How would you describe yourself? There is no right answer to this question, but I imagine that you would use a variety of dimensions in your answer — your intelligence, your age, your personality — and almost certainly, your appearance. A growing area of study on the boundaries of health, social and clinical psychology is that of appearance psychology.
The projection of our physical selves to the outside world may be a source of pride, worry, shame or satisfaction. Appearance psychology investigates the way in which our physical appearance is related to our emotional wellbeing, and the factors that can cause this to vary. It encompasses work investigating the role that everyday appearance has on our lives, and also the impact of visible physical differences caused by congenital conditions, trauma or disease. I discuss the subject of visible physical difference in this article.
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