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Essay on Is there a Relationship Between Self-esteem and Cosmetic Surgery?
The most common way in which people enhance their appearance is through daily grooming and the use of cosmetic enhancements. Most of us try to stay reasonably clean, keep our hair combed, and wear clothing we think makes us look good in the eyes of our reference group. Of course, among some subgroups, being scroungy is valued, and members of such groups purposefully wear tattered clothing and try to appear unkempt. (I'm reminded of how scruffy many of us looked during the "hippy" era of the late 1960s and early 1970s.) In either case, appearance is used to foster certain kinds of impressions in others' eyes.
Many women regularly use makeup to enhance their appearance. Unfortunately, frequent use of cosmetics can have negative self-presentational consequences. Roughly one third of adolescent girls who regularly use makeup develop facial blemishes caused solely by the cosmetics, a condition known as acne cosmetica (Hatfield, E., & Sprecher, S. 1986). This problem can become cyclical as the make-up that is applied to cover blemishes in fact exacerbates the skin problem. Then the girl uses more makeup to cover up her pimples, and the pimples get worse. And so on and so on. The ironic thing about this is that acne cosmetica is caused solely by the desire to look better.
Of course, some people are not satisfied with how they look no matter what care they take to groom themselves regularly. Over 1.5 million people undergo cosmetic surgery each year in the United States (Kilbourne, J. 1991), representing a substantial increase during the past decade. For example, between 1981 and 1989, face lifts increased from 39,000 to 75,000, rhinoplasty ("nose jobs") from 54,500 to 95,000, and breast augmentation (usually breast enlargement) from 72,000 to 100,000.Although some cosmetic surgery is conducted to repair serious disfigurements resulting from birth, accident, or disease, the vast majority involve elective surgery intended simply.......
