scholarly journals The Self in the Mind’s Eye: Reverse-correlating one’s self reveals how psychological beliefs and attitudes shape our body-image

Author(s):  
Lara Maister ◽  
Sophie De Beukelaer ◽  
Matthew Longo ◽  
Manos Tsakiris

How do we ‘see’ ourselves in our mind’s eye? The question of how we represent our self has been at the centre of cultural practices across centuries, as the long tradition of self-portraits attests, and at the centre of our understanding of mental health issues such as body-image disorders. By implementing a reverse-correlation technique to measure self-representations, we were able to visualise participants’ mental images of both their faces and their body-shapes in a data-driven, unconstrained way, allowing us to visually depict how the self is ‘seen’ in our minds. Our technique was successful, revealing ‘self-portraits’ which were strikingly accurate. However, importantly, we discovered that the facial features of the self-portraits also contained ‘clues’ to each person’s self-reported personality traits, which were reliably detected by external observers. Finally, the higher the participants’ self-esteem with regards to social interactions, the more accurate and true-to-life their self-portraits were. Unlike the facial self-portraits, the body-shape portraits had negligible direct relationships with individuals’ actual body shape, but as with faces, they were significantly influenced by people’s beliefs and emotions; individuals with lower body self-esteem visually represented their bodies as wider. Together, our findings show how psychological beliefs and attitudes about one’s self bias the perceptual representation of one’s appearance, and provide a unique revealing window to into the internal mental representation of one’s self, with important implications for mental health and visual culture.

2021 ◽  
pp. 095679762110186
Author(s):  
Lara Maister ◽  
Sophie De Beukelaer ◽  
Matthew R. Longo ◽  
Manos Tsakiris

Is there a way to visually depict the image people “see” of themselves in their minds’ eyes? And if so, what can these mental images tell us about ourselves? We used a computational reverse-correlation technique to explore individuals’ mental “self-portraits” of their faces and body shapes in an unbiased, data-driven way (total N = 116 adults). Self-portraits were similar to individuals’ real faces but, importantly, also contained clues to each person’s self-reported personality traits, which were reliably detected by external observers. Furthermore, people with higher social self-esteem produced more true-to-life self-portraits. Unlike face portraits, body portraits had negligible relationships with individuals’ actual body shape, but as with faces, they were influenced by people’s beliefs and emotions. We show how psychological beliefs and attitudes about oneself bias the perceptual representation of one’s appearance and provide a unique window into the internal mental self-representation—findings that have important implications for mental health and visual culture.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-195
Author(s):  
A.G. Faustova ◽  
I.S. Vinogradova

Diagnostic and therapeutic procedures used in various oncological diseases are often accompanied by the unwanted and uncontrolled appearance defects. The presence of an acquired visible difference is a significant source of stress, which is often ignored. The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between self-attitude and body image satisfaction in women with alopecia undergoing chemotherapy for cancer of the reproductive system. The study involved 20 women (mean age 52,15 years) without alopecia who start a course of chemotherapy treatment, and 20 women (mean age 51,55 years) with alopecia provoked by 10-40 courses of chemotherapy. An empirical study was conducted at the Ryazan Regional Clinical Oncology Center. Respondents were asked to fill out the Scale for assessing the level of satisfaction with the own body (O.A. Skugarevsky), the Self-Attitude Questionnaire (S.R. Pantileev), and to perform the projective technique “Human Figure Drawing” (K. Machover, F. Goodenough). Based on the obtained empirical data, specific regression models were revealed for each sample, demonstrating the dependence of self-attitude on the self-assessment of various components of the body image. In the experimental group of patients without alopecia, an adaptive level of self-acceptance is underlied by the high self-esteem of the external appearance of the chest (p=0,028), ears (p=0,039), and hair (p=0,017). Self-attachment among respondents in this group is determined by self-esteem of the abdomen (p=0,037). In the experimental group of patients with alopecia, other components of self-attitude were the most significant. The level of self-accusation is determined by the self-esteem of the pelvic region (p=0,048), ears (p=0,043), and hair (p=0,047). The reflected Self-attitude is determined to self-esteem of the chest (p=0,029), back (p=0,032), and arms (p=0,027). The patterns revealed in each sample are confirmed by the results of the projective technique “Human Figure Drawing”. Women with cancer of the reproductive organs, both before and after chemotherapy, mainly pay attention to those components of the body image that are associated with femininity and physical attractiveness, as well as those that undergo severe changes in the process of radical treatment.


Author(s):  
Bhawini Vasudeva

The aim to conduct this research is to enlighten the impact of body image dissatisfaction on an individual’s self-esteem and to examine whether there is a gender difference in this case or not. There are a total of 220 numbers of participants, with equal number of males and females in the sample set. The tool that’d be using here is a modified short version of the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ) by Cooper et. Al. in the year in 1987 and The Rosenberg self-esteem scale by Morris Rosenberg (RSES) in the year 1965. The current research proved that whenever there’ll be higher body image dissatisfaction, it’ll result in less self-esteem. Other than that, it stated that females (M= 22.69 and SD= 3.64) have a higher mean score in body image dissatisfaction than and males (M=23.28 and SD= 3.6), therefore, the men have a higher mean score of self-esteem than females.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Arman Hj Ahmad ◽  
Izian Idris ◽  
Regina Moy Li Jing

Introduction: With the rise and fall of many communication platforms embedded into our everyday lives and the on-going maturity of the digitalization era, social media usage has tremendously increased over the past decade. The purpose of this research is to identify to what extent self-esteem and the influence of friends’ impact children's perception of their body image through social media and how powerful social media in influencing the body image of children.Methodology: The theoretical implication of this study is to expand the usage of Signalling theory, Sociocultural theory and Social Comparison theory towards better explaining children’s behaviours and the factors that impact children view of their body image. 282 children were recruited using the snowball sampling technique and data collected were analysed using Smart-PLS to see the impacts and relationship between all variables.Results: This study found that the self-esteem and friends do impacts body comparison on social media. However, the self-esteem is negatively correlated. The study also identified that there is a significance direct relationship between the direct impacts of self-esteem and friends towards the body image. On the other hand, the social media is found to have no direct impact on body image.Conclusion/- and Recommendations: This study provides a better insight for the government on the importance of regulation of advertisements particularly via social media and for the society at large to create a more socially supportive environment for adolescents to communicate and help them grow their mind-set on the acceptable and realistic standards of beauty as well as contributes to the existing knowledge on the role of social media and adds knowledge to how powerful social media in giving impacts to body image among adolescences.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rina Saraswati ◽  
Nur Hasanah ◽  
Muhammad Basirun Al Ummah

Introduction: The self-concept is all thoughts, beliefs and faiths that make the person know about him and affect his contact with others. Usually self-concept of pulmonary tuberculosis patients is impaired resulting from physical changes such as becoming physically thinner, paler, frequent coughing, body weaknesses and decrease of physical ability. Based on preliminary studies on eight respondents 75% experiencing body image disorder, 75% self-ideal disorder, 100% self-role disorder, 50% self-esteem disorder.The aim of this researrch is to determine self-concept of pulmonary tuberculosis patients in PKU Muhammadiyah Hospital of Gombong.The present study used descriptive quantitative method with survey approach. The total samples were 31 people taken by purposive sampling technique. The data were taken by questionnaires and analyzed using univariate analysis.The frequency distribution based on the self-concept were less (83.9%), mediocre (9.7%), and good category (6.5%). The body image were less (83.9%), mediocre (9.7%), good (6.5%). The self-ideal were less (90.3%), and mediocre category (9.7%). Personal identity were less (58.1%), enough (22.6%), and good category (19.4%). The self-role were less (54.8%), good (25.8%), and mediocre category (19.4%). Self-esteem were less (51.6%), mediocre (32.3%), and good category (16.1%).The largest percentage of the self-concept, body image, self-ideal, personal identity, self-role, and self-esteem of pulmonary tuberculosis patients was less category. Keywords: self-concept, body image, self-ideal, personal identity, self-role, self-esteem, pulmonary tuberculosis patients 


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Endang Dwi Ningsih ◽  
Aan Jana

AbstractOverwight and obesity could be defined as over accumulation of the human bodyfat. Fatover accumulation could be more than 50% than total of bodyweight is consequency inseriouse patologies happened. When growing old, it is declining normally the bodymetabolism and cause the bodyfat storing. Personal views and attitude to effects infeeding. In every person feeding could be effected by some conditions as mood, mentally,personality, self esteem and body image, perseption in bodyshape that be affected byculture, external factors and social context in attitude towards feeding. Regarding of thebackground, the researcher interested to do a study the relation of the obesity with thebody image and the self-esteem on the people of Gajahwongan Village Canden SambiBoyolali. Purpose of the study to know the relation the obesity with the body image andthe self- esteem on the people of Gajahwongan Village Canden Sambi Boyolali.Subjects the 38 obesity villager of Gajahwongan Village Canden Sambi Boyolali. Thesampling technique to be used is saturated sampling inwhich all of the population to beused as sample.The result of multivariat test by double regresi logistic test showed the Negelkerke valueR Square 34,8%. Conclusion of the Research result shows that the obesity variable beaffected by 34,8% variable of the body image and the self-esteem and the rest balance65,2% variable be affected by external of research.Keywords: Obesity, Body Image and Self-Esteem


1994 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 1339-1343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renee McAllister ◽  
Marie Louise Caltabiano

The self-esteem of 69 women attending weight-loss centres was examined in relation to attitudes towards body and weight, actual weight, number of diets undergone and weight fluctuations. Rosenberg's Self-esteem Scale was used to measure self-esteem. Attitudes towards the body and weight were assessed using Freedman's Body-Love Questionnaire. The Body Mass Index was used as a weight-range classification for the women. Body image was assessed using the silhouette chart of Bell, Kirkpatrick, and Rinn. Women with stable weight had the highest self-esteem. The number of diets undertaken was associated with lowered self-esteem. High scores on evaluation of appearance were positively correlated with scores on self-esteem. No association was found between self-esteem and either eating restraint or significant others' attitudes. There was good agreement between the women's perceptions of their own bodies and independent raters' perceptions indicating a lack of body-image distortion for this noneating-disordered group.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-34
Author(s):  
Alicja Głębocka ◽  
Magdalena Rudlicka ◽  
Grzegorz Kulik

Background: Research on the consequences of fear of death often consists of classical investigations within the sphere of social psychology. However, the aspect of body image regarding this issue remains largely unexplored. Aim of the study: The goal of the conducted experiment was to examine the mechanisms reducing the fear of death. The respondents had two options to choose from: (1) increasing self-esteem in terms of physical attractiveness, or (2) lowering the rating of the body image presented in the photographs. Material and methods: The study was conducted using the following tests: (1) the Memory Test, developed by Łukaszewski and Buczny; (2) the Body-Esteem Scale (BE S), developed by Franzoi and Shields; (3) the UMACL Mood Adjective Checklist, developed by Mathews, Chamberlain, and Jones; and (4) the Body Shape Attractiveness Questionnaire. In this report, we present results of an analysis of 221 respondents (108 women and 113 men). Results: Death-related thoughts influence the perception of female body attractiveness. Respondents with awareness of mortality salience rated the attractiveness of body shape as lower than respondents from the control group. Conclusions: The present experiment confirmed the influence of fear of death on the evaluation of cultural and biological standards of female physical attractiveness, as well as, the hesitation of participants’ self-esteem and mood related to sex. The lack of critical evaluation of others and a positive self-evaluation effectively protects an individual against mood deterioration, and these effects were observed among men. However, these mechanisms do not apply to women, since women reacted critically to both body shapes in the photographs and their own bodies.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhawini Vasudeva

The aim to conduct this research is to enlighten the impact of body image dissatisfaction on an individual’s self-esteem and to examine whether there is a gender difference in this case or not. There are a total of 220 numbers of participants, with equal number of males and females in the sample set. The tool that’d be using here is a modified short version of the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ) by Cooper et. Al. in the year in 1987 and The Rosenberg self-esteem scale by Morris Rosenberg (RSES) in the year 1965. The current research proved that whenever there’ll be higher body image dissatisfaction, it’ll result in less self-esteem. Other than that, it stated that females (M= 22.69 and SD= 3.64) have a higher mean score in body image dissatisfaction than and males (M=23.28 and SD= 3.6), therefore, the men have a higher mean score of self-esteem than females.


PeerJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. e12047
Author(s):  
Łukasz Jach ◽  
Sonia Krystoń

Background Weight stigma is a serious challenge because of its negative impact on human health and harmful psychological and behavioral consequences. The aim of the study was to explore and compare the relationships between self-reported body weight and weight-related stigmatization experiences and body image, mental self-image, self-esteem, and stereotypes concerning people with obesity among young adult Polish women (N = 374; aged between 18 and 35). Methods The study was conducted online on a Polish sample recruited through a social network site, a website, and snowball sampling. Body mass index (BMI) was used to assign the respondents to groups with normal or excess weight. We tested whether women enrolled in the study experienced weight-related stigmatization using two questions based on the concepts of spoiled identity and related to the obesity stigma. The Contour Drawing Rating Scale was used to study different aspects of the body image and discrepancies between them. The Self-Discrepancy Questionnaire was used to study the self-schemas associated with mental qualities. The Polish version of the Rosenberg’s Self Esteem Scale was applied to determine self-esteem level. Stereotypes concerning people with obesity were studied using the semantic differential method. Results Although excess weight was associated with weight-related stigmatization experiences, many women reported confronting such stigmatization even though their body weight was normal according to the World Health Organization (WHO) standards. Women with excess weight and women with weight-related stigmatization experiences were characterized by larger discrepancies between the actual body image and the ideal, reflected, and ought body image, lower self-esteem, and more negative beliefs about their mental actual and reflected self compared to women with normal weight and without weight-related stigmatization experiences. The study participants from all groups tended to believe their actual body image to be ampler than the ideal and the ought body images. They also believed that other people perceived their mental qualities more positively than they did. The study groups were also characterized by negative stereotypes of people with obesity, although these stereotypes were more vital in women with excess weight and women who experienced weight-related stigmatization. Conclusion The study shows the similarity between psychological functioning of women with self-reported excess weight and those who experience weight-related stigma. The results also provide guidelines for practical actions aimed at reducing negative mental outcomes associated with not conforming to body weight standards.


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