan Krenzin, Stephen Groce

Comments

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Degree Program

Department of Sociology

Degree Type

Master of Arts

Abstract

A sample of 15 women was gathered through the utilization of accidental sampling procedures. All of the women comprising the sample are or have been obese. Capitalizing on the method of verstehen and qualitative methods, each of these women was intensely interviewed and the interviews were tape-recorded. Mundane files were used to place particular pieces of information garnered from the taped interviews into logically obvious categories.

This project was based on the symbolic interactionist perspective in order to follow the course of events in each woman’s life which led to her current concept of self and level of self-esteem. This theoretical orientation coupled with a feminist perspective provided the framework for following the formation and development of each woman’s self-concept.

It was found that the women in this study, most of whom were obese as children and adolescents, experienced derision and castigation during their lives. Many of the women in this study had distorted images of their physical selves and did not perceive themselves as large as they actually are. Some rejected the term obese in favor of the term overweight and some, although obese, did no consider themselves to have a weight problem at all.

The women in this study gave physiological, psychological, and sociological self-defined casual factors for their own problems of obesity. They also spoke of the various diet regimens they used in an attempt to achieve the culturally established ideal of thinness.

The self-esteem of these women ranged from very negative to positive. All of these 15 women have accomplished a number of things which allowed them to enhance their self-esteem.

Disciplines

Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Social and Behavioral Sciences | Sociology | Women's Studies

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