Body Image Dissatisfaction and Self-Esteem: A Consumer-Centric Exploration and a Proposed Research Agenda

Abstract

This article addresses the obesity epidemic, arguably one of the biggest health issues presently facing our society, by taking a critical look at the body image dissatisfaction and self-esteem literatures. The authors delve into three key areas, namely, the constructs themselves, the media effects on these constructs, and finally the relation of these constructs with a key solution, exercise. To address these three areas, three tables are presented to accompany descriptions of each construct which provide a vast and overarching review of the crossdisciplinary literature on the topics. The authors conclude by suggesting several potential research ideas, including a transformative positive psychology intervention which combines cognitive attitude-based framing (to increase body image satisfaction and self-esteem) with applied behavior analysis (to increase exercise frequency).