Clothing and Human Behavior

a combination of concepts from a number of dsciplines or feilds of study to provides the broadest foundatinon for the study of clothing and personal adornment

Culture

learned behaviors beliefs attitudes value and ideals generally shared by members of a group. 

sociology

study of cultures 9the science that investigates the structure of a scoiety and how it develops

psychology

looks at mental characteristics/ study of mental and behavioral characteristics of an individual group

Definning the field

clothing and adornment and human behavior social psychology of clothing adornment and human behavior/ is concerned with the role that clothes and... play

clothing

and tangible or material object connected to the body

personal adornment

related to clothing but encompases and for of tbodily decoration or alteration

adornment

universal term commonly associated with aesthetics (adornment of house or yard)

Dress

often used interchangeably with adornment however dress specifically refers to act of covering the body with clothing and accessories

appearance

the broad meaning of all that we have defined but includes ohysical attributes (body/face) as well as clothing and other models of other adornment

fashion

tremendous influence on form of collective behavior that sis socially approved at a given time but is expected to change fashion as it relates to clothing styles are those styles that are accepted and worn by many members in a society

culture

a learned complex of attitueds moral laws customs and habits acquired as a member of society

ethnocentrism

conviction that one own group is superior to others

cultural empathy

comprehension of cultural differences and hoe differeneces affect society and business

Anthropologists

make cross cultural comparisons of diverse societies comparing objects

Historians

makes it possible to interrupt the current clothing phenomena against the perspective of time

psychologists

concerned with how an individual reacts to a certain stimuli

sociologists

concerened with human behavior and interactions

interpretaion of fashion change

economic

psychoanalytic

economic

change

introduction of new style is wasteful because it encourages consumers to discard obsolete styles before they are worn out

psychoanalytic

change

styles change because people have a basic need to display different parts of thier body at different times in history so sexual interest will be maintained

early interest in the social aspects of dress

the development of social psychilogy of clothing began in 1800s it has mushroomed since due to interest in consumers and consumer movement

reasons for interest in social behavior consequences of clothing and adornment

1) womens dress reform movement took place in late 1800s theme was garment amelia bloomer, masculine more movement also known as bifurated garments (symbol of freedom)

2) democratization of fashion in 1850s there were 3 main sources for fashion= haute couture, dress makers, and tailors/homemade

3) 3 events made fashino more available sewing machines, production of aptters, and factory made.

development of study of clothing and adornment

-mass production of dress in 1920s w/ new york as the center because mass number of immigrants and cheap labor/ highly skilled

-growth of the middle class democratization of fashion  (ww1) females obtained industrial jobs flapper era, boyish figures, bobbed hair all symbolized freedom and feuled interest in the study

evidence of early use

accories metal

artifacts tools used for adornment (coke bottle aka ubiquitos/ everywhere)

artwork in caves

natural dyes and pigments (cochineal= red)

adornment theory

most widely accepted theory

products were multi purpose

 for 2 reasons 1) to be mor accepted 2) to increase inself confidence

Types of adornment

External (temporary use)

Corporal (decoratin of the ohysical body itself)

power extendors

which increase the amount of space taken up by the body

stimulators

focus the senses onthe movement of the body in space