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2015, Number 2

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Cir Plast 2015; 25 (2)

The impact of aesthetic surgery on psychological well-being: the importance of personal appearance in psychosocial functioning

Nahás HRÁ, Medrano GLA

Language: Spanish
References: 32
Page: 114-122
PDF size: 275.75 Kb.


ABSTRACT

Personal appearance is an important variable for understanding the psychosocial functioning of people. Although there is a popular idea that it is important to get to know what people are like «on the inside», it must also be recognized that many people do not get the opportunity to show what they are like inside if they are rejected due to their personal appearance. At present, due to the development of cosmetic surgery, nearly all the external elements of a person can be modified at will. In this way, features of physical appearance affected by the time passing can be modified and have a positive impact on people’s psychosocial aspects. The objective of this work is to evaluate whether there are differences in the levels of psychological well-being of people who are about to undergo cosmetic treatment and those who have already undergone treatment. A retrospective ex post facto design with a cuasi control group was performed, in which 86 patients participated (men = 15.1%; women = 84.9%, with ages ranging between 15 and 67 years). Psychological well-being was evaluated using the BIEPS scale and afterwards the existence of meaningful significant differences was examined using Student’s t test for independent samples. The results suggest an absence of statistically significant differences between the groups (t = 1.2 p ‹ 0.1). The unequal sizes of the groups should be taken into account for it could affect the potency of the test, as moderate values (d = 0.48) in favor of the group, which received treatment, were found when estimating the size of the effect of the difference using Cohen’s d. New longitudinal research should be carried out to obtain clearer evidence regarding the impact of cosmetic surgery on psychological well-being.


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