Psychological characteristics of women who undergo single and multiple cosmetic surgeries.

Abstract

Women over the age of 30 who had undergone single (N = 20) and multiple (N = 16) facial cosmetic surgery were compared with a control group (N = 49) on five personality measures. Cosmetic surgical patients were found to be more narcissistic (p = 0.05) and to have more problems with separation-individuation (p = 0.01) than the control group, but no group differences were found on measures of self-esteem and social anxiety. Cosmetic surgical patients had a more positive body image than the control group (p = 0.009). There were no differences between the single- and multiple-surgery groups. The study confirmed some, but not all, of the many prior clinical reports about personality disturbances in cosmetic surgical patients.