A Sociological Study on Women's Motivations for Pursuing Cosmetic Surgery

The present research is a sociological study on why women tend to undergo cosmetic surgeries. The study also aims to perform a typology of the motives، attitudes towards body، and methods of creating meaning for such conditions by people in order to justify the manipulation of the body. The statistical population included all women who had undergone cosmetic surgery between 2011 and 2013 in Tehran، as well as those who intended to do so. The research method was a qualitative one، and the data was collected using semi-structural interviews. Using the snowball and purposeful- theoretical sampling method، 30 subjects between the ages of 20 to 34 visiting cosmetic surgery clinics were interviewed. The results showed that women’s motivation to do cosmetic surgeries are classifiable under two general categories of personal reasons (motivations fastened to the self) and transpersonal reasons (motivations fastened to trans-self). Personal reasons are categorized at the analytical level of common sense. Transpersonal reasons are classifiable to middle and large analytical level based on the conditions and circumstances where individuals are surrounded by. At the middle level، family and family conditions، and at the large scale، social conditions are effective as the source of creating motivation for cosmetic surgeries that are different based on the circumstances. According to the mentioned analytical model، mentalities of the individuals towards self، and the actors’ transpersonal factors effective in cosmetic surgery are analyzed.