Self-Image

A Self-Image is a concreate mental representation that is a self-conception

• Context:
  • It can (typically) include both physical attributes (e.g., height, weight, hair color) and psychological attributes (e.g., intelligence, personality traits).
  • It can (often) be influenced by personal experiences and social interactions.
  • It can involve how one sees oneself, how one thinks others see them, and how one perceives others see them.
  • It is generally resistant to change, even in the face of contradictory evidence.
  • It is a part of one's self-schema, influencing how self-related information is encoded and recalled in memory.
  • It can impact one's self-esteem, self-concept, and overall mental health.
  • It can range from being highly positive to highly negative, affecting one's outlook on life and behavior.
  • It can evolve over time with new experiences and changing social environments.
  • It can be studied in fields like psychology, sociology, and cognitive science.
  • ...
• Example(s):
  • Body Self-Image, such as a tall-person self-image, an overweight-person self-image, a muscular-person self-image, a thin-person self-image, or an attractive-person self-image.
  • Professional Self-Image, such as a competent-professional self-image, a successful-executive self-image, an expert-technician self-image, or a novice-employee self-image.
  • Gender Self-Image, such as a masculine self-image, a feminine self-image, a transgender self-image, or a non-binary self-image.
  • Cultural Self-Image, such as an American self-image, a Hispanic self-image, an Asian self-image, or a European self-image.
  • Academic Self-Image, such as an intelligent-student self-image, a struggling-learner self-image, a gifted-student self-image, or an average-student self-image.
  • Social Self-Image, such as a popular-person self-image, a shy-person self-image, an outgoing-person self-image, or a lonely-person self-image.
  • Athletic Self-Image, such as a strong-athlete self-image, a fast-runner self-image, a skilled-gymnast self-image, or an uncoordinated-person self-image.
  • Emotional Self-Image, such as a happy-person self-image, an emotionally-unstable self-image, a calm-person self-image, or a sensitive-person self-image.
  • ...
• Counter-Example(s):
  • an Image of Another.
• See: Self-Referential Encoding, Mind, Gender, I.Q., Self-Schema, Schema (Psychology), Psychological Attachment, Self-Esteem, Self-Concept, Body Image, Identity, Self-Perception, Self-Referential Encoding, Internalization (Psychology), Self-Concept, Self-Schema, Schema (Psychology).

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References

2024

• (Wikipedia, 2024) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-image Retrieved:2024-6-9.
  • Self-image is the mental picture, generally of a kind that is quite resistant to change, that depicts not only details that are potentially available to an objective investigation by others (height, weight, hair color, etc.), but also items that have been learned by persons about themselves, either from personal experiences or by internalizing the judgments of others. In some formulations, it is a component of self-concept.

    Self-image may consist of six types: # Self-image resulting from how an individual sees oneself. # Self-image resulting from how others see the individual. # Self-image resulting from how the individual perceives the individual seeing oneself. # Self-image resulting from how the individual perceives how others see the individual.

    1. Self-image resulting from how others perceive how the individual sees oneself.
    2. Self-image resulting from how others perceive how others see the individual.
  • These six types may or may not be an accurate representation of the person. All, some, or none of them may be true.

    A more technical term for self-image that is commonly used by social and cognitive psychologists is self-schema. Like any schema, self-schemas store information and influence the way we think and remember. For example, research indicates that information which refers to the self is preferentially encoded and recalled in memory tests, a phenomenon known as "self-referential encoding". Self-schemas are also considered the traits people use to define themselves, they draw information about the self into a coherent scheme.

2015

• (Wikipedia, 2015) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/self-image Retrieved:2015-5-11.
  • A person's self-image is the mental picture, generally of a kind that is quite resistant to change, that depicts not only details that are potentially available to objective investigation by others (height, weight, hair color, gender, I.Q. score, etc.), but also items that have been learned by that person about himself or herself, either from personal experiences or by internalizing the judgments of others.

    A simple definition of a person's self-image is their answer to the question "What do you believe people think about you?".

    Self-image may consist of three types:

    1. Self-image resulting from how the individual sees himself or herself.
    2. Self-image resulting from how others see the individual.
    3. Self-image resulting from how the individual perceives others see him or her.
  • These three types may or may not be an accurate representation of the person. All, some or none of them may be true.

    A more technical term for self-image that is commonly used by social and cognitive psychologists is self-schema. Like any schema, self-schemas store information and influence the way we think and remember. For example, research indicates that information which refers to the self is preferentially encoded and recalled in memory tests, a phenomenon known as “Self-referential encoding”. Self-schemas are also considered the traits people use to define themselves, they draw information about the self into a coherent scheme.

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