Psychosocial adjustment to visible difference

Some years ago, a plastic surgeon contacted the Centre for Appearance Research with a problem. Why was it, he wanted to know, that although there was great diversity in the extent of physically disfiguring conditions in his outpatient clinics, and a similar diversity in the degree of distress and behavioural avoidance in his patients, he could identify no pattern relating the two? An examination of what was then the best available literature revealed a lack of clarity in outcomes, processes, and relevant models to investigate this relationship. Thus began a long-term research programme to explain the antecedents of good and poor psychosocial outcome in relation to visible differences.