Body image

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Body image is a person's perception of his or her physical appearance. A person with a poor body image will perceive his or her own body as being unattractive or even repulsive to others, while a person with a good body image will see him or herself as attractive to others, or will at least accept his or her body in its current form. Perceived body image is not necessarily related to any objective measure or the average opinion of other people; a person who has a poor body image may be rated as beautiful by others, and a person with a good body image may be rated as unattractive by others. Body image is most strongly affected during puberty.

1 Research: measuring body image
2 Relationship to psychological disorders
3 Information on specific minority populations
4 Disambiguation issue
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Research: measuring body image

Body image is often measured by asking the subject to rate his or her current and ideal body shape using a series of depictions. The difference between these two values is the amount of body dissatisfaction.

Monteath and McCabe found that 44% ^[1] of women express negative feelings about both individual body parts and their bodies as a whole.

Psychology Today found that 56% of the women and about 40% of the men who responded to their survey in 1997 were dissatisfied with their overall appearance ^[2]

The desire to lose weight is highly correlated with poor body image, which typically means that more women have a poor body image than men. Susan Kashubeck-West, Laurie B. Mintz, and Ingrid Weigold report that the gender differences in body image disappear when we consider only those people who are trying to lose weight^[3].

Our life orientation also shapes how we feel about our bodies. Women who call themselves feminists view their body more positively than those who do not consider themselves feminists, even though there was no difference between the groups in average body weight.^[4] Exercise habits, sexual experiences, and mood also influence the feelings people have towards their bodies.

[edit] Relationship to psychological disorders

Concerns with body image have been linked to a decrease in self esteem and an increase in dieting or eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and binge eating disorder. Great body dissatisfaction can also lead to Body dysmorphic disorders, which cover a range of personality disorders where a person is dissatisfied with one's own body.

Excessive preoccupation and an unusual fixation on positive body image is sometimes associated with narcissism and vanity.

[edit] Information on specific minority populations

Most empirical research and statistical data are oriented and tailored toward Caucasian audiences ^{[citation needed]}, and some studies have been designed to exclude racially diverse populations ^{[citation needed]}. Nonetheless, no race or socioeconomic group should be considered immune to eating disorders.

[edit] Disambiguation issue

There is another technical use of the term "body image", which refers to the association of areas of the motor cortex with the voluntrary movement of body members. This is often shown as the motor homunculus depicted by Dr. Wilder Penfield. This image distorts the body according to the areas of the motor cortex associatied with its movements. For example, it shows the thumb as larger than the thigh because the thumb's movement is much more complex than that of the thigh and thus occupies a larger area of the cortex. The motor homunculus plays a central role in proprioception. This body image is involved in phantom limb phenomena as well as their opposite, as in the case of brain damage resulting in the disappearance of parts of the body from conscious perception.

[edit] References

Debra L. Gimlin, Body Work: Beauty and Self Image in American Culture (University of California Press, 2002) ISBN:0520228561 Grogan, Sarah. Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women, and Children.