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predictive of accepting attitudes towards plastic surgery. Exposure to plastic surgery, from both the media and other outlets, could possibly influence one’s attitudes towards plastic surgery, so this study will also relate familial experience with plastic surgery and attitudes. Parental attitudes can be deterministic of attitudes of their children (Henderson-King and Brooks 2009). College students who are between the ages of 18 and 22 are newly out of their parents’ homes and may still be influenced by their parents in decisionmaking processes and attitude formation, but they are also in the risk-taking stage of their lives (Adams 2009). In this study, I wanted to see if parental attitudes towards plastic surgery are related to their college-aged children’s attitudes because adolescence is a highly variable time in one’s life and may be affected by influences of closely-related individuals. Many external factors may influence attitudes and I have decided to explore the relationship between the attitudes of college-age men and women and exposure to plastic surgery reality television shows, exposure to plastic surgery from familial experience and 3 parental attitudes towards plastic surgery. I use both men and women students as respondents because little prior research shows strong relationships between external variables and men’s attitudes towards plastic surgery. Data were collected by conducting interviews that consisted of 35 open- and closed-ended questions from 51 undergraduate students at the University of Mississippi. II. History of Plastic Surgery The word plastic as it is used in the phrase plastic surgery is derived from the Greek word “plastikos” meaning to create, shape or form (Cock, 2014). In ancient times, plastic surgery was done for those who received punishment in the form of having their nose cut off. This disfiguration is referred to as a “dishonoring wound” because it commonly occurred to individuals who were sexually promiscuous (Cock, 2014). Rhinoplasties became more well known when Gaspar Tagliacozzi performed the procedure for individuals in the sixteenth century. Although various reports may say differently, Tagliacozzi stated that he did this procedure for purely reconstructive means (Cock, 2014). Tagliacozzi’s goal was to dignify individuals who had received the shame of this physical sentence. The erosion of the nose that occurred because of the pox, now referred to as syphilis, is the most well-known example of plastic surgery done for health reasons in the seventeenth century (Cock, 2014). Although the cultural stigmas associated with diseases vary, the need for rhinoplasties to be done for these reasons shows the significance of disease in association with plastic surgery (Cock, 2014). The reputation of individuals who had contracted syphilis was very obvious and physicians who associated with these individuals were morally suspect. Many other surgeons were reluctant to openly do this 4 procedure for debauched individuals, so that is why advancements in plastic surgery did not occur until wartime injuries sparked a need for such procedures (Cock, 2014). In “Plastic Surgery History (2005)” Karol Gutowski reviews the short film A Plastic Story: A Short History of Plastic Surgery (2003) directed by Antoine Hurtado Huyssen. In this work, the earliest beginnings of plastic surgery are noted and renowned plastic surgeons provide commentary on important times for this specialty. The first book about plastic surgery was published by Gaspar Tagliacozzi in 1597. The nasal reconstructions mentioned in this book were done for individuals who lost their nose to trauma or disease. Further work was published in the 1800s and the word rhinoplasty became commonplace. The facial defects that occurred during World War I because of trench warfare gave rise to a new era of plastic surgery. After these surgical procedures were created to reconstruct the faces of soldiers with tragic defects, the first aesthetic procedures emerged. In the 1920s, plastic surgery began to flourish in North America and the first breast reduction and mini-facelift were recorded. The controversies associated with plastic surgery surrounding silicone implants and liposuction for cosmetic means arose in the 1990s and may have contributed to the common beliefs that cosmetic surgery and plastic surgery are the same. The injuries that resulted from trench warfare gave rise to a new discipline in medicine, reconstructive plastic surgery. Soldiers who fought in trenches had protection from the neck down, but their faces were exposed to the enemy’s fire. Readjusting into society was difficult for these soldiers because of facial disfigurations, so surgeries were created by Sir Harold Gilles and Hippolyte Morestin to reduce the mutilations. Both of these physicians worked primarily with dental surgeons to improve techniques for bone 5 and skin grafting that were used to repair deformities in the faces and jaws of wounded soldiers. This work happened at the Queen’s Hospital in Sidcup, England, a district of London (Sykes and Bamji, 2010). Work done on soldiers created the field of plastic surgery that was more acceptable to the medical community. Cosmetic or beautification procedures had been attempted before this time, but they were looked down upon because of their frivolous nature. In the United States, beauty and cosmetic surgery advertisements began in the

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