Much of our perceived focus is the idealized image that most aspire to have. Attempting to achieve such a result involves drastic and perhaps fatal measures for some. There is ample evidence to suggest that such measures revolve around an individual's eating habits, thus leading to unhealthy and disordered eating patterns. Eating disorders refer to abnormal eating habits characterized by excessive or insufficient food intake and develop from a series of related problems. Much of the research on eating disorders has focused specifically on anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa and their developmental causes. Anorexia nervosa is a psychological disorder characterized by the delusion of being overweight with consequent evident distortion of body image. Bulimia nervosa, on the other hand, involves excessive binge eating followed by self-induced vomiting to avoid weight gain. Both anorexic and bulimic individuals have a strong tendency to overestimate and exaggerate their body size to a greater extent than average individuals. In general, the research indicates a substantial change in the population's vision regarding body image, considering thinness as an ideal figure and measure of one's worth. This persistent tendency to conform to the unrealistic image of the ultra-thin has been shown to be potentially threatening to most women with statistics revealing a 90-95% increase in the prevalence of eating disorders among women (Hesse-Biber et al., 2006 journal 3). . This steady increase in eating disorders has called for researchers to reconsider their root causes. This essay will essentially consider the factors associated with the onset and maintenance of eating disorders among both men and women. The impact...... middle of paper......which contemplates extreme beauty whether real or imaginary. In contrast, a downward comparison occurs when you compare yourself to someone who is worse off or lower than you. Myers & Crowther (2009 in journal 2) went on to demonstrate that these social comparisons produced negative effects on the body esteem of both men and women. As expected, highly neurotic individuals engage primarily in upward comparisons when confronted with idealized images that create high levels of body dissatisfaction, thus leading to the emergence of eating disorders. In contrast, low-neurotic individuals experience downward comparisons (Martin & Kennedy, 1993; Van der Zee et al., 2003 in journal 2). The phenomenon of upward comparison has also been illustrated in individuals who bore eating disorder symptoms while also displaying characteristics of a neurotic (Cassin & Ranson, 2005 in the journal 2).