The Pattern of Appearance Schema in Patients with Dermatological Disorder

There has been a stigma attached to diseases of the skin for centuries. A healthy normal skin is essential for a person’s physical and mental well-being and sense of self –confidence. It has been estimated that approximately one third of the patients presenting with the dermatological disorders have some psychological co-morbidity (Rosenberg, 1960). Literature has shown that patients with vitiligo and acne are mostly affected by their psychosocial wellbeing, whereas psoriasis and atopic dermatitis patients are affected by both physical and psychosocial well-being. Self-evaluative salience reflects the importance of appearance to one’s sense of self-worth. A person who is self-evaluative define or measure themselves and their self- worth by their physical appearance and it deem influential in their social and emotional experiences. The present study aimed to evaluate any difference between appearance schema self-evaluative salience among the patients of psoriasis, acne, vitiligo and their controlled counterparts. Total 200 samples, 50 patients (Mean age = 32.8 years, SD= 3.97 years) for each group were chosen following purposive sampling technique from Department of Dermatology, R. G. Kar Medical College, Kolkata, India. The Appearance Schemas Inventory-Revised (ASI-R) was used to measure evaluation of appearance schema of the participants. Results indicate a significantly higher salience of self-evaluative appearance schema in patients with acne, followed by patients with psoriasis, vitiligo and their controlled counterparts. The findings indicate that the control group outperforms their clinical counterparts significantly in self evaluative appearance schema measure. The effect size measure indicates a small impact of dermatological disorder on self-evaluative appearance schema, indicating though prevails the stigma of dermatological disorders in our society; the patients acquire effective coping strategies to boost their self esteem. Their body image is not primarily guided by evaluation of their appearances. To support this view, it is found that though among these three diseases social stigma is associated more with vitiligo, but the patients with acne have a higher self-evaluative appearance schema. The pattern of the effects of dermatological disorder on self evaluative appearance schema is discussed

Cross-gender influence: The effect of perceived male preference on female body image and self-esteem in a young adult group

The aim of the present study was to explore the potential relationship between affect related to female perception of male preference for the female thin ideal (“Sensitivity to Male Preference”) and female body image and self-esteem. Ninety-three, heterosexual, female undergraduate students (M = 19.78, SD = 2.66) completed a series of questionnaires which tapped Body Image Dissatisfaction, Body Image Discrepancy, Appearance Schema and Self-Worth. The “Female Perception of Male Preference Questionnaire” (devised specifically for the purpose of the present study) assessed Sensitivity to Male Preference. Results indicated that females who expressed greater negative affect in relation to their perception of male preference for the female thin ideal also showed higher levels of body image dissatisfaction, appearance schema, discrepancy (between their perceived current and ideal figures), and lower levels of self-worth. Findings suggest that female perception of male preference may be an important variable when considering factors that influence female body image and self-esteem, and thus warrant further attention in research.