Passage 5 Appearances Can Be Important
相貌可能很重要
[00:01]Until recently, it was not realized that the pervasive influence
[00:06]of beauty may even affect one's career as psychiatric patient.
[00:13]Research conducted by Amerigo Farina and others,
[00:17]of the University of Connecticut, and reported a few years ago
[00:22]in the Journal of "Abnormal Psychology" showed that, on average,
[00:29]women hospitalized for psychiatric disorders were rated (by men)
[00:35]as less attractive than a random sample of women from a local supermarket.
[00:42]How should we explain the result?
[00:46]We know that better mental health is related to better
[00:50]and more intimate social relationships,
[00:54]so it seems reasonable to suppose that any factor
[00:58]which causes other people to look on you unfavorably
[01:03]would reduce your opportunities to learn necessary social skills
[01:09]and put you at more risk of becoming anxious, depressed, or worse.
[01:17]Physical unattractiveness is a good candidate for such a risk factor
[01:23]because its influence is evident quite early in life,
[01:28]at a time when personal rejection may have long-lasting effects.
[01:35]In the study mentioned above it was indeed found
[01:39]that the women rated as less attractive had also had fewer
[01:45]and less intimate relationships with others in their early years,
[01:50]long before they had had any contact with psychiatric services.
[01:56]As well as the indications that an unattractive appearance
[02:02]is one of the many stresses putting one at a risk of mental illness,
[02:08]there are convincing reports of its effects on clinical outcome.
[02:14]One of Farina's more surprising findings
[02:19]was that attractive women received more visits while in the hospital
[02:25]than less attractive women, and also seemed to have shorter lengths of stay.
[02:32]In a study published in May this year, Farina and his colleagues went further.
[02:39]They followed up a number of patients
[02:42]who had been discharged from psychiatric hospitals into the community.
[02:48]On average, the patients had had seven previous admissions,
[02:54]indicating that they suffered from relatively severe and long-lasting conditions.
[03:01]The results showed that both male and female patients rated
[03:05]as being more attractive spent longer in the community
[03:10]before being re-admitted than patients rated as less attractive.
[03:16]Moreover, attractiveness was still a significant factor when age,
[03:22]education, severity of disorder, number of previous admissions
[03:28]and degree of adjustment on discharge were all taken into account.
[03:34]There may be some who find these studies distasteful.
[03:39]In his earlier paper, Farina reported a fair degree of hostility
[03:46]to his investigation on the part of hospital staff.
[03:51]Apart from anything else,
[03:54]it is disturbing to have to acknowledge the fact
[03:58]that some psychiatric patients have already suffered
[04:02]through the effects of their appearance, and continue to do so,
[04:07]as well as putting up with their other disabilities.
[04:12]In part, this distaste is reaction to
[04:16]what many people feel to be an excessive regard in our society
[04:22]for physical beauty, with a corresponding neglect of other personal qualities.
[04:28]But, given the widespread influence that a person's appearance has,
[04:35]it is important to be aware of the extent to
[04:39]which it may influence the treatment received by psychiatric patients.
