SELF-CONCEPT AND BODY-IMAGE DISTURBANCE - WHICH SELF-BELIEFS PREDICT BODY-SIZE OVERESTIMATION

Two studies investigated the relation between self-concept and body-im age disturbance in selected female undergraduates. In each study, high - and low-body-shape-concerned women completed a set of self-concept a ssessments, including both appearance-specific questions and a measure of general self-discrepancies. One month later, they participated in an experiment in which they made judgments comparing the sizes of body silhouettes to their own bodies. Signal detection analysis indicated that the groups differed significantly on the criterion for deciding t hat a silhouette was larger than their own bodies (bias) but not on th e ability to accurately discriminate among silhouettes (sensitivity). Among self-concept measures, overall actual-ideal self-discrepancy was the best predictor of subjects' biases in estimating their own body s izes.