Personality traits and defense mechanisms in patients seeking for cosmetic surgery

The cosmetic surgery is a method to create a feeling of ideal self through which one’s pain of being undesirable or lack of self-love is removed. This multidimensional concept depends on many factors such as personality traits and defensive styles of people. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between personality traits and defensive styles in the candidates of the cosmetic surgery. In this cross-sectional research, which was designed to assess correlations between personality traits and defensive stydles the questionnaires wwere implemented to each individual. With available sampling, 80 patients referred to the cosmetic and skin clinics of the city of Yazd for cosmetic surgery were asked to voluntarily participate in this research and complete questionairres. 80 patients, who were not seeking for cosmetic surgery, were chosen from the same clinics as the control group. Patients seeking for cosmetic surgery achieved lower scores in agreeableness trait and used more irrational and immature styles to overcome conflicts. There was a relationship between personality traits and defensive styles of volunteers of the cosmetic surgery, in the sense that the higher the scores in positive personality traits, the higher was the use of mature defensive styles and vice versa. Motivation for the cosmetic surgery has its roots in a combination of psychological, emotional, and personal factors. Traits and characteristics of volunteers of cosmetic surgery had a direct relation to defensive styles of these people. Therefore, psychological counseling is advised before cosmetic surgery for adjustment of more effective mechanisms.