Beauty – A Fundamental Concept

Beauty is frequently defined as a subjective quality of certain objects that cause these objects to be aesthetically pleasing to see. These objects may include sunsets, landscapes, humans and other works of art. Beauty, along with personal taste and aesthetics, is the most important topic of aesthetics, among the various branches of psychology. Aesthetic judgments are made based on the person’s interpretation and evaluation of a person, place, thing, or idea.

The prevailing view in the psychological community concerning the definition of beauty is the cultural character-expressionist theory. According to this theory, beauty consists of a combination of five basic components: bodily appeal, personality, competence, importance, and uniqueness. The five components of beauty are determined by human characteristics such as: ethnicity, race, sex, and culture. The cultural character-expressionist theory also suggests that human beauty lies on a psychological spectrum, running from the most unattractive to the most beautiful. Research in the field has suggested that, in most cases, there is a relationship between the degree of a person’s beauty and his or her level of self-esteem, although the latter two aspects are not necessarily related. Some researches have found positive relationships between beauty and personality, but these relationships remained inconclusive.

The concept of beauty is extremely complex, and the meaning attributed to it varies across cultures, theories and institutions. In most instances, beauty is judged according to societal expectations. Aesthetics has been a significant source of debate and discussion for many years, and the definition of beautiful human being depends on who you ask.