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Body Image

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Body image report. Mirror, mirror - A summary of research findings on body image. Motives: why we look in the mirror We are all more obsessed with our appearance than we like to admit. But this is not an indication of 'vanity'. Vanity means conceit, excessive pride in one's appearance. Concern about appearance is quite normal and understandable. Attractive people have distinct advantages in our society. Studies show: Attractive children are more popular, both with classmates and teachers. It is not surprising that physical attractiveness is of overwhelming importance to us. Concern with appearance is not just an aberration of Modern Western culture. But although we resemble our ancestors and other cultures in our concern about appearance, there is a difference in degree of concern. How? Thanks to the media, we have become accustomed to extremely rigid and uniform standards of beauty.TV, billboards, magazines etc mean that we see 'beautiful people' all the time, more often than members of our own family, making exceptional good looks seem real, normal and attainable.

How women REALLY see their bodies: We asked four women to pick their shape from a chart of body types used by psychologists with fascinating results... Silhouette test is used to assess how unhappy a woman is with her shapeWomen pick the size they think they are and the size they'd like to beDifference between the two numbers is their body dissatisfaction score With computer trickery, we've shown what they see compared with reality By Tanith Carey Published: 22:35 GMT, 1 May 2013 | Updated: 23:25 GMT, 1 May 2013 Different body types Many of us, no matter how beautiful we are, have nagging doubts about our figures. But how deep do these insecurities lie, and how much do they affect our day-to-day lives? To find out, we asked four women to take a psychologist-approved test. They were asked to identify the size they think they are from a range of body shapes, ranked from one to nine (with one being very underweight and nine very overweight).

Next, they were asked to pick the size they’d like to be. ‘Basically, the bigger the gap between the shape a woman thinks she is and the shape she’d like to be, the more upset she is about her body. Dissatisfaction with bodies. Dissatisfaction with Our Bodies and Eating Disorders American women are living in a time when ultra-thin bodies are in. Flipping through the pages of a woman's magazin, there are entire sections devoted to diet and exercise tips as well as pictures of extremely thin models. This section will be devoted to how our culture, through images of the media, portrays an unhealthy body standard for American women to live up to. As the full-figured female body was replaced by the ultra-thin, yet toned body, our country saw an increase in eating disorders and a preoccupation with obesity.

Some women internalize our society's thinness ideal and when they can not measure up to the ridiculous standards set for the female body, they often develop a negative body image. Up until the late 1800's, the rubenesque woman dominated the ideal female body image. This painting, The Three Graces, done by artist Pieter Pauwel Rubens in 1639, shows how the female image ideal was rubenesque. Anorexia Bulimia nervosa. Body Image | Brown University Health Education. What is body image? Body image includes: How we perceive our bodies visually How we feel about our physical appearance; how we think and talk to ourselves about our bodies Our sense of how other people view our bodies Our sense of our bodies in physical space (kinesthetic perception) Our level of connectedness to our bodies Why is body image so important? Body image is a widespread preoccupation. Encouragement to focus on appearance is at an all-time high in this culture, and with it comes the potential for a significant increase in negative body image.

Poor body image increases the risk for extreme weight/body control behaviors. Back to top Which factors affect body image? Body image, whether negative or positive, is shaped by a variety of factors: Many of these factors are controllable; some of them are not. Positive and Negative Body Image We have a positive body image when we have a realistic perception of our bodies AND we enjoy them just as they are. DOC828.