46 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS more of an effort, reliable, kind, sensitive, and warm. Thus, qualitatively different aspects of personality tended to be affected by each kind of cosmetic, make-up affecting mainly the more outgoing aspects of personality, and hair care affecting the softer, gentler aspects of personality. AGING AND APPEARANCE In our early pilot research on the psychology of cosmetics in relation to aging specifi- cally, a preliminary investigation of motivation for use of cosmetics at different ages indicated that motivations do seem to differ with age, the over 40's motivations re- flecting more concern about aging, needing make-up to add color to the skin, needing make-up to look better in order to feel better healthwise and to help to attract the opposite sex or compete with other women (8). In our research on the elderly (9) at the University of Pennsylvania we compared psy- chological differences in elderly women aged 60 through to 96 who had all aged well with those who had aged badly in terms of facial cutaneous changes and disfigurements that had occurred over the years--specifically dry, leathery, yellowing skin, wrinkling, sagging, circles under the eyes, pigmented lesions, brown age spots, various growths, and so on. Our two groups were exactly matched for chronological age. We suggested on the basis of dermatological considerations that indifference to cos- metic care might have contributed to low attractiveness in old age in a number of ways. For example, use of lipstick might protect the lips from actinic damage and preserve the topographic features into old age. Sunscreens could reduce dermal damage, minimizing elastosis and dryness. There might be considerably less motivation for the unattractive elderly to care for their appearance because of being labelled and reacted to as "unat- tractive" in earlier years. There is now some evidence to suggest that facial appearance provides a reliable index of mental and physical well being. Borkan and Norris (10), in a study of correlates of aged appearance in elderly males, have shown that males who looked prematurely aged for their years were in fact older by physiological measures (tests of heart, lungs, etc.) and were found to live less long than those who were of similar chronological age and looked younger than their years. In our own research (9) with elderly women we found that the physically attractive elderly (those who had aged well) perceived themselves more posi- tively than the physically unattractive elderly (those who had aged badly) in terms of mental and physical well being and aspects of their social behavior. On comparing them psychologically, the group that looked good, the well-aged group, scored significantly higher on a number of important dimensions: they perceived themselves to be more healthy physically, their mental health was better, their outlook was more positive, they were more cheerful/less depressed, and they were better adjusted. They were also more satisfied with their lot in life and were more involved and realistic. Table II shows the mean scores, F ratios, significance levels, and degrees of freedom from analysis of variance for the dimensions along which the two groups were found to differ signifi- cantly. Observations of the skin and subjects' verbal reports indicated that the condition of the skin of a number of subjects, particularly those in the "aged badly" category, appeared to be the result of severe sun damage over the years, probably from insufficient use of

COSMETIC THERAPY FOR SKIN 47 Table II Self Perception of Physically Attractive and Unattractive Elderly: Mean Scores, F Ratios, and Significance Levels (1, 30 d.f.) for Self Perception Dimensions Along Which Attractive and Unattractive Elderly Groups Differed Aging dimensions Low p.a. * High p.a. * F P Satisfied/not satisfied 4.19 6.31 10.43 0.01 Socially involved 3.44 4.50 4.68 0.05 Realistic/not realistic 5.31 6.50 4.26 0.05 Physical health Good/bad 4.50 6.06 6.59 0.025 Overall well being good/bad 5.19 6.31 5.07 0.05 Mental health Outlook on life: positive/negative 4.88 6.31 7.85 0.01 Cheerful/depressed 4.56 6.50 9.59 0.01 Mental state: well adjusted/ not well adjusted 5.06 6.63 10.71 0.01 For all dimensions, maximum = 7 the higher the score, the more positive the rating. * p.a. = physical attractiveness. sunscreens to protect the skin. Sunscreens could help to reduce dermal damage, mini- mizing elastosis and dryness. The work has implications for psychological benefits of using skin protection such as sunscreens and shows that there are benefits from having skin that looks cared-for and psychological and social disadvantages from having prematurely aged skin. Thus pre- mature aging also brings social and psychological, as well as dermatological, disadvan- tages by producing skin that looks bad. In another study (4) the psychological benefits of cosmetics for the elderly have been demonstrated for both the unattractive (who tended to be ascribed to that category by elderly judges on the basis of having badly aged skin) and the attractive (those who tended to have aged well). We found that both groups benefited from cosmetic make- overs in terms of enhanced self image, self-perceived appearance, attitude to socializing, social confidence, and outlook on life, compared with a control group. This was demonstrated by measuring subjects' psychological state before and immedi- ately after the products had been applied by a professional cosmetician* to give a mea- sure of improvement. This improvement score was then compared with that of the control group who underwent a similar experimental procedure but which substituted a simple cosmetic sorting task for the make-over. Very striking effects were obtained in terms of appearance changes but, more importantly, in terms of psychological state. The subjects perceived themselves more positively in terms of self image, attitude, and so on. There were some longer-term psychological benefits one month later also, in terms of self perception and cosmetic care. The group that was low on attractiveness, the badly aged group, improved more psychologically (statistically significant) than the group who had aged well. The results of analyses of variance followed by comparisons of * The make-overs were performed by Glenn Roberts of Elizabeth Arden, Inc.