1. Lecture 10 Physical Attractiveness and Body Image
Health Psychology
Lecture 10
Physical Attractiveness and Body Image

2. Lecture 8 - Outline Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 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)

3. Schwartz (1992)

5. 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)

6. 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, blue-ribbon 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 sperm-bearers] has passed because there’s so much dust in the air”
(supermodel Lauren Hutton, 1995)

7. Behavioral Evidence “What is beautiful is good”
Advantages afforded to the physically attractive
Physical attractiveness stereotype
Preferential treatment

8. 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

9. Pathogen-Resistance Theory
beauty is a physiologic burden that only a strong body can support

10. 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

11. 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.

12. Body Image “the psychological experience of one’s own body”
Body image is multifaceted…
Perceptual
Cognitive
Affective
Behavioral

13. 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)

14. Figure Rating Scales
Body dissatisfaction = discrepancy between actual and ideal.

15. 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)

16. 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 ears
My thighs My lips
My buttocks My wrists
My hips My hands
My stomach My forehead
My legs My neck
My waist My chin
My muscle tone My feet
(1 = never, 2 = seldom, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = always)

17. Epidemiology How prevalent is a negative body image?
Overall Appearance Dissatisfaction
Women 23% 38% 56%
Men % 34% 43%
Garner (1997)

18. Epidemiology How prevalent is a negative body image?
Mid-Torso Dissatisfaction
Women 50% 57% 71%
Men % 50% 63%
Garner (1997)

19. Epidemiology How prevalent is a negative body image?
Lower-Torso Dissatisfaction
Women 49% 50% 61%
Men % 21% 29%
Garner (1997)

20. Epidemiology How prevalent is a negative body image?
Upper-Torso Dissatisfaction
Women 27% 32% 34%
Men % 28% 38%
Garner (1997)

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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)

24. 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

25. 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
...

26. 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)

27. Male Body Image Sources of dissatisfaction Muscle Receding hair
Fat (pot belly, love handles)
Small penis
Or some other perceived deficiency

28. 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

29. Male Body Image Body dissatisfaction is increasingly common in men
Two recent societal changes:
Threatened masculinity
Images of the “roided” body have infiltrated media images and societal ideals
(Pope et al., 2000)

30. 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

31. 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.

32. 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

33. Anabolic Steroids What can be done? Education
Interdiction (law enforcement)
Psychiatric treatment for users
Remove secrecy (steroid users are cheats)

34. 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

35. Treatment and Prevention
What can be done?
Prevention - ecological and activism approaches