一本教会你“做对”题的6级阅读书 day14 passage5
Passage 5 Appearances Can Be Important
相貌可能很重要
Until recently, it was not realized that the pervasive influence
of beauty may even affect one's career as psychiatric patient.
Research conducted by Amerigo Farina and others,
of the University of Connecticut, and reported a few years ago
in the Journal of "Abnormal Psychology" showed that, on average,
women hospitalized for psychiatric disorders were rated (by men)
as less attractive than a random sample of women from a local supermarket.
How should we explain the result?
We know that better mental health is related to better
and more intimate social relationships,
so it seems reasonable to suppose that any factor
which causes other people to look on you unfavorably
[01:03]would reduce your opportunities to learn necessary social skills
[01:09]and put you at more risk of becoming anxious, depressed, or worse.
[01:17]Physical unattractiveness is a good candidate for such a risk factor
[01:23]because its influence is evident quite early in life,
[01:28]at a time when personal rejection may have long-lasting effects.
[01:35]In the study mentioned above it was indeed found
[01:39]that the women rated as less attractive had also had fewer
[01:45]and less intimate relationships with others in their early years,
[01:50]long before they had had any contact with psychiatric services.
[01:56]As well as the indications that an unattractive appearance
[02:02]is one of the many stresses putting one at a risk of mental illness,
[02:08]there are convincing reports of its effects on clinical outcome.
[02:14]One of Farina's more surprising findings
[02:19]was that attractive women received more visits while in the hospital
[02:25]than less attractive women, and also seemed to have shorter lengths of stay.
[02:32]In a study published in May this year, Farina and his colleagues went further.
[02:39]They followed up a number of patients
[02:42]who had been discharged from psychiatric hospitals into the community.
[02:48]On average, the patients had had seven previous admissions,
[02:54]indicating that they suffered from relatively severe and long-lasting conditions.
[03:01]The results showed that both male and female patients rated
[03:05]as being more attractive spent longer in the community
[03:10]before being re-admitted than patients rated as less attractive.
[03:16]Moreover, attractiveness was still a significant factor when age,
[03:22]education, severity of disorder, number of previous admissions
[03:28]and degree of adjustment on discharge were all taken into account.
[03:34]There may be some who find these studies distasteful.
[03:39]In his earlier paper, Farina reported a fair degree of hostility
[03:46]to his investigation on the part of hospital staff.
[03:51]Apart from anything else,
[03:54]it is disturbing to have to acknowledge the fact
[03:58]that some psychiatric patients have already suffered
[04:02]through the effects of their appearance, and continue to do so,
[04:07]as well as putting up with their other disabilities.
[04:12]In part, this distaste is reaction to
[04:16]what many people feel to be an excessive regard in our society
[04:22]for physical beauty, with a corresponding neglect of other personal qualities.
[04:28]But, given the widespread influence that a person's appearance has,
[04:35]it is important to be aware of the extent to
[04:39]which it may influence the treatment received by psychiatric patients.