Psychological Influence of Fashion Essay

When one thinks of the identity crisis that plagues bulk, one is able to discern the connection surrounded by spirt and its lure on hoi polloi. Con fermentity comes in many a(prenominal) another(prenominal) forms and affects many aspects of adolescents lives. Do adolescents take up a certain way of back because everyone else is dressing up that way? Do they let their hair mother long one year and cut it short the next because of fashion? Conformity occurs when individuals adopt the attitudes or behavior of others because of real or imagined haul from them.Indeed, the pressure to conform to peers becomes very strong during the adolescent years (Santrock, trick 1998. p. 211). More than any other outward manifestation of a somebodys spirit, the clothes has a language all its own. It is a communicative system of communication that bes the beliefs and thinking of an individual. In an encounter, before plenty even speak to one another, their clothing makes a statement that ex presses their age, sex, class, occupation and personality (Flynn, Patricia). Clothing has a language all its own.It can range from constituted and traditional to the outrageous and eccentric flairs. Dress can identify its weargonr with a social group. For example, jeans never go out of style with teens. The difference sightly lies in the style, cost and labels that identify them as designer. Wearing jeans may symbolize that the individuals are members of the same group (Flynn, Patricia). For example during the 1950s, teenage clothing styles grew amidst the sparing prosperity after World War II. The consumer market targeted those who were pampered and had money to devolve on clothes.At the start, the adult designers were the trendsetters in terms of fashion sense. exactly the teens began to assert their own individuality and sported only the styles they most prefer. To these youth, this was a form of their self-expression (Flynn, Patricia). Image builders give a great deal of t hought to the types of images that would defecate the strongest appeal to the greatest number of bulk. Merchandisers reason that they could build into their products the same traits that people recognize in themselves.Studies of narcissism indicate that nothing appeals more to people than themselves so why not help people buy a projection of themselves? That way, the images would pre-select their audiences, select out of a consuming public people with personalities having an affinity for the image. By building in traits known to be astray dispersed among the consuming public the image builders reason that they could spark screw affairs by the millions. The sale of self-images expedited the movement of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of clothing, accessories and other knockout products.Thus, the image builders prove again and again that American consumers are becoming self-image buyers. Conclusion Young people, having identified with many models, have incorporated many di fferent characteristics. Now they must integrate, synthesize, and reorganize these, dropping some characteristics and strengthen others. A new, unique and coherent identity emerges, one in which, the unscathed has a different quality than the sum of its parts (Erikson, 1959, p. 90). Fashion and style exerts a different kind of psychological influence of people, especially adolescents since they are pampered by society.A cast consumer market is bombarded with the advantages of being in a group by adapting a distinctive sense of fashion. It is, therefore, important that people understand the psychological influences underlying this issue. People must be captious in recognizing that merchandisers of many different products connected with fashion probes peoples subsurface desires, contains and drives to find their points of vulnerability. (Santrock, John 1998. p. 211). Among the subsurface motivating factors raise on the emotional profile of most of us are the drives to conformity, need for oral stimulation and yearning for security.People must be faultfinding in understanding that once these points of vulnerability are isolated, the psychological meat hooks are fashioned and baited and placed deep in the merchandising sea for unwary prospective customers, particularly the youth.ReferencesCovey, Stephen R. Living the 7 Habits. (1999) Erikson, E. (1959). Identity offspring and Crisis. New York W. W. Norton. Fashion. Nationmaster. Retrieved Feb. 21, 2007 at http//www. nationmaster. com/encyclopedia/Fashion Flynn, P. (1985). Body language The Language of Contemporary Fashion. Accessed 12