پذیرش عمل جراحی زیبایی: شخصیت و پیش بینی تفاوت های فردی

This study examined the association between several attitudinal constructs related to acceptance of cosmetic surgery, and participant demographics, personality, and individual difference variables. A sample of 332 university students completed a battery of scales comprising the Acceptance of Cosmetic Surgery Scale (ACSS) and measures of the Big Five personality factors, self-esteem, conformity, self-assessed attractiveness, and demographics. Multiple regressions showed that the predictor variables explained a large proportion of the variance in ACSS factors (Adj. R2 ranging between .31 and .60). In addition, structural equation modelling revealed that distal factors (sex and age) were generally associated with acceptance of cosmetic surgery through the mediate influence of more proximate variables (in the first instance, the Big Five personality factors, followed by self-esteem and conformity, and finally self-assessed attractiveness). These results allow for the presentation of a preliminary model integrating personality and individual differences in predicting acceptance of cosmetic surgery.

Cosmetic surgery refers to a subspecialty that is concerned primarily with the maintenance, restoration, or enhancement of an individual's physical appearance through surgical and medical techniques. In the Western hemisphere, the number of cosmetic surgery procedures has risen dramatically in the past decade (e.g., Davis, 2003 and Rohrich, 2003). In the United States, for instance, 11.7 million cosmetic procedures were performed in 2007, with the vast majority being minimally invasive procedures (American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 2008). Moreover, Sarwer and Crerand (2008) suggest that these statistics underestimate the actual number of procedures being performed, as they do not cover appearance-enhancing treatments performed by non-plastic surgeons. As discussed by Sarwer and colleagues (Sarwer, Crerand, & Gibbons, 2007; Sarwer & Magee, 2006; Sarwer, Magee, & Crerand, 2003), a number of factors may underscore this increase in the popularity of cosmetic surgery. These include the growing importance of physical appearance in contemporary Western culture (Swami, 2007; Swami & Furnham, 2008), which has served to normalise the pursuit of appearance-enhancing behaviours (Sarwer et al., 2003). Higher disposable incomes among patients, advances in surgical procedures (particularly in terms of safety), and the lower cost of treatments have also served to reduce patient anxiety about cosmetic procedures (Edmonds, 2007). Finally, the past decade has witnessed a dramatic increase in media coverage of cosmetic surgery (see Crockett, Pruzinsky, & Persing, 2007; Sarwer et al., 2003), which has mainstreamed public awareness of such procedures (Tait, 2007). In line with these developments, there has emerged a relatively large body of work examining psychological aspects of cosmetic surgery. In terms of factors affecting the likelihood of having cosmetic surgery, for instance, the available evidence suggests that women report a greater likelihood of willingness to undergo various cosmetic procedures compared with men (Brown, Furnham, Glanville, & Swami, 2007; Swami, Arteche, Chamorro-Premuzic, Furnham, Stieger, Haubner, et al., 2008), which has been explained as a function of the greater sociocultural pressure on women to attain ideals of physical and sexual attractiveness (Swami, 2007; Swami & Furnham, 2008). This research has also shown that lower self-ratings of physical attractiveness predict higher likelihood of having cosmetic surgery (Brown et al., 2007), and that media exposure may mediate the relationship between participant sex and likelihood of having cosmetic surgery (Swami, Arteche, et al., 2008). In terms of attitudinal dispositions towards cosmetic surgery, Sarwer et al. (2005) reported that their sample of college women generally held favourable attitudes toward cosmetic surgery as a means of appearance-enhancement. Henderson-King and Henderson-King (2005), however, have argued that participants may hold beliefs and attitudes that are accepting of cosmetic surgery and yet show little or no interest in actually having cosmetic procedures. In order to assess attitudes beyond likelihood of having cosmetic surgery, therefore, these authors developed the Acceptance of Cosmetic Surgery Scale (ACSS), a 15-item measure that was found to factor into three components: (1) Intrapersonal, which measures attitudes related to the self-oriented benefits of having cosmetic surgery (e.g., increased satisfaction with appearance); (2) Social, which represents social motivations that influence the decision to have cosmetic surgery (e.g., appearing more attractive to one's partner), and; (3) Consider, which measures the likelihood of having cosmetic surgery, taking into account factors that may influence the decision-making process (e.g., pain). In a series of four studies within university settings, Henderson-King and Henderson-King (2005) showed that the ACSS has high internal reliability and test–retest reliability, as well as good divergent and convergent validity. In addition, they reported that women and older participants expressed more positive attitudes on the Intrapersonal subscale and that older participants had more favourable attitudes on the Social subscale. For women, age was found to be a positive predictor of considering cosmetic surgery, but no such relationship was found for men. Other recent work using the ACSS has shown that greater acceptance of cosmetic surgery among college women is associated their body image experiences, with those who are dissatisfied with their appearance or having greater body image disturbance viewing cosmetic surgery more positively (Cash, Goldenberg-Bivens, & Grasso, 2005). Furthermore, Sperry, Thompson, Sarwer, and Cash (in press) reported that viewership of reality cosmetic surgery television shows was significantly related to acceptance of cosmetic surgery, where the latter was measured using total scores from the ACSS. While these studies have begun the task of delineating attitudes towards cosmetic surgery, it is also possible to extend this research by examining individual difference predictors of such attitudes.