Thesis (BA Communication Arts) -- University of the Philippines Mindanao, 2018

The Social Cognitive Theory was introduced by albert Bandura (1977) which he developed from his Social Theory added with a key construct self-efficacy. The theory primarily explains how the people acquire and maintain behavioral patterns through a triadic interaction between environmental, personal, and behavioral factors. In this study, the researcher applied SCT?s constructs and framework in media communication, specifically fashion advertisements. The researcher surveyed 100 working women from the different types of workplace such as banking, hotel receptionist, customer sales representative, medical representative, etc. they were asked regarding the media exposure, body image perception, perceived self-esteem, internalization of the ideal body and beauty image, propensity to use body and beauty self-enhancements, and actual usage of self-enhancements. The respondents rated each variable in a Likert-format. Respondent?s socio-demographic status such as age and educational attainment was also measured in this study. The data gathered in the survey were encoded and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Spearman?s rho and Categorical Regression Analysis were used to measure reliability and relationship among the dependent and independent variables. The results suggest that their propensity level was affected by their exposure to fashion advertisements, body image perception, educational attainment, internalization of the ideal body and beauty image, and their current environment (work). Moreover, respondents? willingness to use self-enhancements to improve their physical appearance was frequently associated with self-confidence based from their qualitative responses in the open-ended questions. Overall, the predictor variables make up the 26% of the reason to measure propensity level to use self-enhancements.