BODY AFFIRMATIONS SCENARIO (Use for Questions 16-30).
Jean directs a program that helps empower people with disabilities. To evaluate whether a new
body afirmation task could increase the self-worth of her clients, she asked a group of clients to
look at themselves in a full-length mirror for 10 minutes every day for 20 days, while stating out
loud what they like best about their body.
Jean was aware that the mere act of receiving a treatment could change how participants felt
about themselves, so she also asked a second group of clients to look at themselves in a full
length mirror for 10 minutes every day for 20 days, but instead of identifying aspects of their
body that they like best, they were asked to state out loud what they like best about their
personality. Jean also included a third group of clients who completed all the same outcome
measures as the other research participants, but were not asked to complete any kind of daily
affirmation. To measure self-worth, Jean had the participants complete the 20-item Worth Index,
which measures four aspects of self-worth: (a) self-confidence, (b) self-esteem, (c) general
positivity, and (d) body positivity.
Because Jean had a relatively small sample size, she measured self-worth on the first day of the
study before any affirmations were made (Day 1) and then used participants' pre-existing levels
of self-worth to randomly assign participants to the experimental conditions in a way that
ensured that any pre-existing differences in self-worth were equally distributed across these
conditions. She then measured self-worth mid-way through the intervention period (Day 10), on
the last day of the intervention period (Day 20), and 10 days after the completion of the
intervention period (Day 30).
To assess compliance with the affirmation instructions, she asked participants in the body
affirmation condition and the personality affirmation condition to record themselves doing their
daily affirmations. Jean used the recordings to count the number of comments that participants
made (a) about their bodies, (b) their personalities, or (c) some other topic.
QUESTION: Jean uses the recordings of the affirmations to count the number of comments that
participants made (a) about their bodies, (b) their personalities, or (c) some other topic. The
number of comments that participants made about their bodies reflects which level of
measurement?
