It is important to "understand that these feelings can be positive, negative or a combination of both and are influenced by individual and environmental factors" (Healey, 2014, p. 1). There are four aspects of body image: perceptual, affective, cognitive, and behavioral. Perceptual is the way people see “themselves to be fat when in reality they are underweight" (Healey, 2014, p. 1). The effective aspect is the way someone feels about the way they look. It could be “the amount of satisfaction or dissatisfaction about their appearance, weight, shape and body parts" (Healey, 2014, p. 1). The cognitive aspect includes thoughts and beliefs people "may think that parts of their body are ‘too big ' and wish they were thinner and others believe they will look better if they develop more muscle" (Healey, 2014, p. 1). The last is behavioral and includes people that is "dissatisfied with the way they look, may employ destructive behaviors such as excessive exercising or disordered eating as a means to change appearance" (Healey, 2014, p. …show more content…
Beverly Ballaro and Geraldine Wagner explain that dysmorphia is a “disorder in which an individual 's perception of his or her body is radically disconnected from the objective reality of that individual 's appearance" (2016). Bulimia Nervosa "affects individual 's perception of themselves as overweight. People often feel shame and depression and undergo cycles of binging and purging" (Ballaro & Wagner, 2016). Binging and purging is when someone eats large amounts of food and then vomits it up. Muscle dysmorphia is a "perception of themselves as lacking adequate muscularity; it produces intense shame, anxiety, and depression. People might become compulsive, often self-destructive eating, exercise, and steroid-abusing" (Ballaro & Wagner, 2016). Organizations then became involved to see if they could help prevent or at least teach people about these diseases. The National Eating Disorder Association Act is a prevention advocacy in teaching children how to respond to the media about body image. The National Eating Disorder Association Media Watchdog was the next step. It "encourages companies and advertisers to create healthier messages about size, beauty, and weight on the media" (Ballaro & Wagner, 2016). Common Sense Media has reported that "children young as five years old had concerns about their body, and one out of four tried dieting" (Ballaro & Wagner, 2016). Even New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, signed a