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Ryan Dew

Mrs. Strehle

Eng. Comp. 1201

July 16, 2019

Research Paper Rough Draft

Have you ever thought about your physical attributes? If so, it is okay because many

people in the world have had thoughts about how they look, how much they weigh, their skin

tone, their fitness, their height, and even how their voice sounds. These thoughts show

themselves as people either wanting to be healthy or as people wanting to be perfect. This does

not mean that all people who strive to be perfect are not healthy, but it can be a start down a road

to many unhealthy choices and situations regarding personal body image. These thoughts are not

always bad, but when they are, they can cause some major damage. There are a lot of people that

are unaware of this because they do not know about body image in general. The fact that a

negative body image can cause problems is common knowledge, but many people are ignorant to

how severe it can become. This can cause people to realize the problem after it is too late. When

it is realized too late it becomes worse, causing all sorts of health issues. These issues can occur

to people of any demographic, but they usually will occur in teenagers. This also happens to be

the age group that has the most severe cases. Severe cases are when people go to extreme

measures to be perfect, but many fail to realize that there is no such thing. They develop eating

disorders, take weight loss and control pills, and possibly have plastic surgery. If they do not

accomplish their goals they might go into depression. This does not mean that other age groups

do not have these issues, it just means that teenagers have the most issues with their body image.
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To avoid these issues people must know what the causes of a negative body image are, how to

recognize a negative body image, how to treat and or remove a negative body image, and how to

create a positive body image.

Due to current technology we have access to near unlimited information, so any lack of

information would seem both weird and unlikely. Even though the amount of information is

available is ridiculously extensive, not very many people use it to their advantage. This causes

people to either not know things or to trust false information. Something that many people do

these things to and refuse to research is body image. So, because of this most people only know

the basics of what it is but not in depth. Body image can be very complicated and very confusing

because people try to hide how they feel about their bodies. Body image is not a part of the mind

that does its own thing. It is affected and effects other parts of the mind. Other parts that are

affiliated with body image are mental wellness and self-esteem. Body image and mental wellness

are just parts of self-esteem. Body image is how someone sees them self in a physical well-being.

Mental wellness is similar in the way that it is how someone sees them self, but instead of in a

physical manner it is in a mental manner. Self-esteem is how someone perceives them self as a

whole person, both mentally and physically.

Body image is a general overview of how someone regards them self in a physical way.

This is very commonly known but there is much more to body image than just how someone

sees their own body. There are different types of body image, a negative one and a positive one.

This is very straightforward in what these are. A negative body image is when someone looks at

themselves and is not happy with what they see. This does not mean that problems will arise

form this feeling of unhappiness but they can. A positive body image is when someone sees their

body as acceptable not only to themselves but to others. This means that they are happy with
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themselves but they are not complacent with how they look. Having a negative body image can

keep someone from seeing the good in what they have. People with a negative body image

usually will have a negative outlook on life and will be pessimistic about most things. The

opposite is true for those with a positive body image. How someone sees themselves in a

physical way will affect how healthy their self-esteem is.

It would not be wrong to say that body image plays a ginormous part in self-esteem.

However, body image is not the only part of a person’s self-esteem, mental wellness also plays a

huge part in determining how healthy their self-esteem is. Mental wellness is not how someone

sees themselves in a mental manner of speaking, but how they generally feel about themselves

and their surroundings. This is usually displayed through a general mood that is shown actions

and words that interact with themselves and said surroundings. Mental wellness is very fragile as

the smallest interaction can change someone’s mood which can affect their general mood. This

forces many people to have to be cautious with their interactions, to avoid having to be cautious

people run to social media where advertisement and entertainment have the greatest influence.

Not only does body image and mental wellness affect self-esteem, but they also affect

each other. If a person has bad mental health, it could cause them to have a hard time either

keeping or creating a positive body image. If a person struggles to have a positive body image, it

would be hard for them to have good mental health. This causes issues because they affect each

other it will go back and forth until it has completely destroyed the self-esteem or until

something changes one of the factors. However, because they are connected the same goes for

when one is positive, it will go back and forth until something stops its progress. So, depending

on where someone wants to start will determine how they will go about their life.
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The lack of this knowledge about body image has had the effect of restricting information

of the effects of body image from people. Most people probably do not care or do not understand

or even do not want to know about the effects of body image. This ignorance or arrogance can

cause many problems because the effects of body image are very crucial. Many of these effects

can cause both major mental and physical health problems or help strengthen a person’s mental

and physical constitution. The fact that not many people know this can be a problem.

The issue is if the effects of body image are negative in a certain case then the effects

would only get worse due to the ignorance of them. When they get worse, it becomes harder to

treat. These effects and health issues can be as small as minor weight changes to as big as self-

harm or even suicide. Having a negative body image can also cause people to make unhealthy

choices and get them into bad situations. These unhealthy choices can be things like taking

weight loss and control pills and other decisions that make major physical changes to their

bodies. The choices can also open doors to even more bad choices, like if someone thought that

if they drank alcohol or smoked marijuana others would see them differently. Even if that is

accomplished, they can become addicted and want to have a bigger and better high so they go to

hard drugs and heavy liquor. The easiest way to stop these things from happening because of a

negative body image is to try to have and keep a positive one. The best way of doing this is by

learning as much about having a healthy body image and how to treat and prevent a negative

one.

The effects of having a positive body image can be very beneficial depending on what

someone sees value in. The effects will cause someone’s entire mood to change to a more

lighthearted and happier vibe. This change in mood will change how others perceive someone as

a whole. In example someone who sees major value in materialistic things like money and
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property the effects will be beneficial, but not on a personal level. However, for someone who

appreciates the more self-valuable things in life like friends and family, the effects will show

others that they are happy and true friends and family will be happy for them.

If more people knew about the effects of having a negative body image versus the effects

of having a positive one, they would want to be able have and maintain a positive body image. If

many more people had a positive body image it would be easier for them to communicate and

cooperate without any issues. This is because people would be more optimistic about life. The

fact that people do not know this information hinders people’s ability to be able to have and

maintain a positive body image. This causes problems because if people do not have a positive

body image, they have a negative one and the effects of that are nowhere near good.

Something else that is widely unknown is what demographics do these issues occur to.

These issues can happen to anyone from any race, age, or socioeconomic status. However, these

issues usually appear in teens as an age group, even though some specific demographics have it

worse than others. This should be known by parents with teenage children or will soon have

teenage children. However, this does not mean that only parents should know this information, if

everyone knew this, they could help keep the current youth healthy so they can prosper and do

the same for the next generation. However, if these issues are resolved, it does not mean that they

will not come back. In the event that this happens the public must know how to fix it.

The fact that these issues are mostly occurring in teens makes sense, because of the major

changes that they are going through. This is also because teenagers are the group with the largest

amount of social media users. These facts show that teenagers do not have it easy, they struggle

with these issues every day. Research was made in the U.S. and around 50% of girls at age 13

were not happy with their bodies and almost 80% of girls of the age of 17 thought the same. The
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same study had also found that over 25% of adolescent boys were worried about fitness.

However, the issues do not stop at the teenagers, a study made in Australia shows that about 15%

of men worry too much about their body weight and shape. Another study conducted in a French

university showed that over 85% of the men were not happy with their bodies. Research made in

Switzerland on 1000 adult women showed that even though 73% met the criteria to be in the

normal weight range, over 70% want to lose weight. These statistics show how many and how

much body image affects people.

The issue is not body image itself, but the near total ignorance of the fact that it can cause

problems and those problems themselves. Many people do not realize the threat that having a

negative body image really is. This is because people do not really want to see the bad side of

something because it is usually ugly or disgusting. To solve the issue of ignorance about the

problems caused by a negative body image the public must know more about these problems.

These problems can range from thoughts of self-harm to eating disorder, and many of these

problems are connected to one another. Knowing that a lot are connected would make it easier to

discover a negative body image sooner and also make it easier to help the person in need. Since

many people do not know this information, it will cause the problems to become worse and

worse. However, for these problems to be fixed there are things that must be done to do so.

To help prevent these problems from getting worse is imperative that people know the

causes of a negative body image, how to recognize a negative body image, how to treat a

negative body image and how to create a positive body image. The causes can be obvious or they

can be something very complex. The obvious causes are found in advertisement and

entertainment. Many companies, no matter what service is provided, use the idea that sex sells.

This may be an effective way of marketing, but only because it tells people that if they buy the
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product it will benefit them in certain ways. Entertainment companies like film studios try to use

actors with a sex appeal to draw patrons in. Some of the more complex cause can be things like

discrimination or body shaming. Discrimination can be a complex cause of a negative body

image because it can cause someone to think that they do not have the right skin color, that they

do not have the right deity or that do not have enough money or other materialistic things. Body

shaming can also be a complex cause because it can make someone feel as if they are too skinny,

too fat, too short, too tall, or too ugly.

There is a progression of events when someone has a negative body image, which makes

recognizing a negative body image difficult. First comes the hints, hints that someone has a

negative body image can be something like choice of verbal language or body language. The

difficulty of this is that it changes from person to person depending on what type of person they

are, if one person is a very outgoing person, they might just say what is wrong in a manner that

tries to hide their feelings like through humor. If another person is somewhat of an introvert, they

might just give a certain physical reaction like a facial expression.

Then they try to change themselves by making major physical changes as if they are

tearing something down to build something new. When someone has a negative body image,

they want to change how they look so that they may improve them self. If they feel as if they are

too skinny, they will try to gain as much weight as they can as fast as they can. If the feel like

they are too heavy they will try to lose as much as possible as soon as possible. When they feel

as if they do not look good enough, they will try to revamp their style or have some sort of

surgery either weight changing or plastic. If these changes go unnoticed, they will lead into the

final stage of the progression. The final stage is when all the changes they have made will have

their consequences. The person will continually be easily dissatisfied of them self along with
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many physical drawbacks like lack of strength and stamina. When they are continually

dissatisfied, they will continue to make changes to their body and eventually destroy their body.

There are a few different ways to treat or to get rid of a negative body image. One of the

easier ways is through positive reinforcement, compliments and encouragement are a few

examples of positive reinforcement. However, the person in need can probably tell when

compliments are not genuine, so it is very important that the compliments are not just lies. To

encourage someone just show that they are believed in. A second way is to set small goals one

after another as confidence boosting accomplishments. Positive reinforcement gives them a start

to having self-confidence, pair that with confidence boosting accomplishments and they are on

their way to having a positive body image. The more self-confidence someone gains, the easier it

will be to gain more, kind of like an exponential growth pattern. As it accumulates more and

more the faster it can acquire even more.

Creating a positive body image can be easy and very beneficial, but only if done properly.

Continuing to build upon self-confidence is not a bad idea, but it will not be enough. Doing so

will have a positive effect but self-confidence is way easier to lose than it is to gain. Sure,

gaining it will get easier as more is accumulated but once that momentum is stopped all progress

seems to be lost. To avoid this from happening it is essential to use different methods of creating

a positive body image. Along with gaining more self-confidence people should also learn to

accept themselves. However, this does not mean to become complacent, but to be happy with the

progress made so far. This also means that people should find something about themselves to be

happy about and to keep working to make sur that they do not lose what has made them happy.

Because of the fact that people do not take advantage of the availability of knowledge

and information during this era of technology, there are some people who are unaware of what
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body image really is. Body image is not something that you can leave alone, it takes great effort

to change it for the better. However, even though it is not easy to make it better, it is very easy to

make it worse. Making it worse can cause major mental and physical health issues. Among these

issues are major weight change, self-harm, and depression. The real danger lies in the fact that if

these issues go unnoticed, they will only get worse. And they will not stop until either someone

does something about or until they kill the person with the issues. These are the effects of having

a negative body image, doesn’t seem fun does it? Well it is probably not, but the effects of

having a positive body image can be beneficial. Depending on whether someone prefers

materialistic things or whether they prefer idealistic things. If they are materialistic the effects

won’t be as effective as they would be on an idealistic. To stop and or prevent the effects of

having a negative body image is a process. There are four steps to this process; knowing the

causes, recognizing a negative body image, treating a negative body image, and creating and

maintaining a positive body image. The causes are found in advertisement, entertainment, and

social interaction. Recognizing a negative body image is difficult due to the fact that there are

multiple stages, and usually bad things don’t start happening until the final stage. Treating a

negative body image can be easy, but only if properly executed. To treat a negative body image,

you must give genuine compliments and encourage to build self-confidence. To create a positive

body image, all that you have to do is continue to compliment and encourage but also add setting

small goals.

Works Cited
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D’Arcy Lyness, Teens Health from Nemours, Nemours Foundation, Last Reviewed August 2018,

https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/body-image.html, Access 7/3/19

familydoctor.org Editorial Staff, American Academy of Family Physicians, Updated 4/2/19,

https://familydoctor.org/building-your-childs-body-image-and-self-esteem/, Access 7/3/19

Heather R. Gallivan, LP Park Nicollet Melrose Center, https://www.macmh.org/wp-

content/uploads/2014/05/18_Gallivan_Teens-social-media-body-image-presentation-H-Gallivan-

Spring-2014.pdf, Access 7/3/19

Lindsey Piercy, University of Kentucky, Published 5/30/18, https://phys.org/news/2018-05-

reveals-selfies-teenage-body-image.html, Access 7/3/19

Mayo Clinic Staff, Mayo Clinic, Published 9/15/18, https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-

lifestyle/tween-and-teen-health/in-depth/healthy-body-image/art-20044668, Access 7/3/19

Raising Children, Australian Government Department of Social Services, Last Reviewed

6/12/19, https://raisingchildren.net.au/pre-teens/healthy-lifestyle/body-image/body-image-teens,

Access 7/3/19
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Young Women’s Health, Center for Young Women’s Health, Updated 1/29/19,

https://youngwomenshealth.org/2012/05/30/self-esteem/, Access 7/3/1