Cosmetic Surgery

The practice of cosmetic surgery dates back more than 4000 years ago around 600 BC in India with the driving force behind most plastic surgery developments being because of world war 1 and 2 where physicians had to treat extensive head and face injuries. With scientific developments and technology cosmetic surgery moved to the forefront of the medical profession in the 1970's and has continued to progress throughout the world with the most popular procedures done these days being lipoplasty (liposuction), eyelid surgery, breast implants, nose jobs, facelifts, and Botox injections.

Females undergoing cosmetic surgery far outweigh males at a difference of 90 percent to approximately 10 percent and the gap continues to expand as the popularity in cosmetic surgery amongst ladies continuing to increase, the number of procedures performed on women rising by 9 percent since 2005 meanwhile procedures performed on males have dropped by 7 percent in the last two years.

The procedure which was at one stage only seen to be accessible by the rich and famous is now a viewed as normal and a trend amongst people of all ages and social class because higher demand has lead to lower prices, especially abroad in countries such as Argentina and Thailand who offer special prices for a travel and cosmetic surgery package explaining why Ð''Nip and Tuck' tourism is on the rise. (Appendix 1)

Far from its origin cosmetic surgery is performed more now for aesthetic reasons rather than medical reasons, altering your appearance is not just a external change but also a psychosocial outcome whereby a person is seeking the cosmetic intervention to improve there self esteem, social confidence and quality of life thus enhancing their self-concept.

Self concept is defined as the totality of the individual's thoughts and feelings in reference to themselves as an object.

Onkvisit and Shaw (1987) claimed that the self concept is multidimensional and consists of four different "selves". The actual self which is the way a person actually is, Subjective self which is the way a person sees themself, Ideal self which is the way she or he would like to be, Social self which is the way she or he thinks others regard him or her and a fifth type which other researchers have identified is the expected self image which is how consumers expect to see themselves at some specified future time.

This assertion is also known as the Ð''sans possession' view which has two different discussions. The first is a Ð''personal identity' view where self is seen as a multi faceted, multi layered, social and psychological being and the second view of self Ð''self image' is a trait-centred view where self is viewed as a sum of personal qualities that an individual sees himself in possession of, these include personality traits as well as any superficial behavioural and body appearance traits. (Sirgy, 1982; Morgan, 1993; Baumgartner, 2002)

Self image is unique and is developed through interactions with other people: initially our parents (SHIFFMAN. L., 2005, Consumer Behaviour, 3rd Edition. Pearson Education). Ð''Parents are focused on instilling their children with high self-esteem. They wish to develop their skills in areas that will equip them for life. By focusing on themselves people magnify everything and become aware of their flawsÐ'.... So, the normalisation of surgical transformation via cosmetic surgery is set to continue.' (Once bizarre, now nearly normal, The Sydney Morning Herald, March 2007). Children are now growing up in an image driven culture and will grow up whereby cosmetic surgery is seen as a norm which most young adults in their 20's already believe.

It is evident that self concept can include practically everything but Ð''For most consumers, their bodies are an integral part of the Ð''I', their Ð''self' (I, me, and mine Ð'- how products become consumers' extended selves, Mittal, pg 552) and this is supported by research which found that respondents considered body parts as the most linked objects to self, receiving a near maximum rating of 2.98 on a 0-3 scale, Prelinger (1959).

Justify why self concept would be of interest to marketer of cosmetic surgery

Dolich (1969) and Sirgy (1982) provided evidence that the ideal self is dominant in consumer choice decisions which is why self concept would be of interest to marketers of cosmetic surgery.

Media focuses heavily on being beautiful and we can see this from the popularity of show such as The Biggest Loser and Extreme Makeover who have in many ways encouraged people to take action and alter their self image which in turn has lead to individuals developing self concepts that are heavily dependent on physical appearance.

In a 1997 US survey, 56% of women and 43% of men reported dissatisfaction with their overall appearance which is why both men and women resort to cosmetic surgery. Such negative physical self concepts means marketers of surgery can tap into the beauty need that the media has created.

Women's magazines offer a potent mix of reality and fantasy, and often these are intermingled to create a space wherein imagination can take flight (Exploring the Ð'': The dreamworld of womens magazines, Lorna Stevens and Pauline Maclaran, pg 286). Advertising images may appeal to the reader to visualise herself looking like that or having that image.

It's important for a marketer of cosmetic surgery to understand self concept because surgery is more then the physical side but also a psychosocial change, marketers need to know and understand the underlying reason as to why someone is considering a procedure.

Describe how self concept might influence consumer choice for surgery

Ð''Every person has some self-perception of his or her competence and success in life. If a person views himself as competent and successful, then it builds his or her self esteem. If a consumer judges themselves to be a failure, they would suffer low self-esteem and anxiety, even depression (cast and Burke, 2002; kerpelman and Mosher, 2004).

(Higgins, 1987) examined the relation between self Ð'- discrepancies and self perceptions of attractiveness, the discrepancy between these causes negative emotional states, Straman et al. (1991) found that higher