Introduction
This literature review will discuss how your appearance and self- perception impact how people respond and treat one another. I chose this topic because it one that is a personal struggle for myself. I often worry more than I should on first impressions and question myself on how my appearance affects it. Upon researching this topic, I focused more on studies that had been done in the past correlating appearance and self-perception.
Do looks really matter? Everyday people are judged on looks alone and it impacts everyday human interactions. A person’s perception of themselves and others does not always paint a clear picture. Appearance is not defined by “beauty” alone, as many qualities make up one’s appearance.
Society has let body image affect them profoundly; to the extent they end up believing the reality portrayed versus the one that actually exists. Self-perception can be a dangerous aspect of ones life. It can lower ones self worth, trust and self-esteem.
At a young age, one starts to develop self-esteem. It is an important part of self-concept that is used in physical, academic and social domains (Baudson, Weber & Freund). The pressure to be perfect seems to be on the rise. Perfect in appearance/physical abilities, education and social relationships with peers, parents and teachers. These things are critical in the development of adolescences. When looking at the media, it is easily defined as being successful, having good looks and popularity. As a whole can be hard to attain all aspects, leading to a feeling of inadequacy (Baudson, Weber & Freund). Ones self esteem can still benefit even if they are not obtaining all three, “one need not be faster than the lion, but only faster than the other person also fleeing from it” is a common joke used (Baudson, Weber & Freund, 2016, p. 7). Gender roles become more prominent in adolescence; as girls tend to be more affected by low appearance and boys ranking higher in self-esteem. Social/emotional development has an increased significance on social abilities. Positive social relationships, for a child are mostly gained from teachers and
Fourth, fifth and six grades are starting to relate their peer evaluations from others from appearance and the importance that carries. There are two types of self-discrepancies: actual appearance in correlation to an ideal appearance (Cobb, Cohen & Houston, 1998). Physical presence is a dominant factor in the social lives of adolescents. From a young age it was discovered that unattractive children are treated and perceived different by their peers, parents and educators. Children who were considered attractive were more liked by their peers and are intellectually and socially competent. A child’s social development was greatly impacted by physical
on a scale from 1 to 3, the importance men gave to good looks rose from 1.50 to 2.11. But for women, the importance of good looks in men rose from 0.94 to 1.67. In other words, women in 1989 considered a man look’s more important than men considered women’s looks 50 years earlier
The way a person see’s oneself and imagines what they look like is one’s body image. One can either have a positive or negative connotation regarding their own body appearance. A positive body image means that most of the time one is comfortable and satisfied about the way they appear. In a sense, that means they feel good about the way they see themselves in mirrors or pictures. Having a negative body image is a common struggle for individuals. This means they are unhappy with their physical appearance and constantly want to change something about him or herself. Negative body image leads to serious mental problems such as anorexia or bulimia. Not only do we have a personal view on our body image, but society also has an input. Society
Growing up children get drilled different moral sayings, one of which is “beauty comes from within” but does it really? The answer is no, we are drawn in by physical appearance then later personality comes into play. When intrigued by someone’s appearance so much that it draws one person to another this is attraction. There are certain aspects off a person appearance that make them attractive to multiple people, things like facial symmetry and body size ratios this is their attractiveness. Upon looking at someone we do not know we are analyzing their facial symmetry or the ratio of their head to shoulders because it’s instinct. It’s a variety of different factors that come together to produce what an individual recognize as attractiveness. This paper will include these factors of attractiveness from a psychological stance, three different articles will be examined and brought together to assist in understanding attractiveness.
How a person perceives their body is influenced by what it looks like to them and what it looks like to others. Our society teaches us through media and social pressure that body image is important. Feeling attractive is an important part of self worth and for many, feeling attractive means matching a certain ideal appearance. Most of us will never be able to look like this ideal, but the message we get is that we risk social failure if we do not try hard enough. When we believe this message we may feel incompetent and depressed and have low self-esteem because we cant meet impossible standards of appearance.
After reviewing both studies it can be concluded that an individual’s self-esteem changes based on their relationship status, ethnicity, personality characteristics and a possible effect on gender. Individuals that have high self-esteem are usually individuals that are outgoing, energetic and easy going. Those individuals have a lot of friends and are sociable. Adolescence self –esteem can be based on how popular they are in school those adolescences that are popular will have a higher self-esteem opposed to the adolescence that are more reserved, and that do not have many friends. Individual’s self- esteem can change during their twenties and sometimes into their thirties and beyond.
Don’t judge a book by its cover. Meeting someone for the first time is much different than knowing them for a while. Firstly, people tend to notice appearance before all other characteristics even become a thought. Today, appearance plays a major role in the way people perceive us. One’s image, nowadays, is becoming increasingly more important to others, rather than personality or intelligence. This may be the case because modern society is greatly influenced by one’s beauty. Style and facial structure are the first things a majority of people take note upon when encountering others. This “silent judgement” of others becomes a main factor into why people, especially women, put so much thought into their
In our society, appearance and its importance might not look like a problem because of how much it is present in our lives and how it has been presented to us but it is important because we face problems like bullying at every level from child to adult and lower self-esteem that are highly correlated to suicide. The problems that we face today related to appearances are important so this topic deserve attention. Because it affects children, parents, models, teenagers and everybody, we s...
Research in psychology today seems to be drawn towards particular fields of interest especially when it comes to understanding human behavior. One of the most common research topics for social psychology is body image and the perceptions that are related to age groups, genders, and ethnicities. Young people today are pressured by society to make physical appearance a dominant factor in their everyday lives, and the pressure is found not only through media influence but friends and family as well (Pavica, 2010). These pressures can affect many different aspects of a person’s life and significantly influence their actions. The aspects affected by body image can include popularity among peers, social comfort, and the attitudes an individual comes to commit to behavior (Lewis & Rosenblum, 1999).
Physical appearance is often the first characteristic seen in others that induces judgment, since it is prevalently, outwardly displa...
Our physical appearance counts all the time. It reflects who we are, how we carry ourselves, and how we represent the company we work for. All employers look for someone with a favorable appearance that sets a person to be competent, professional, and confident that will make an impact to their company. Either way we are judged by how we physically appear. Good appearance makes a person stand out among others especially when applying for a job. Besides having all the skills needed for the job, professional appearance helps a person to be noticed and recognized by employers. Physical appearance is also a factor of how a person feels about himself. Good appearance boosts self-confidence. It attracts positive energy which helps a person express oneself and makes others pay more attention to you.
Appearances are much more than how something simply looks. An appearance is how something is viewed in various facets, including the physical, intellectual, and emotional traits of the given person. There are also different points of view when discussing appearances. There are the appearances we give ourselves, and the appearances we give to others. Even though these appearances define who we are to the naked eye, they are almost never the complete truth. People characterize us based on what they see, and not necessarily who we actually are. This false sense of truth masks reality, and deceives the beholder.
Body image is the mental image of one 's own body. Body image is very important because the majority of people think about their appearance and how they look all day long. Many people today have a very poor body image. The causes of poor body image include: body size, bullying, media, low self-esteem, depression, and even gender. Body image also has some very unhealthy effects on men and women. Body image in our world today is at an all-time low, but there are many ways to help improve it. The most important ways are to focus on the good and positive talents he or she has and to not compare his or her body to another individual’s body.
Good physical appearance helps in building up flexible relationships. For example women who take care of their physical appearance manage to have a better relatio...
Appearance matters much more than most people would like to admit. It follows us day to day and it even helps us during important life interactions. The stereotype of “What is beautiful is good” is perceived as attractive people do good things and are considered to be socially desirable. Physically attractive people get showed more attention and are more positively viewed than unattractive people. It’s hard to figure out why exactly that is, though. Just because one person is more attractive to look at doesn’t make them any less interesting to talk to or any more fun to hang out with. It’s all in the way that attractive people are perceived. People who are considered to be physically attractive have many more advantages in life than other people who are not. It’s not always fair but, unfortunately, it’s how us human beings think and act everyday.
How many times have we heard or said the clique “don’t judge a book by it’s cover,” yet we focus so much of our attention on our physically appearance. Everyday we encounter images in the media that make us believe we have to look a certain way. Physical beauty is portrayed as important and essential in order to find love and acceptance. Although physical beauty is moderately important, it is less than inner beauty for it diminishes with age.