Psychology Report: Obesity and Related Issues Reflection - University

This report is a reflection on the psychological impacts of obesity, stemming from a student's research and analysis. It delves into the complex relationship between obesity, body image dissatisfaction, and mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. The research employed both thematic and phenomenological approaches to analyze qualitative data, aiming to understand the root causes of psychosocial consequences, including peer pressure and social stigma. The findings highlight the impact of societal perceptions, media influence, and the importance of self-acceptance. The report also discusses the methodological approach, research aims, and objectives, providing a comprehensive understanding of the topic and the research process. The report examines the impact of obesity on the mental health of individuals, particularly young people, exploring themes of body image, societal stigma, and the need for a shift in cultural perceptions regarding body types. The research emphasizes the importance of addressing the psychosocial aspects of obesity to promote mental well-being and self-esteem. The report provides insights into the current understanding of obesity and its impact on individuals, while also offering potential avenues for future research and intervention strategies.

Running head: OBESITY AND RELATED ISSUES
OBESITY AND RELATED ISSUES
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Reflection
Obesity or teenage obesity is a crucial point of discussion, which reflects the potential of
psychosocial and physical consequences. The main reasons/causal agents of psychosocial
consequences are the increasing rate of peer pressure as well as the social stigma, which creates
the base of stereotyping. The reason behind conducting this research is to understand the relation
between bodily dissatisfaction and obesity . The purpose of conducting the research was to
understand the consequences of psychological consequences, which can cause low self-esteem,
anxiety issues, eating disorders and depression. The research aimed at understanding the impact
of obesity on mental health of individuals. The experience of designing the research report was
awakening as well as complex at the same time as it had to base on the social stigma/social
practices, which are existent from a long time but have not been challenged for a positive result.
The data analysis of the project was planned with the purpose of identifying the root causes and
effects of obesity on young population, as they are more socially active. The data analysis of the
research report was based on qualitative research. The thematic analysis is stressed for analysing
the causes of behavioural changes/dissatisfaction with obese individuals as well as to understand
the relation between bodily dissatisfaction and obesity. The approach is known for highlighting,
recording as well as examining patterns of the derived data or information. The patterns are
identified by the grouping of data sets which best describes the specific questions and
phenomenon. The phenomenology approach is linked with the aspects of thematic approach and
it concentrates on commonality of experiences and practices in a given scenario. The thematic
and phenomenology approach were chosen for deducing both the knowledge about the causes of
the psychosocial changes and developing the understanding of the individual subjective concerns

2OBESITY AND RELATED ISSUES
due to obesity Phenomenology is an approach to qualitative research that focuses on the
commonality of a lived experience within a particular group The advantage of selecting the
thematic approach for data analysis is the scope of assessing the problematic areas with the
linked phenomenon. It helped in understanding and interpreting the main theme of the research
project and contributed towards the response of the research aims/questions, which was beyond
individual experiences .The limitation of the data was its dependence on wide range of
interpretation, which was from numerous researched concepts. The data deduced was
comprehensive but missed the detailed expression of data . Moreover, the data and information
was deduced through thematic approach, which reflects the characteristics flexibility, making it
complex to focus on a single causal agent for obesity depression. The findings depicted that
obesity has a crucial link with the growing depression and changing behavioural pattern, which
in return cause the symptoms of psychological morbidity. One of the reasons of the findings has
directed towards the act of practicing preconceived notion regarding specific kind of body type.
The social stigma and unrealistic practices leads to the desire of having lean body type. The
harsh rejection faced by the obese youngsters in the society marks the emergence of fear, low
self-esteem, low confidence and anxiety issues. The findings reflected the ratio of youngsters and
old age people in regards with the psychological changes; the impact of obesity is found higher
in youngsters than old aged people due to the need of acceptance during the period of
socializing. Although, obesity should be considered as a health condition, which can be worked
upon but it is considered as the social ailment. The reason for this perception is the lack of
understanding or knowledge about the health condition associated with obesity. The concept of
obesity should be studied for deriving the way for eliminating the diminishing factor regarding
appearance. The data depicted that the modern culture is still involved in the partial nature of

3OBESITY AND RELATED ISSUES
accepting slim bodies. The media is also responsible in building up the social stigma for obesity.
The decision, which was taken during the data analysis, was the fulfilment of the purpose for
identifying and discussing the root causes of obesity depression. The data analysis was solely
focused on deducing the researches against the social perception and stereotypes in regards with
the physical appearance . The decision was focused on the extraction of facts and researches,
which presented evidences of societal contribution of obesity depression. The presentation of
findings focused on the flow of exhibiting a theme for the causal agents of the adverse mental
health caused due to the rejection of obesity. The data extraction was chosen from the source of
researched evidences with the association of secondary research.
Research project
Research aims and objectives
The research aims to analyses the issue of body image and body dissatisfaction of the people
with obesity of all ages. The following objectives have been taken into consideration:
 To analyse the relation between obesity and bodily dissatisfaction
 To understands what creates the dissatisfaction among the individual with the obesity and
what are the relations between the two parameters
 To recommend the ways in which it can be managed
Rationale of research
It has been previously observed that the impact of obesity is not impacting on the health
of the individual; it is equally impactful on the behaviour of them. This is crucial to understand

4OBESITY AND RELATED ISSUES
the fact that depression and obesity as a negative correlation, there have been previous research
discussing that depression leads to overeating and gradual obesity, on the other hand there are
other studies discussion the reverse it is the impact of obesity which creates lower drive among
the individuals and depression (Grogan 2016). However the debate is not about the relation
between the case and effect relation of the parameters, it is about the impact of obesity in
reducing confidence of the individuals. This has been observed that people with obesity have
been expressing their feeling towards their body as” miserable”, “ depressing” and “disgusting”
which is impacting their healthy development (Schrimpf et al. 2017).The rationale behind the
research is to find out the correlation between mental depression growing out of the disgust
towards one’s own bodies and their relations with the issue of obesity. This is further significant
to understand the fact that the obesity is not exclusively impacting the physical features of an
individual; it is equally impacting the mental health of these individuals. What has impacted the
choice of this topic, as the problem statement is the fact that the impact of stigma in making
psychological impact on the individual has remained a grey area for the research (Weinberger et
al. 2016). Hence this is expected to be research thoroughly following the phenomenology
approach and the thematic method. The aim of the research has identified as the impact of body
image and the problem of obesity on a global scale. This paper will be evaluating the issue by
adopting the phenomenological research approach in order to understand the nuances of the
issue. This paper aims to dwell into the issue of obesity and the research problem that has been
derived from the transcript provided has been the psychological aspects of obesity
(Phillips&Perry, 2015). It has been observed that the issue of obesity is not only the health
problem;instead it is impacting individuals with obesity form the point of view of their body
image. Higher weight gain and change in the body structure leads to the process of reduction in

5OBESITY AND RELATED ISSUES
self-confidence of the individuals. Therefore, it has been considered essential to consider the fact
that obesity is to be studies form the point of view of the societal stigma and psychological
aspects.
Methodological approach of the research
This research is based on the qualitative research method under which the thematic
analysis is the taken to be the chosen approach for this study. This is based on the analysis of the
taken themes and patterns of the chosen area of research. The rationale behind the choice of this
approach is the reason that it helps to derive understanding of the different themes of the issues
form different aspects (Papadopoulos et al., 2015).In addition to this, the thematic analysis is
also associated with the phenomenology approach since it is based on the analysis of the
subjective experience of the individual. This is focused don the understanding the individual
perceptions and feelings in that issue. The choice of thematic analysis and phenomenology an
approach is important to make effective undertakingon the same. It is also important to consider
the fact that the source of phenomenology is rooted in the humanistic psychology (Honer et al.,
2015). Some of the advantages of this approach are study are as follows:
The ability to understand different phenomenon of the issue within the context of the issue. This
provides us the opportunity of understanding the issue form understanding the underlying
psychological aspects of it. These also provide the scope of understanding the larger themes of
the issue from the gathered data and develop further research on the same (Thines et al.,
2015).This research is also important to consider from the point of the view that it is
representative of different approaches under the topic. The centrality of the issue and the
monotone of the research is what contribute to the extensive body of research under this research

6OBESITY AND RELATED ISSUES
approach. The rationale behind this research approach is that it helps us to understand the point
of view of the research and the subjective understanding of the sample size for the research.
Findings
This has been observed that obesity has an important relation with the development of
mental depression. It has also been argued that obesity leading to the lower level of satisfaction
with body can equally harm and create anxiety among the obese pole. It is also responsible for
the creation of psychological morbidity (Preston et al. 2016). One of the most striking features of
this dissatisfaction is the impaired quality of level and dissatisfaction regarding the lower part of
the body. It is also important to understand that people find it difficult to accept their body size
and image since most of them have a preconceived notion of beauty in their mind. The excessive
use of advertising exaggerates the perfect body type that is responsible for creating higher
expectation of the self about the body type (Ratcliffe et al., 2015). When such expectations do
not get fulfilled in the right manner, the dissatisfaction of the individual grows to an unbearable
extent. The impact on psychological aspects like anxiety, fear, self-esteem and confidence are
likely to be negatively impacted by the process of obesity. This is also important to understand
the fact that such dissatisfaction also leads to the process of surgeries and intake of unhealthy
medicines (Spahlholz et al., 2015). This is not only damaging to the body, it is equally damaging
to the mental health of these people. In addition to this, this has been observed that the impact of
obesity is higher on the teenage and kids who are more conscious on their body type. It is more
of a stigma to be obese than a serious health issue, which is way more harmful for the growth of
the teenage (Taylor et al., 2015). Even it is more important to note that researches have argued
that people of all culture irrespective of their age, sex and culture tend to make obesity more of

7OBESITY AND RELATED ISSUES
stigma and the obese people are the once who are targeted than others. Such stereotyping is
associated with the process of lack of knowledge about the issue of obesity since it is not
discussed upon even though it is one of the most common diseases of the developed countries
(Grogan 2016). This social stigma along with the health related aspects of it makes it worse for
the person who has obesity. According to the data, it has been observed that 97% of the people
judge the obese people as stupid while, 90% as unsuccessful, the rest either consider them as lazy
or nice (Voelker et al., 2015). Hence it can be argued at this juncture that the issue of such
dissatisfaction with the body is the result of social stigma and stereotyping and it is not
essentially physical. This is not entirely due to the factor of personal aspects; the social aspects
of it equally impact it. This has been out forward by the scholars that there is number of surgeries
that have come up as are result of this issue of obesity and it is mostly due to the factor of the
body shaming and image of. It is the expectation of the people and the society which tend to
guide the body structure and image than themselves which is one the reason for them undergoing
number of surgeries which (Grogan 2016). These in the long run is likely to impact their body in
negative way, however it is theirs societal rejection which is contributing to this factor. It has
been argued by the previous studies that the issue of disgust among the females is higher in
comparison to the men who have obesity since it is even severe for women than men to maintain
the perfect body type (Weinberger et al., 2016). Moreover, it is also important to consider the
fact that disgust is also associated with the societal stigma of obesity. This correlation has tended
to impact the youth people largely even though it has seen to impact the older population. This
thematic analysis have helped to understand the fact that that there are number of issue that are to
be considered in case of the obesity related issues since it is not a health issue, it is also a social
issue. The research findings have focused on the issue of subjective understanding of the

8OBESITY AND RELATED ISSUES
problem of obesity since it has been one of the key aspects of their discussion; it has been
observed that individual perception about the issue of obesity varies from person to person.
While for one, it is more of the eating habit that has led to the development of weight gain; the
other is responsible for number of surgeries she has undergone. Hence it can be argued that the
issue of obesity is not understood and realised by everyone in equal, way, it changes from person
to person, what is significant here to note is that it is lack of understanding of the issue and more
concern over the body image that is impacting them in cases of Obesity.
Discussion of contribution
This discussion has been able to contribute to the extensive understanding on the issue of
their psychological impact those who are struggling for obesity. This has been further suggested
that the psychological aspects of the individual also create the attitudinal changes in people who
have obesity. This has helped to understand the issue of emotions and psychology of the human
being. This has also contributed to the understanding of the impacts of body image and what are
the factors that shape body image for people. It will not only contribute towards the
understanding of the health related issues of obesity, it developed our understanding on the
emotional aspects of human being (Weinberger et al., 2016). It has been able to clearly
demonstrate that there are number of parameters that determine the reduction of self-esteem, they
are namely social acceptance, body image and the issue of depression. One of the key aspects
here is the issue of body image (Schrimpf et al. 2017). Hence it can be argued that the
development of diversity of knowledge base on the issue of obesity is important in order to
consider it. It is also important to understand the fact that one particular health issue cannot be

9OBESITY AND RELATED ISSUES
understood in isolation, it is equally important to understand it in relation to the other aspects of
human being.
This paper analysed the issue obesity from the perspective of social and psychological
factors. This has been argued in that the problem of obesity is not only a major health issue for
the young population; it is equally a significant aspect of their mental health. Their correlation of
mental growth and physical health is attached to the full development of the individual; hence it
has been argued that the issue of obesity impacts different people in different way, it is mere
health issue for some, while for other it is also the issue of low confidence and lower self-esteem.
Hence this body of research has been focusing on the issue of both thefactors, social and
psychological form on the issue of obesity. The research has been conducted by applying the
thematic analysis and phenomenology approach since it is important to consider the individual
interpretation of the events in order to understand the issue forms a holistic point of view.

10OBESITY AND RELATED ISSUES
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