Problem 6.  How do people determine who they are, and how do they communicate who they think they are to others?

Essay Assignment: Fostering Self-Acceptance

One of the characteristics of consumer-base societies is that they depend on creating in their members feelings of inadequacy that can be remedied only through the purchase of one commodity (e.g. hair products, clothing, self-improvement programs, etc.) or another.  Thus, as you read in the case study at the end of Chapter 6 in your text, a high proportion of  adolescent females generally obsess about their body image, particularly their weight.  Your task in this essay is to outline a program that would help some segment of the population address some identity issue that they see as problematical.  You can deal with body image among females (or males), sexual prowess among males (or females) hair loss among males (or females), aging, financial success, or any other feature that people in the United States (or any other culture) define as essential for a positive identity.  In other words, how do you help people to accept themselves for who they are as opposed to what others (largely advertisers) tell them they should be?

You should draw on the case study at the end of Chapter 6 as an example of how to approach the problem, but be free to draw from any of the other readings from the course (or other courses).