Factors Influencing

Abstract

Throughout history, humans have regarded the beauty of the human body as important. Body image is a person's perception of the aesthetics or sexual attractiveness of their own body. Body Image reflects how one feels his/her body is esthetically and how attractive he/she perceives himself/herself. In general, men tend not to see any flaws or faults in their physical appearances, while women are quicker to pick out flaws on their bodies, that is, women are hardly ever satisfied with their body shape and sizes. An individual’s concept of his or her own body may be influenced by peers & parents, self-esteem, social pressure, TV, movies, news-papers, magazines and on the internet. This paper presents a global review of research done on body image and the probable factors influencing it. The objective of the review is to understand the concept of body image in the developed and developing countries. It reveals that different studies on the body image still require establishing relation of some other influencing factors with body image. The review also reveals that a little emphasis has been given to the study on media influence on college girls’ body image.