Body image disturbance and sociocultural pressures

Pages: 963-967
Aradhana Sharma (Department of Psychology, D.A.V. College Panjab University, Chandigarh)
Dhara Khokhar (Department of Psychology, Panjab University, Chandigarh)

Ones perception about his or her appearance, the feelings and thoughts associated with it, forms one’s body image. Body image disturbance or negative body image entails body image dissatisfaction. It is linked with poor psychological and social adjustment. Sociocultural pressures towards appearance are studied to be associated with body image. The current study investigated the relation between Body image disturbance and sociocultural pressures towards appearance and any gender differences in them. 100 males and 100 females from the age range of 18-22 from the urban areas (middle high socio-economic status) were taken as the sample. It was seen that there was a positive correlation between Body image disturbance and sociocultural pressures towards appearance. Females were high on body image disturbance and thin internalization whereas, males were high on muscular internalization and pressure from family.