Perception of Body Size and Shape in Psychology Students

Abstract

An individual's perception of body is not only related to the objective form, but must be understood in a broad and subjective sense, surrounded by feelings and attitudes. It was proposed to evaluate the perception of body size and shape of students from the 1st and 5th years of Psychology at a private institution in the interior of the state of São Paulo. 129 students were evaluated using the Nine-figure Outline Scale in three phases: Phase 1, before the presentation of images; Phase 2, after presenting an image of a “thin” person; Phase 3, after presenting an image of an “obese” person. Descriptive and comparative analyzes were performed using the Mann-Whitney test, SPSS-19. After analyzing the results, the presence of distortion and dissatisfaction indicators with the body was observed, especially among women. The strength of external interferences on body self-assessment is highlighted, and the need to recognize personal values that go beyond the body.