UNPACKING THE

SELF
 WHEN ARE YOU
MOST BEAUTIFUL?
PHYSICAL SELF

“Beauty is when you can appreciate yourself.

When you love yourself, that’s when you’re most
beautiful”

-Zoe Kravitz
PHYSICAL SELF
“The best and most beautiful things
in the world cannot be seen or even
touched – they must be felt with the
heart.”

- Helen Keller
WHAT PHILOSOPHERS THINK
ABOUT BEAUTY
The nature of beauty is one of the Most enduring and
controversial themes in western philosophy. Beauty, traditionally,
was among the ultimate values along with goodness, truth, and
justice. It was a primary theme among in ancient Greek, Hellenistic,
and medieval philosophers.
The two most-debated views about beauty are:
1. Beauty is objective
2. Beauty is subjective
WHAT PHILOSOPHERS THINK
ABOUT BEAUTY
Before the 18th century, most western philosophical views on beauty treated
it as an objective quality. For example:
 Saint Augustine asked whether things were beautiful because it gave delight, or
whether it gave delight because it was beautiful. He believed it to be the latter.
 Plato connected beauty as a response to love and desire. He asserted that
beauty exists in the realm of forms, and that objects are found beautiful
because they are a reflection of the idea of beauty that already exists in the
realm of forms.
 Aristotle asserted that the chief forms of beauty or order, symmetry, and
definiteness that can be demonstrated by mathematical sciences.
WHAT PHILOSOPHERS THINK
ABOUT BEAUTY
By the 18th century, however, beauty was associated with pleasure
as a personal preference. Some philosophers who hold this view are:

 David Hume – “beauty is no quality inn things themselves: it exists

merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind
perceives a different beauty. One person may even perceive
deformity, where another is sensible of beauty; And every individual
ought to acquiesce in his own sentiment, without pretending to
regulate those of others” (Hume 1757, 136).
WHAT PHILOSOPHERS THINK
ABOUT BEAUTY
 Immanuel Kant- “the judgement of taste is therefore not a judgement of
cognition, and is consequently not logical but aesthetical, by which we
understand that whose determining ground can be no other than subjective”
(Kant, 1790).
 Francis Hutcheson- “The perception of beauty does depend on the external
sense of sight; however, the internal sense of beauty operates as an internal or
reflex sense. The same is the case with hearing: hearing music does not
necessarily give the perception of harmony as it is distinct from the hearing”
(Inquiry I.I.X).
WHAT DID PSYCHOLOGY
DISCOVER ABOUT BEAUTY?
Research found that a person who is perceived as attractive makes
more money than a person of below average looks.

In politics, voters who are not actively engaged in social and

political issues choose candidates based on looks 90% of the time.
WHAT DID PSYCHOLOGY
DISCOVER ABOUT BEAUTY?
The study results can be attributed to a cognitive bias called the “Halo effect.
A cognitive bias is an error in reasoning, evaluating, remembering, or any other
mental process that is often a result of holding onto one's preferences and beliefs
regardless of contrary information.
The halo effect (Also known as the physical attractiveness stereotype and
what is beautiful is good principle) refers to the tendency of people to rate
attractive individuals more favorably for their personality traits or characteristics
as compared to those who are less attractive.
HOW CULTURAL TRADITIONS
SHAPE BODY IMAGE
Culture has a significant impact on how a person feels about himself or
herself, as well as his or her body image. Cultural traditions can either be a
positive or a negative influence on body image and on self esteem. Body image
is generally defined as how one thinks and feels toward one's body (Yam,2013;
Cash & Smolak, 2011).
People see cultural group membership as an integral part of who they are.
Hence, they are more likely to engage in eventsin behaviors that are related to
their culture- choose friends, media, and even marital partners from their culture
(Yam,2013; Cash & Smolak, 2011).
HOW CULTURAL TRADITIONS
SHAPE BODY IMAGE
Ideal standards of body sizes are culturally specific.
 Ideal body sizes for white American women have emphasized
thinness.
 Filipinos emphasize on dieting and body appearance. Digitally
retouched photos are the norm, and this mentality can negatively
influence a person's body image.
BODY DYSMORPHIC
DISORDER
Imagined Ugliness
a preoccupation with some imagined defect in
appearance by someone who actually looks
reasonable normal.
EATING DISORDERS
 In bulimia nervosa, out of control eating episodes, or binges, are
followed by self induced vomiting
 In anorexia nervosa, the person eats only minimal amounts of food
or exercises vigorously to offset food intake so body weight
sometimes drops dangerously.
 In binge eating disorder, individuals may binge repeatedly and find
it distressing , but they do not attempt to purge the food.