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friends and others whom they thought may enjoy participating. To ensure that the desired age category was maintained, I specifically requested that participants encourage current undergraduate students to volunteer. I was the sole interviewer. The 35 question interview used for data collection consisted of both closed- and open-ended questions. The interview and procedures for this study were approved by IRB as Exempt under 45 CF 46.101(b) (#2). I started the interviews by telling participants about my interest in this topic and giving a brief overview of the differences between reconstructive plastic surgery. Most interviews lasted about fifteen minutes, but some participants took additional time. No interview lasted more than thirty minutes. The 17 majority of the questions used were modified or directly drawn from the Acceptance of Cosmetic Surgery Scale (ACSS) (Henderson-King and Henderson-King 2005) and the Cosmetic Surgery Attitudes Questionnaire (CSAQ) (Sarwer et al. 2005), and used fivepoint response scales beginning with strongly agree and ending in strongly disagree. Questions that were not drawn from these instruments were created by me with the assistance of my research advisor. All interview questions can be found can be found in Appendix A. The interview instrument assessed three key independent variables among other variables. Research participants were first asked about family history regarding plastic surgery (“As far as you know, has anyone in your family gotten plastic surgery?”). This variable was measured because previous exposure to plastic surgery that is not media content may be a predictor of certain attitudes towards plastic surgery. Individuals with family members who have had positive experiences with plastic surgery might have the tendency to have positive attitudes towards plastic surgery. Those who have family members who have had negative plastic surgery procedures might have negative feelings towards the plastic surgery practice and have anxieties when considering such procedures themselves. Responses to this question showed that half of the participants did know a family member that had plastic surgery and the other half did not. The second and third key questions in the interview are related to how likely individuals are to give advice to others about getting plastic surgery. Speaking to others about a topic may reveal one’s opinions and attitudes about that topic. Questions sixteen through twenty-one are associated with talking about having cosmetic procedures to family, friends and strangers and were followed up with “why?” to obtain qualitative 18 data. Reluctance and eagerness were used in these questions because they represent extremes and can provide information that reveals a dramatic difference in behavior that is related to one’s attitudes towards plastic surgery. Differentiating between family, friends, and strangers may reveal privacy concerns regarding plastic surgery. To determine exposure to plastic surgery reality television programs, individuals were asked about their familiarity with these programs (“How familiar are you with plastic surgery reality television shows?”) and had response options that gauged the exposure (“not familiar, never heard of them,” “not very familiar, may have heard of them,” “have heard of it, never seen them,” “familiar, occasionally watch them” or “very familiar, regularly watch them”). This independent variable is of interest because of the possible relationship between repeated exposure to content and desensitization of taboo body modification practices. Twenty-five participants answered with “familiar, occasionally watch them” response. The distribution of participant responses can be viewed in Figure 1. A follow up question identifying what reality shows this age category watched was used to see if individuals who watch this content favor similar programs or have seen some of the original shows of this genre. 19 Parental attitudes towards plastic surgery were measured in questions twenty-five and twenty-six by asking participants how supportive their mother or father would be if they decided to have plastic surgery. These questions were asked towards the end of the interview and are present to explore the relationship that familial expectations and attitudes towards plastic surgery have with each participant’s attitudes. The responses to these questions were varied and can be viewed in Table 1. This independent variable is an important measure because pressures or influence of close individuals could relate to one’s attitudes towards plastic surgery. Question twenty-seven is also associated with influence but is focused on how participants think their friends’ attitudes are influenced by plastic surgery related media content. One cannot assume that individuals who are close to one another share common attitudes, but this question was included to determine the prevalence of surgery acceptance and rejection within the respondents’ friend groups. Table 1: Perceived Parental Support for having Plastic Surgery. Strongly agree Agree Neither agree nor disagree Disagree Strongly disagree Don't know Total 26. My mother would support me if I choose to get plastic surgery.
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