공적자기의식과 외모에 대한 사회문화적 태도 및 객체화된 신체의식이 이미지관리행동에 미치는 인과관계

Abstract

This study establishes public self-consciousness, sociocultural attitudes toward appearance, and objectified body consciousness as causal variables to identify their direct or indirect effects. This study is an aggregate analysis of existing studies that reveals the relations of how these factors turn to be the image management behaviors. A survey was conducted on 962 women from the ages of 20 to 59 who live in the Daegu and Gyeongbuk areas. The data analysis was performed through programs such as AMOS 16.0 and SPSS 18.0 for Windows. The findings are as follows: first, public self-consciousness had a direct effect on the sociocultural attitudes toward appearance and on objectified body consciousness, whereas it affected image management behaviors directly or indirectly. This means that as women become aware of others' attention, they recognize the social importance of appearance, internalize ideal social standards, and observe and evaluate their own bodies from a third person's viewpoint regarding the standards for a body required by society; in addition, these procedures lead them to manage their image behaviors. Second, the sociocultural attitudes toward appearance had a direct influence on objectified body consciousness; however, they had an indirect effect on image management behaviors. This demonstrates that body consciousness plays a role as a mediator between the sociocultural attitudes toward appearance and the image management behaviors. Third, it appeared that objectified body consciousness directly affected image management behaviors. Objectified body consciousness was identified as a causal variable that exerts immediate influence on image management behaviors where the more objectified body consciousness women objectified themselves as the body standards that created further image management behaviors.