Poziom narcyzmu jako moderator relacji pomiędzy obiektywnymi wymiarami ciała a stosunkiem do własnej cielesności młodych mężczyzn

Abstract

The interest taken in one’s own appearance is most often studied with reference to the population of women, however over the recent years concentrating on one’s looks concerns men as well. Generally men are more satisfied with their appearance than women and physical attractiveness is not an important element of Self for men as it is for women. 996 men, aged 18 to 29, took part in our study where we measured 1) their attitude towards their bodies with the Body Esteem Scale (Franzoi, Shields, 1984, Polish normalization by Lipowska, Lipowski, 2013), 2) the level of their narcissistic traits, examined with the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (Raskin, Hall, 1981) in Polish adaptation by Bazińska, Drat-Ruszczak, 2000). Additionally we used objective information from body measurements: weight, height and sizes of individual body parts. All that information allowed us to calculate anthropometric indices, such as body mass index (BMI), index of central obesity (ICO), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and waist-to-chest ratio (WCR). Our results show that the majority of men are satisfied with their body weight, though some of them would like to increase it by building up the musculature. Anthropometric indices describing level of obesity and type of body shape don’t predict a participant’s body satisfaction. The level of narcissism proved to be essential predictor of satisfaction with one’s own physical appearance, but only among men taking up activity aimed towards the correction of body weight. Higher level of narcissistic traits was related to higher focus on one’s appearance, more positive attitude towards body and higher involvement in losing weight or “building” muscles.