Robert Dewitz, psychology and sign language major, is conducting a research survey on gender differences and body satisfaction.  

Interested in finding out what students  find as the most ideal body figure for themselves and in the opposite sex, Dewitz plans to find out the answers.

 “What I’m looking for is differences over a few different aspects,” Dewitz said. “I have two different surveys, one for males and one for females, and both of the surveys are identical, the only difference being the scale is that one reflects the female figure and the other reflects the male figure.  I will be examining and comparing the results of the separate genders once I get them.”

The survey consists of several parts.The first segment contains a scale allowing participants to rate their own satisfaction with their bodies. The second part of the survey will show differences in what the participants think of their current body against what they believe their ideal body figure would be.

The third part will be what they believe each gender thinks is the most attractive body type, and the last part consists of two questions about motives for participating in a fitness class, whether it be for sexual attractiveness or health.

Dewitz has been going to different fitness classrooms to get participants who are willing to take part of the survey as subjects. He chose fitness classes to get more accurate results for his questions  relating to physical activity.

At the moment, Dewitz’s sample size is 86 men and 84 women, not too far away from his ideal population sample of 100 men and 100 women. 

 “I hope to see some significant statistical difference between the actual and ideal body figure,” Dewitz said.

 All of Dewitz’s findings will be rated on a 1-9 scale for satisfaction. One would be not satisfied and a nine would be very satisfied.

  “Initially prior to conducting my research, It seemed like something that wouldn’t be very attractive to me or interesting,” Dewitz said. “But after spending a lot of time and energy and putting a lot of hours and work into this, it’s actually been a whole lot of fun.”

The study itself is a project that he has been working on all semester for his psychology “9B-Introduction to Experimental Research” class. 

  From what Dewitz has seen so far in his survey, men prefer to be more muscular and women prefer to be skinnier, and men prefer thicker more full figured  women. 

This is different from what most women typically believe men find most attractive. But he has yet to come to a final conclusion on his collected data, based on the fact that he has yet to analyze it statistically.

“I’m excited to find out what results I get, there hasn’t been too many comments and research about what I have found, so I‘m interested to see what my survey comes up with.”