- [UNTITLED]
- Dedications
- Foreword
- List of Contributors
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Setting The Scene: Overview
- Appearance and Society
- Embodiment and Appearance
- Cross-Cultural Differences
- Challenges in Healthcare Provision in the United Kingdom
- Challenges in Healthcare Provision in the United States
- Challenges in Healthcare Provision in Resource-Poor Countries
- Biomedical Technologies and Appearance
- Researching Appearance: Models, Theories, and Frameworks
- Setting The Scene: Summary and Synthesis
- Who is Affected by Appearance Concerns, in What Way, and Why?: Overview
- Appearance in Childhood and Adolescence
- Appearance in Adulthood
- Appearance in Later Life
- Gender
- Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Sexualities: Appearance and Body Image
- Culture and Ethnicity
- Influence of the Media
- The Role of the Family
- Influence of Peers
- Adult Psychosocial Adjustment to Visible Differences: Physical and Psychological Predictors of Variation
- Appearance and Exercise
- Understanding The ‘Too Fat’ Body and the ‘Too Thin’ Body: A Critical Psychological Perspective
- Appearance Concerns, Dietary Restriction, and Disordered Eating
- Cosmetic Procedures
- Congenital Conditions
- Trauma—With Special Reference to Burn Injury
- Visible Difference Associated With Disease: Skin Conditions
- When Treatment Affects Appearance
- Who is Affected by Appearance Concerns, in What Way, and Why?: Summary and Synthesis
- What Needs to Change and How Can Change Be Achieved?: Overview
- The Role of the Media
- Persuading the Public: New Face Values For the 21st Century
- Changing Provision in Healthcare Settings in the United Kingdom
- Interventions for Families and Healthcare Professionals
- Regulation of Cosmetic Surgery
- School-Based Interventions to Promote Positive Body Image and The Acceptance of Diversity in Appearance
- Therapeutic Interventions: Evidence of Effectiveness
- Computer-Based Psychosocial Interventions
- Using Appearance Concerns to Promote Health
- What Needs to Change and How Can Change be Achieved?: Summary and Synthesis
- Research Issues: Overview
- Methodological Issues in the Study of Body Image and Appearance
- Using Retrospective Approaches in the Study of Disfigurement
- Mixed Methods: the Best of Both Worlds?
- Methodological Choices: Online Research
- Using Novel Methods in Appearance Research
- Promoting Participation and Involvement in Appearance Research
- Research Issues: Summary and Synthesis
- The Psychology of Appearance: the Future
- Author Index
- Subject Index
Abstract and Keywords
Interest in the applied and academic study of the psychology of appearance has increased rapidly in recent years, and bookshelves have started to fill with a growing number of texts on the subject. However, whereas previous texts tend to take a pathologizing stance with a focus on body dissatisfaction and associated problems, this book offers a more balanced approach, by including research which focuses on psychosocial factors and processes contributing to resilience to appearance concern, by exploring the potential to use people's motivation to enhance appearance as a mechanism to improve health, and by examining the factors that influence positive adjustment to an unusual appearance. It also includes the full spectrum of appearance-related issues rather than focusing solely on ‘body image’ and its concomitant emphasis on issues relating to weight and shape; it includes disfigurement in this spectrum, rather than treating research and practice on visible difference as a sphere of activity entirely separately from the more ‘mainstream’ area of body image. An overview of the five sections of the book is presented.
Keywords: appearance psychology, psychosocial factors, health, positive adjustment, body image, disfigurement
Professor Rumsey is VTCT Professor of Appearance Research at UWE and is Co-Director of the Centre for Appearance Research (CAR). Following the completion of her PhD "Psychological Problems Associated with Facial Disfigurement" in 1983, Nichola has built an international reputation for her research in this field and has attracted funding from a variety of bodies to support research on appearance. Nichola was awarded a personal Chair by UWE in 2002. She was elected President of the Craniofacial Society of Great Britain & Ireland in 2003-4 (the first psychologist to be elected to this position), and Chair of the British Psychological Society's Division of Health Psychology from 2005-6. She was awarded honorary membership of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons in 2009.
Dr Harcourt was appointed Reader in Health Psychology at UWE in 2006, and is Co-Director of the Centre for Appearance Research (CAR). Her interest in the psychological consequences of changes to appearance led her to conduct her PhD research into women's experiences of mastectomy and breast reconstruction after a diagnosis of cancer. Her PhD was supervised by Professor Nichola Rumsey, with whom she has worked closely since the inception of the Centre for Appearance Research (CAR) in 1998. She was Chair of the British Psychological Society's Division of Health Psychology from 2009-10.
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- [UNTITLED]
- Dedications
- Foreword
- List of Contributors
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Setting The Scene: Overview
- Appearance and Society
- Embodiment and Appearance
- Cross-Cultural Differences
- Challenges in Healthcare Provision in the United Kingdom
- Challenges in Healthcare Provision in the United States
- Challenges in Healthcare Provision in Resource-Poor Countries
- Biomedical Technologies and Appearance
- Researching Appearance: Models, Theories, and Frameworks
- Setting The Scene: Summary and Synthesis
- Who is Affected by Appearance Concerns, in What Way, and Why?: Overview
- Appearance in Childhood and Adolescence
- Appearance in Adulthood
- Appearance in Later Life
- Gender
- Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Sexualities: Appearance and Body Image
- Culture and Ethnicity
- Influence of the Media
- The Role of the Family
- Influence of Peers
- Adult Psychosocial Adjustment to Visible Differences: Physical and Psychological Predictors of Variation
- Appearance and Exercise
- Understanding The ‘Too Fat’ Body and the ‘Too Thin’ Body: A Critical Psychological Perspective
- Appearance Concerns, Dietary Restriction, and Disordered Eating
- Cosmetic Procedures
- Congenital Conditions
- Trauma—With Special Reference to Burn Injury
- Visible Difference Associated With Disease: Skin Conditions
- When Treatment Affects Appearance
- Who is Affected by Appearance Concerns, in What Way, and Why?: Summary and Synthesis
- What Needs to Change and How Can Change Be Achieved?: Overview
- The Role of the Media
- Persuading the Public: New Face Values For the 21st Century
- Changing Provision in Healthcare Settings in the United Kingdom
- Interventions for Families and Healthcare Professionals
- Regulation of Cosmetic Surgery
- School-Based Interventions to Promote Positive Body Image and The Acceptance of Diversity in Appearance
- Therapeutic Interventions: Evidence of Effectiveness
- Computer-Based Psychosocial Interventions
- Using Appearance Concerns to Promote Health
- What Needs to Change and How Can Change be Achieved?: Summary and Synthesis
- Research Issues: Overview
- Methodological Issues in the Study of Body Image and Appearance
- Using Retrospective Approaches in the Study of Disfigurement
- Mixed Methods: the Best of Both Worlds?
- Methodological Choices: Online Research
- Using Novel Methods in Appearance Research
- Promoting Participation and Involvement in Appearance Research
- Research Issues: Summary and Synthesis
- The Psychology of Appearance: the Future
- Author Index
- Subject Index
