Berdon, Jade

Factors Affecting Physical Growth and Development.

First is Heredity

- it is the passing of physical or mental characteristics genetically

from one generation to another.

- the sex and other physical traits are determined by the

combination of chromosome and genes during fertilization (the
union of the two cells: Egg and Sperm)

Second is Environment

- it refers to the factors to which the individual is exposed after

conception to death which includes learning and experience

With these changes happening, some teens feels like it's out of
their control. This can affect their body-image and self-esteem.

Body-image
- refers to how individuals perceive, think, and feel about their
body and physical appearance.

Many people have concerns about their body image. These

concerns often focus on weight, skin, hair, or the shape or size of
a certain body part.

Appearance is defined as everything about a person that others

can observe such as height, weight, skin color, clothes, and
hairstyle.

Self-esteem on the other hand is a person's overall sense of self

worth or a person's overall evaluation of his or her own worth.
There's a lot of factors that can affect your perception of your
physical self.

The following are, personal factors, social factors and culture.

Botawan, Brylle
A person's view of their physical selves can be affected by how
they view their self-worth, what the society says about them and
the way that the culture they grew up in shaped them to be.

Now let's define the word beauty.

Beauty is a word that we used in our day to day conversation.

What comes into your mind when your hear the word beauty?

When we hear the word beauty, we associate it right away with

beautiful people like Catriona Gray, Taylor Swift, Zayn Malik,
Daniel Padilla and many more.

When we hear the word beauty, we also associate it with nature

and beautiful sceneries like the famous Kawasan Falls in the
South of Cebu and Bantayan Island in the north.

Now there are lots of definitions about beauty, but lets take a
look at how philosphers define or think about beauty.

First is St. Augustine.

St. Augustine asked whether things were beautiful because it

gave delight, or whether it gave delight because it was beautiful.

St Augustine believed that things gave delight because it was

beautiful and because of beauty things became desirable.
We do not say that something is beautiful because it is something
desirable for us but rather it is the other way around. First we
perceive the beauty of the being before we say that it is
delightful.

Burlas, Joy Augustus

Next is Plato.

Plato has connected beauty to love and desire.

It means that if something is beautiful then therefore it is lovable

or desirable.

Next is Aristotle.

He asserted that the chief forms of beauty are order, symmetry,

and definiteness.

According to Aristotle, beauty can also be a characteristic of a

situation.
He said that something is beautiful if it's in order. That is why
there are people who pay attention to order and perfection.

Next is David Hume.

According to him, Beauty is no quality in things themselves; but

rather it exists merely in the mind which contemplates them.

It means that beauty is not a quality of the thing itself but rather
beauty is something that is perceived by the perceiver. Hence
what is beautiful for me may not be beautiful for you.

Or in simple terms it means that we have different definitions of

what is beautiful and what is not.
And it is where the quote that states "Beauty is in the eye of the
beholder" came from.

Cabanero, Alemar John

Next is Francis Hutcheson.

He states that the perception of beauty does not depend on the

external sense of sight which means that beauty is something
beyond what we see.

Sometimes beauty is what we feel. Beauty is what we sense, like

for example we hear music and it's beautiful then we say it's a
beautiful music.

We should not limit the the philosophical definition of beauty to

the physical characteristic of the object.

Beauty can also be used to describe situations, sensations or

feelings.

Those are the philosophical perspectives in understanding beauty.

Now let's take a look at the psychological perspective about

beauty.

Does it pay to be attractive?

Does it pay to groom yourself in an attractive manner?
Does it pay to look good or dress well?

What did Psychology discover about beauty?

According to the research, A person who is perceived as

attractive makes more money than a person of below-average
looks.
Do not generalize this finding in all situation because there are
other factors to consider but in general, psychological research
would say that people who are perceived as attractive make
more money than those who are of below-average looks.

Calunsag, Paulo JR.

Another situation is that in politics, voters who are not actively
engaged in social and political issues choose candidates based on
"looks".

So if some is not into politics or dont know much about politics,

then they will choose someone who is physically attractive.

The message that we would like to perceive here is that try to

present yourself in a manner that will help you advance your
career. Like being presentable in your initial job interview or
becoming more confident about the way you deliver yourself or
simply wearing the right clothes.

But of course we must not only look at the physical

attractiveness of the person but we should assess the other skills
of the individuals.

Now the question is, why does this happen?

Well, It's because we have the psychological phenomenon known

as the Halo Effect.

The Halo Effect Phenomenon happens when we try to evaluate

individuals

It is the tendency of people to rate attractive individuals more

favorably for their personality traits or characteristics compared
to those who are less attractive.
So if someone is physically attractive then you jump to
conclusions that he or she is also smart, skilled and capable.

We are able to jump into conclusion because of physical looks

and not all people are conscious about this that's why it pays to
look presentable and confident.

Sometimes we call it fake it till you make it because it helps.

Canillo, Charles Gadwin

There's also what we call the Horn effect or Devil Effect were we
give low ratings to a person just because of one negative
attribute.

For example is if a person is not a good english speaker then

there's a tendency for you to think that he is not intelligent.

I hope we become more conscious about the way that we

evaluate people because sometimes we jump into conclusions
about the skills of the individual by observing how they look
physically.

Here's a short video explanation about the Halo Effect.

Now lets take a look at another perspective in understanding

beauty in Culture and Cultural Psychology.

Culture affects what we label as beautiful.

Cultural traditions can either be a positive or negative influence

on body image and on self-esteem.

In various cultures, we have different ideas. We

promote different images. We try to look for certain chacteristics
because we think that the presence of this characteristics define
beauty.

A culture may promote certain ideal standards of beauty and it

differs for every culture.

For example, a certain culture may pay attention to the shape of

the nose or lips, to the amount of body fat, skin color, to the
length of the feet and many more.

Castanares, John Earl Don

Our cultural traditions may influence us to have a negative take of

what a beautiful person is.

Example is this tradition.

Among Chinese, they define that having a small feet is beautiful.

Foot-binding was a practice first carried out on young girls in

Tang Dynasty China to restrict their normal growth and make
their feet as small as possible since it was considered an
attractive quality.

During Renaissance period, women with full figure and rounded

hips were considered beautiful.

A particular tribe in Thailand assesses a woman's beauty by the

length of her neck. The Kayan Tribe females use thick brass rings
around their neck to elongate it.

Americans on the other hand have emphasized thinness. It's very

evident on American models.
Filipinos emphasize dieting and body appearance particularly
having a fair skin but westerners think that it's more desirable to
have a tan skin.

Beauty is very important in all societies that is why people feel

body dissatisfaction due to cultural standards

Because of these standards, we try our best reach these goals

about beauty because we think that if we reach this goals then
we are going to be happy.

But in the journey of trying to achieve these goals, we end up

being unhappy.

Cartilla, Jade Kim

An example is when a person gets plastic surgery for physical

attractiveness but doesnt like the result will end up doing it again
even though its no longer necessary.

Another example is when a person has low self-esteem, always

shy and doesn't want to hang-out with people because he or she
thinks that he or she is not physically attractive.

So physical appearance can greatly affect how someone thinks

and behaves.

This is why it is important for us to understand the physical self in

connection to understanding ourselves because it plays a great
role in defining who we are as a person.

But above all things physical, it is more important to be beautiful

in the inside because beauty is from within.

Thank you.