Plastic Surgery

Introduction

Most religions teach that human beings are made in the image and likeness of God. The teachings of Islam postulate that if one does a good deed to another person, they do it God and when they wrong their neighbors they wrong God in the process. Christians, Hindus, and persons who profess other faiths, share a similar belief. Such a teaching only underscores the fact that in the creators eyes, for those who believe in a creator, we are perfect and without fault. Human beings are however not satisfied with that concept. The belief that there is always room for improvement has pushed them to invent plastic surgery. This is a surgical procedure whereby an individual repairs or reconstructs some part or parts of their body usually via the transfer of tissue for either cosmetic reasons or treatment of an injury. This paper seeks to explore certain aspects of plastic surgery via Monkey survey and address the question of why people undergo the procedure.

Methods

The question for my research was about plastic surgeries. It seeks to explore why people tend to do it and why there is a big hype about it. I chose this topic because I'm curious to know how many people are supporting the idea of plastic surgery and to know if they are more people for the idea than those against it. This phenomenon has become popular in recent times in our community, and I am interested in learning on how people react towards plastic surgery. On this research, I've chosen to create a simple survey that consisted of 10 specific questions that I find to be relevant to my case study and survey. Ive targeted Emiratis from the age of 20 to 30 years old for both male and female gender. Some of the targeted respondents to the survey were friends, family and those who actually attempted plastic surgery.

To gain a greater understanding of the research and have a wider view on the plastic surgery popularity, the survey was designed based on multiple choices, rates, and demographics. It was created using a website called Survey Monkey because of its ease of use and the detailed nature of results. The findings generated from the survey consist of detailed results required information, pie charts that would greatly help on my research.

The survey was sent to over 50 people from my community but based in different nations. All the questions were answered, and respondents exhibited satisfaction because of its simplicity, easy to understand questions and found it very interesting after discovering several reasons for doing plastic surgery. I haven't faced any issues with accessing the results of the survey. The survey was prepared, issued and distributed on the 16th of February 2016 till the 1st of March of 2016.

Findings

The first question sought to find out whether the respondent had undergone a plastic surgery operation. Out of the 54 respondents, only one skipped this question but the rest responded. The chart below clearly shows that 55% of those who responded had undergone the procedure, while 45% of them said that they had never had any plastic surgery.

Figure one

The second question sought to find out the motive behind performing plastic surgery. The chart below reveals the various reasons the respondents thought were the motivating factors for undergoing the procedure. The respondents were allowed to choose more than one option among the six that were presented. The options chosen include to boost self-confidence, for media attention, to increase their attractiveness, to correct birth defects, to cover scars that resulted from accidents, or just for the sake of it (vanity). More than a quarter of them (35%) reported that they would have a plastic surgery just to get media attention. 24% cited the need to boost self-confidence or beautification purpose as the reason for undergoing the procedure. The other factors including rectification of birth defects or scars from accidents, increase attractiveness or just for the sake of it collectively accounted for less than a half of the respondents (41%).

Figure two

The third question sought to identify the nature of risk persons who had undergone plastic surgery could face. Again the respondents were free to choose more than one answer from the options provided. They could in fact choose as many as they wished. The choices presented included death, no risk, judgment from others, infection, numbness, and not aware. Surprisingly 48% of them thought that there was no risk whatsoever associated with undergoing the procedure. 45% identified the main risk as that of acquiring infections. A further 30% identified death as the main risk while 25% felt that numbness was the leading risk factor. 12% of the respondents cited being judged by others was the main risk while a surprising 20% did not identify any probable risk.

Figure three

Figure four

Another pertinent question under consideration for the study was whether those who had not undergone the procedure would consider it. The chart below shows that 54 respondents answered the question. The question had three possible choices including yes, no, or dont know. 45% of the respondents answered to the affirmative while 37 % stated that they cannot undergo the procedure. 18% were unsure of whether they would consider the procedure or not.

Reflection

Both the researcher and the respondents have expressed satisfaction with the Monkey Survey tool. The questions were direct and easy for the clients to comprehend and the researcher has had an easy time analyzing the results from the survey to make proper interpretations. I believe that the simplicity of the resource has generated a more conducive environment for performance of the study so far.

Discussion

The first question increased my interest in the topic because I did not expect that many of the respondents would have done plastic surgery. In fact, I have purposed to do another study on those who have undergone the surgery and identify types of surgery they did. I would also be interested in knowing whether those who had never undergone the procedure would like to have one and what would motivate them to have one. If the sample used in this study were an accurate representation of the whole Emirati population 4. 95 million out of the 9 million individuals would have undergone some form of plastic surgery. 2015 plastic surgery statistics reveals that in that year, the number of persons who went under the knife amounted to over 1.7 million. It further reveals that more than 11 million Americans have undergone the procedure. This is just about 3% of the more than 300 million citizens of America. A comparison of the proportion of Americans who have undergone the procedure with my finding reveals that my finding was an absurdity.

The results also reveal that a majority of the people would undergo plastic surgery to gain more attention from the media and boost their self-confidence. This is an uncomfortable finding in the sense that it reveals that most people are not comfortable in their skins. Most people think that they are not beautiful or handsome enough to face the media or the public. If the study were accurate and performed on a national scale, it would imply that close to a quarter of the entire population were short of self-confidence due to possible defects in their bodies. It is also interesting to note that a fraction of the population would do a plastic surgery for no apparent reason (vanity). A study by Furnham & Levitas identifies ten reasons people give for having plastic surgery. He broadly classifies them into two; reconstructive or cosmetic. Reconstructive is whereby the individual need the procedure to rectify an apparent defect on his or her body. A cosmetic plastic surgery, on the other hand, denotes undergoing the surgery merely to enhance one's beauty. Some of the instances identified that may necessitate a reconstructive procedure includes where the individual has: been involved in an accident, birth defects, or has cancer. The cosmetic procedure, on the other hand, was most often undertaken where the person wants to: lose a lot of weight or boost their self-confidence. From my findings, most of the persons in my sample think that most people would go under the knife for cosmetic reasons.

Regarding the risks that people who undergo plastic surgery face the respondents replied in diverse ways. It is, however, worthy of note that most of them think that there are no risks associated with going under the knife. 45% fear that they may contract infections from the surgery while less than a third imagine that they might die while undergoing the procedure. Plastic surgery is just like any other normal surgery, and while it is true that a person might die while undergoing surgery, the chances of death have been lowered by the use of modern tools. It is, therefore, very unlikely that a person will die while undergoing such an operation. According to Walters Kluwer, there is no consistent evidence that undergoing a plastic surgery operation increases the risk of infection as well as death. This claim is in line with the finding from my survey. However, just like any other normal operation, there are certain risks that this surgical procedure presents to persons who undergo it.

Finally, a pertinent question was asked for those who had never undergone the procedure. They were asked whether they would consider it. Interestingly 45% confirmed that they would consider it, but 37% were adamant about accepting the procedure. Only 18 percent were unsure and could be swayed either way. This finding supports the earlier finding that most people are not comfortable with the way their bodies are. Various reasons are attributable to this finding, but generally, something needs to be done regarding peoples mentality of how they perceive themselves.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I explained my reason for doing this research as seeking to find out why people go under the knife to transform their natural bodies. I did my research using monkey survey because it is simple to understand and its output is presentable. The results from my survey reveal that a majority of people have undergone the procedure. This finding is inconsistent with significant studies. My survey also revealed that a majority of people think that the process is harmless without risks. This finding was on the other hand supported by an external research. Before the study, I did not think that people take this subject seriously. However, my findings from the survey show the real benefits of researches and surveys. They produce answers that one would ordinarily not expect to receive. Due to the limitation of scope, my survey was limited in certain respects. In future, I would like to have many respondents from different cultures to enhance the accuracy of the study. The time limitation was also an issue and would like to have more time to do a more comprehensive study to boost the findings. Finally, on my topic, I would like to do a comparative analysis of the incidences of plastic surgery in different countries using the monkey survey method. I would also not mind having more surveys about different topics and different subjects to learn more about peoples opinions and their way of thinking.