Relationship between Body image, Loneliness and Perceived Social Support among Male and Female College Students

INTRODUCTION

BODY IMAGE

Body image is not a simple perceptual phenomenon and that, even when an individual's perception of their own body is measured, the judgments the individual makes are highly influenced by cognitive, affective, attitudinal, and other variables. A general schematic model concerned with identifying the nature of body image is presented. This model suggests that body image may be conceived as a loose mental representation of the body that is influenced by at least 7 sets of factors. These sets are the history of sensory input to body experience, the history of weight change/fluctuation, cultural and social norms, individual attitudes to weight and shape, cognitive and affective variables, individual psychopathology, and biological variables.

Body image refers to a person’s emotional attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of their own body. Experts describe it as a complex emotional experience. As Body image relates to what a person believes about their appearance, how they feel about their body, height, weight, and shape and how they sense and control their body as they move.
A person’s body image will range from positive, or satisfaction with their body, to negative, or dissatisfaction with their body. A negative body image can contribute to body dimorphic disorder (BDD), eating disorders, and other conditions. Basically body image is when a person has a positive body image, they understand that their sense of self-worth does not depend on their appearance. In clinical psychology, body image is a construct that is implicated in both eating disorders and body dimorphic disorder. Many individuals with these conditions experience an inability to objectively perceive their body’s appearance, size, or shape. Body dissatisfaction, or a negative evolution of the size, shape or appearance of one’s body.

Having a positive body image includes so many certain factors like; accepting and appreciating the whole of one’s body, including how it looks and what it can do, having a broad concept of beauty, having a body image that is stable, having inner positivity.
Negative body image generally means when a person with a negative body image feels dissatisfied with their body and their appearance. The person may compare themselves with others and feel inadequate when doing so, feel ashamed or embarrassed, lack confidence, feel uncomfortable or awkward in their body, see parts of their body, such as their nose, in a distorted way

In some cases, having a negative body image can lead to the development of mental health issues, such as depression.
Body Image Dissatisfaction:
Body Image Dissatisfaction is the negative subjective evaluation of one’s body as it relates to body size, shape, muscularity or muscle tone, weight, and fitness. Body dissatisfaction is considered to be an important negative affective factor related to body image. Typically, dissatisfaction involves a perceived discrepancy between one’s current body and one’s ideal body that fosters negative emotions and discontent. Body dissatisfaction has been viewed as normative and has received growing research attention during recent decades. The surge in popularity is due in part to the increasing prevalence worldwide, as well as implications for the development of a range of maladaptive behaviors and emotions, such as decreases in self-esteem, self-regulations, physical activity, happiness, optimism, pride, and increases in disordered eating, depressive symptoms, and body-related shame and guilt.

Pressure for women to be thin and fir, and for men to be lean and muscular, can originated from numerous sources, including the media, parents, siblings, partners, and peers. These sources may provide direct or indirect pressures to attain the desirable physique. Sociocultural pressures to attain a socially desirable physique are considered important risk factors for body dissatisfaction. In particular, media awareness, knowledge of ideals as presented by the media, or actions taken or comments made by family, partners, and friends to encourage a socially desirable physique are important facets of the sociocultural pressure to conform to ideal body

Perceived social support

Perceived social support refers to how individuals perceive friends, family members and others as sources available to provide material, psychological and overall support during times of need. Perceived social support has been consistently related to well-being, as the perceived levels of support, love, and care can provide positive experiences ( Siedlecki et al., 2014).
Perceived social support is support that an individual believes to be available, regardless of whether the support is actually available. Perception of support may be a function of the degree of intimacy and affection within one’s relationships. Compared with actual support, perceived support may be just as important (and perhaps more so) in improved health and well-being. Actually, perceived support appears to correlate more closely with health status than does actual social support. Similar to actual support, perceived support may heighten the belief that one is able to cope with current situations, may decrease emotional and physiological responses to events, and may positively alter one’s behavior.

Research consistently finds that people who perceive their family and friends as supportive report greater happiness than those who doubt their social network’s supportiveness. The link between perceived support and happiness reflects both the trait-like personality of support recipients, as well as social interaction. Within social interaction, the effects of objectively supportive providers appear to be surprisingly small. Instead, relational influences appear to be the single largest determinant. Relational influences occur when a recipient sees a provider as more supportive than one would expect given: (1) the recipient’s tendency to see providers as supportive and 2) the provider’s objective supportiveness.
Loneliness

Loneliness is defined as the distressing experience that occurs when one’s social relationships are perceived to be less in quantity, and especially in quality, than desired. Being alone and experiencing loneliness are not the same thing. People can be alone without feeling lonely and can feel lonely even when with other people. Loneliness is associated with depressive symptoms, poor social support, neuroticism, and introversion, but loneliness is not synonymous with these psychological characteristics. Loneliness is typically thought of as a stable trait, with individual differences in the set-point for feelings of loneliness about which people fluctuate depending on the specific circumstances in which they find themselves. Loneliness can be caused by so many different Contributing factors which include situational variables, such as physical isolation, moving to a new location, and divorce. The death of someone significant in a person's life can also lead to feelings of loneliness. Additionally, it can be a symptom of a psychological disorder such as depression.
Loneliness, distressing experience that occurs when a person’s social relationships are perceived by that person to be less in quantity, and especially in quality, than desired. The experience of loneliness is highly subjective; an individual can be alone without feeling lonely and can feel lonely even when with other people. Psychologists generally consider loneliness to be a stable trait, meaning that individuals have different set-points for feeling loneliness, and they fluctuate around these set-points depending on the circumstances in their lives. Individuals’ levels of loneliness typically remain more or less constant during adulthood until 75 to 80 years of age, when they increase somewhat. Prolonged loneliness is associated with depression, poor social support, neuroticism, and introversion. Studies have shown that loneliness puts people at risk for physical disease and that it may contribute to a shortened life span.