The Relationship Between Physical Self And Clothes Choosing Motive

Clothing is "obvious self", people may obtain both self-unification and self-enhancement through clothing. If a person feels self-abased to his own body, he will choose clothes which can maximally cover his shortcomings and make his own appearance conform to the "beauty" vision standard through clothing; But if a person is extremely confident to his own body, he is likely to choose clothes which unfold his merits to the great extreme and let his own appearance conform to his individuality characteristic. The research of the relationship between college students' physical self and clothes choosing motive not only helps college students correctly know themselves well, choose appropriate clothes, simultaneously reduce negative physical self through appropriately clothing and promote their self-images and individual charm but also provides basis of making correct and rational production and sales programs for the clothing enterprise.This research firstly confirms college students' clothes choosing motive through an interview and discusses the influencing factors of the clothes choosing motive; after finding the influencing factor of situation, carry on a questionnaire survey to 505 college students in order to studying their physical self and clothes choosing motives both in daily and formal situation, and then exploring the relationships between them. The questionnaire is made up of The Figure Choosing Scale which refers to the drawing principle of "Figure Drawing" and bases on the Chinese adult population' physical characteristics, the Appearance Orientation and the Body Areas Satisfaction Scale of the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (hereafter referred to as MBSRQ), the Weight Control and Appearance Management Questionnaire which complied by myself and the Clothes Choosing Motive Questionnaire and pictures. The results are as follows: (1)The characteristics of college students' physical selfPhysical self is defined as self-consciousness related to one' body, including cognitive appraisals, corresponding emotional reactions and behavioral regulation of one' body.â‘ The cognitive appraisals of their body:The college students have accurate cognitions of their bodies, both the actual figure and ideal figure of thin students are thinner than the actual figure and ideal figure of fatter ones'; Male students want to be stronger and female students want to be thinner.â‘¡The emotional reactions of their body:63.9% students are satisfied with their body; Male students are more satisfied with their body than their female counterparts.â‘¢The orientation and behavioral regulation of their body:81.4% students pay attention to their bodies, but 99.2% students actually don't carry on the behavioral regulation of their body or the regulation level is very low; Female students pay more attention and carry on more regulation to their bodies than male students; Female students favor in choosing and purchasing clothes, matching clothes, making up to improve their appearance and designing suitable hairstyles to strengthen their own attraction, male students favor in management of their bodies comparatively.(2)The characteristics of college students'clothes choosing motiveCollege students' have two clothes choosing motive:self-verify motive and self-enhance motive. Students' clothes choosing motive is different in daily and formal situation. In daily situation, 79.6% students tend to self-verify when choosing clothes; but the population proportion of students who tend to self-enhance when choosing clothes has increased comparing with Wang Li's research results (2005). Students in formal situation are less likely to self-verify when choosing clothes than those in daily situation.(3)The relationship of college students' physical self and clothes choosing motiveIn daily situation, students' BMI index doesn't significantly related to their clothes choosing motives, but the physical self and clothes choosing motives are significantly correlated, the students who have different physical self have different clothes choosing motive:â‘ The difference between students' actual and ideal body shape has significantly positive correlation with their self-enhance motive under the situation of clothes choosing;â‘¡Students' body orientation has significantly positive correlation with their self-enhance motive under the situation of clothes choosing;â‘¢Students' body satisfaction has significantly positive correlation with their self-verify motive under the situation of clothes choosing. College students' physical self has no significant correlation with their clothes choosing motive. Physical self and the situation has good prediction towards clothes choosing motive.The discussion part is all about how should the college students explore the extension of their self-awareness, improve and beautifies their self image through their own clothing. On the other hand, how should the society do in guiding the college students to build a positive aesthetic standard and attitude toward consumption. At last but not the least, we discussed how should clothing enterprise provide personalized commodity and service to college students.