Health Psychology
Lecture 10
Physical Attractiveness and Body Image
Lecture 8 - Outline
• Part 1
– Importance of Physical Beauty
– Defining Beauty
– Biological Basis of Beauty
• Part 2
– Body Image (definition, measurement epidemiology)
– Health implications (psychopathology, sub-clinical)
• Part 3
– Men’s body image (steroid abuse)
Value Label
Brief Description
Highe r Order Value
Hedonism
Pleasure , gratifi cation, enjoying
li fe
Self -Enhance ment
Ach ievement
Persona l suc cess, competence
according to social standa rds
Self -Enhance ment
Power
Social status, cont rol over others
Self -Enhance ment
Self -Dir ection
Independenc e, creating, exp loring
Openne ss to Expe rience
Stimula tion
Varied and ex citing li fe
Openne ss to Expe rience
Universalism
Broad-mindednes s, tolerance ,
social justice, and equa li ty
Self -Transcend ence
Benevo lence
Preservation and enh ance ment of
others
Self -Transcend ence
Securit y
Safety, harmony , and stabilit y of
society, famil y and self
Conservatism
Conformity
Subsc ribing to othersΥwis hes ,
social exp ectations and no rms
Conservatism
Traditi on
Respect, acceptanc e, and
commitm ent to traditi ona l
customs and ideas
Conservatism
Individu alistic Values
Coll ective Values
Schwartz (1992)
Women
Men
M
Cor with
Attract.
Cor with
Attract.
M
Benevo lence
5.05
-.46***
4.78
-.33*
Self Dir ection
4.91
-.36***
4.68
-.14
Achievement
4.81
.15
4.49
.16
Universalism
4.59
-.56***
4.25
-.52***
Hedon ism
4.54
.22*
4.58
.45***
Securit y
4.21
.17
4.16
-.16
Stimula tion
4.18
-.19*
4.23
.09
Conformity
4.16
-.03
4.08
-.30*
Attractivene ss
3.43
na
3.65
na
Traditi on
2.93
-.09
3.06
-.35*
Power
2.59
.39***
2.85
.29*
Core Values
Question
Is physical beauty important?
Answer: Not really
Answer (academia): NO!!
“Many intellectuals would have us believe that beauty is
inconsequential … Since it explains nothing, solves nothing,
and teaches us nothing, it should not have a place in
intellectual discourse”
(Etcoff, 1999)
Preferential Treatment
“My fourth Cosmetic Discovery occurred at 18 …
I awoke to a realization that would take a long
time to play out, but in essence Cosmetic
Discovery #4 was this: if you’re a young, blueribbon egg-bearer, there’s nothing you can’t get
away with. Nobody who hasn’t been there has
any idea, and even those who have won’t really
understand until after the stampede [of spermbearers] has passed because there’s so much dust
in the air”
(supermodel Lauren Hutton, 1995)
Behavioral Evidence
• “What is beautiful is good”
• Advantages afforded to the physically attractive
– Physical attractiveness stereotype
– Preferential treatment
Biological Basis of Beauty
• “beauty is in the eye of the beholder?”
• Evolutionary psychology
– Humans are driven to select mates who will give them
the greatest likelihood of healthy, abundant offspring
(Buss, 1989)
– Healthy mates produce healthy offspring
– Physical beauty is a health certification
Pathogen-Resistance Theory
– beauty is a physiologic burden that only a
strong body can support
An example (secondary sex characteristics)
– Facial attractiveness
• Women - smallness in lower face is attractive
• Men - largeness in lower face is attractive
– Hormones
• Women - estrogen caps growth of lower face during puberty
• Men - testosterone  growth of lower face during puberty
– Sex hormones are immunosupressors
• only immunocompetent individuals can afford the
expression of secondary sex characteristics
David Buss (1989)
• Mate selection
– Cross-cultural research (33 countries)
– Consistently across samples:
• Men preferred younger mates
• Strong women preferred older mates
• Men placed stronger value of physical attractiveness than
women
• Women placed stronger value on “good financial prospect”
than men
– Importance of attractiveness correlated positively with
the prevalence of parasitic disease across societies.
Body Image
“the psychological experience of one’s own body”
• Body image is multifaceted…
– Perceptual
– Cognitive
– Affective
– Behavioral
Body Image Measurement
“the psychological experience of one’s own body”
• Body image measurement is multifaceted…
– Perceptual (body size estimation)
– Cognitive (attainability, perceived control)
– Affective (body dissatisfaction)
– Behavioral (grooming, checking, etc)
Figure Rating Scales
Body dissatisfaction = discrepancy between actual and ideal.
Body-Self Relations Questionnaire
Lower scores = higher body dissatisfaction
My body is sexually appealing
I like my looks just the way they are
Most people would consider me good looking
I like the way I look without my clothes
I dislike my physique*
I’m physically unattractive*
(*reverse code)
Physical Appearance Trait Anxiety Scale
Higher scores = higher body dissatisfaction
In general, I feel anxious, nervous or tense about:
The extent to which I look overweight
My thighs
My buttocks
My hips
My stomach
My legs
My waist
My muscle tone
My ears
My lips
My wrists
My hands
My forehead
My neck
My chin
My feet
(1 = never, 2 = seldom, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = always)
Epidemiology
How prevalent is a negative body image?
Overall Appearance Dissatisfaction
1972
1985
1996
Women
23%
38%
56%
Men
15%
34%
43%
Garner (1997)
Epidemiology
How prevalent is a negative body image?
Mid-Torso Dissatisfaction
1972
1985
1996
Women
50%
57%
71%
Men
36%
50%
63%
Garner (1997)
Epidemiology
How prevalent is a negative body image?
Lower-Torso Dissatisfaction
1972
1985
1996
Women
49%
50%
61%
Men
12%
21%
29%
Garner (1997)
Epidemiology
How prevalent is a negative body image?
Upper-Torso Dissatisfaction
1972
1985
1996
Women
27%
32%
34%
Men
18%
28%
38%
Garner (1997)
Consequences?
Psychopathology
• Body Dysmorphic Disorder
– Preoccupation with an imagined defect in appearance;
causes distress/impaired functioning
• Eating Disorders
– Anorexia Nervosa
– Bulimia Nervosa
– Binge-Eating Disorder
Consequences?
Sub-Clinical
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Social relations
Sexual functioning
Starting Smoking
Low self-esteem, depressive symptoms
Eating behaviors (dieting, binging, purging)
Avoidance of exercise
Learning and cognition
Cosmetic surgery
Risk Factors - Body Dissatisfaction
• Biological
– BMI
– Physical Attractiveness
• Psychological
– Appearance investment (importance)
– Internalization of societal ideals
• Social
– Demographics (gender, age, ethnicity, sexuality)
– Sociocultural influences (family, peers, mass media)
– Cultural Ideals of Attractiveness (e.g., Tonga)
Media and girls’ body image
– Evidence from 5 sources:
• Content Analyses of Media Ideals
– thin-ideal is getting thinner
• Self-report
• Correlational Studies (no longitudinal yet)
– television exposure
– emulate media personalities / internalization
• Cross-Cultural Studies
• Experimental Studies
– Meta-Analysis of 25 studies (Groez et al., 2002)
» ‘small but consistent’ negative effect
» certain individuals particularly vulnerable
Media and boys’ body image
– Content Analyses (last 20 years)
•
•
•
•
men more often topless in magazines (Pope et al., 2001)
Playgirls centrefolds increasingly muscular
action toys increasingly muscular (Pope et al., 1999)
But, Nivea for Men…“Dare to Care”
– Correlational Studies
• exposure to entertainment TV (Anderson et al., 2001)
• emulate media personalities (Field et al., 2001)
• internalization of muscular ideal (Smolak et al., 2001)
– Experimental Studies
• ...
Men’s Body Image
“Unlike women, men labor under a social
taboo against expressing such feelings.
Real men aren’t supposed to whine about
their looks; their not even supposed to
worry about such things.”
(Pope et al., 2000)
Male Body Image
• Sources of dissatisfaction
–
–
–
–
–
Muscle
Receding hair
Fat (pot belly, love handles)
Small penis
Or some other perceived deficiency
Male Body Image
• Muscle Dysmorphia (BDD)
– Sometimes called reverse anorexia
• People with muscle dysmorphia are ashamed of
looking too small when they’re actually big
• Need to exercise every day, feelings of being too fat,
dislike of their bodies, persist in exercising despite
pain and injury
Male Body Image
Body dissatisfaction is increasingly common in men
Two recent societal changes:
1. Threatened masculinity
2. Images of the “roided” body have infiltrated
media images and societal ideals
(Pope et al., 2000)
Anabolic Steroids
• Family of drugs that contain the male hormone
testosterone
• Illegal unless prescribed, but widely available on black
market
• Taken orally or by injection
• Allow user to gain muscle mass, far beyond that attainable
without
Anabolic Steroids
Medical hazards - increased risk of:
–
–
–
–
Heart disease
Stroke
Prostate cancer
Leads to use of other drugs (become steroid dependant)
• pain killers to deal with aches and pains of lifting
• morphine and heroin.
Anabolic Steroids
Psychological effects
– Mood swings
– Irritability
– Short tempered, over react to situations, sudden
bursts of aggression (roid rage)
– Psychotic delusions (plotting to harm)
– Personality changes (cockiness)
– Excess confidence, grandiose beliefs
Anabolic Steroids
• What can be done?
– Education
– Interdiction (law enforcement)
– Psychiatric treatment for users
– Remove secrecy (steroid users are cheats)
Body Image - Treatment and Prevention
• What can be done?
– Change the body
• Weight loss
• Physical exercise
• Cosmetic surgery
– Change the body image
• CBT
• Psychopharmacology
• Psychoeducation
Treatment and Prevention
• What can be done?
– Prevention - ecological and activism approaches