POTENTIAL OF BIG PROBLEMS

An overweight girl is teased for being fat. A boy with protruding ears is called dumbo. An adolescent girl is ashamed of her flat chest. A teenage boy is taunted for his underdeveloped muscles. Most people who are teased for looking different in childhood adolescence manage to ignore it. But many young people cannot new research shows. Negative body images take root in their minds and even year's later they see them selves as their torments did in childhood. We always knew body image could influence behavior said Dr. Thomas F. cash a professor of psychology at old dominion university in Norfolk Va. and a leading expert on body images. But it is surprising to see how lasting the images can be. By studying body images that endure he said researchers are gaining insights into personality development eating disorders motives for plastic surgery and the cultural standards of physical attractiveness for American man and women.