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Permission is hereby granted to the Appalachian State University Belk Library and to the Department of Psychology to display and provide access to this thesis for appropriate academic and research purposes FOREWORD This thesis is written in accordance with the style of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th Edition) as required by the Department of Psychology at Appalachian State University I would like to sincerely thank my thesis chair, Denise Martz, who has shown me the patience of a Saint. I am in awe of her enthusiasm for body image research, and I am deeply grateful for this zeal, as it kept me interested and perseverant throughout the course of this research endeavor. Additional thanks are warranted to my committee, Lisa Curtin and Rose Mary Webb, for their collaboration, feedback, guidance, and demonstration of great patience. I also wish to thank my parents for their support, especially those inspiring pep-talks from my mother, and for making graduate school possible; Evan, who stood by me during it all; and Lucy, my sweet dog and stress-reliever, who joined us along the way. This thesis i