Recent research has shown that exposure to the ideal thin standard of female beauty commonly presented in advertising and the broader media contributes to body image disturbance among women. Researchers have proposed that social comparison processes underlie this phenomenon; women may routinely compare their bodies with images of feminine beauty contained in the media and consequently become less satisfied with their own bodies. This study reports the evaluation of three interventions that were designed to prevent women from experiencing body image disturbance when exposed to media images by interrupting the social comparison process. Experimental data suggest that all three interventions (a) decreased the likelihood of female participants comparing their bodies with media images, and (b) prevented media-induced body image disturbance. The content of the interventions, and implications for the treatment and prevention of body image disturbance and eating disorders are discussed.Body image disturbance occurs when a person experiences a distortion in perception, behavior, or cognition and affect related to body weight 324

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Counseling Center and a professor at the University of Utah, where he previously served as interim vice president for student affairs. He is a fellow and past president of the Division of Consulting Psychology.This article is based on the author's presidential address to the Division of Group Psychology and Group Psychotherapy (Division 49), presented at the 109th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association,

Members of five sensitivity groups, two psychotherapy groups, and two marathon groups ranked the other members of their group on "Like," "Mentat Health," and "Self-Disclosure" after having participated in a minimum of 7 hours of group treatment. Therapists also ranked and were ranked by the members of their groups. For both members ranking members and therapists ranking members, correlations indicated a positive relationship between Like and Mental Health and between Like and Self-Disclosure. For members ranking therapists, the relationship between Mental Health and Self-Disclosure was negative. Conclusions are: (a) group members' and therapists' role image of clients are in agreement and (b) group members perceive therapists' self-disclosure as a negative indicator of mental health.Clients' and therapists' perceptions of one another's self-disclosure have received little experimental consideration in the literature of psychotherapy. The present study investigates the relationship of perceived selfdisclosure by clients and therapists, their "liking" for one another, and their evaluations of each other's mental health. Effects of Therapists' Self-Disclosure in PsychotherapySeveral writers have suggested that the therapist's self-disclosure is essential in psychotherapy for it facilitates client selfdisclosure and hence presumably leads toward positive mental health. Jourard (1964), for example, suggested that the

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