Body Image

Body image is a term which may refer to a person's perception of his or her own physical appearance, or the interpretation of the body by the brain. Body image can be described as how individuals see themselves when looking in a mirror, or when picturing themselves in their mind, and their ideas about their body, such as height, shape, and weight and age. Essentially, body image describes how one perceives one's appearance to be in relation to others.


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Self image
Not to be confused with Self-awareness, Self-concept, Self-consciousness, or Self-perception.
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 colour, 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 this question - "What do you believe people think about you?" 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" (Rogers et al. 1977).

Poor self image
Poor self image may be the result of accumulated criticisms that the person collected as a child which have led to damaging his own view of himself. Children in particular are vulnerable to accepting negative judgments from authority figures because they have yet to develop competency in evaluating such reports.

What is not known to others
Some information about an individual is not directly available to others, and that information may be very pertinent to the formation of an accurate and well functioning self image. For instance, only the individual may know whether certain of his or her acts were malicious or benevolent in intent. Only individuals know whether in their internal experience they are masculine or feminine, good or bad and so on.
Individuals often form a negative self image as a result of physicalities affecting themselves, such as alcoholic parents or other unstable environments, and the use of drugs to unintentionally hurt themselves.
Residual self image

Residual self image is the concept that individuals tend to think of themselves as projecting a certain physical appearance. The term was popularized in fiction by the Matrix series, where persons who existed in a digitally created world would subconsciously maintain the physical appearance that they had become accustomed to projecting.
Self image of victimisation
Victims of abuse and manipulation often get trapped into a self image of victimisation. The psychological profile of victimisation includes a pervasive sense of helplessness, passivity, loss of control, pessimism, negative thinking, strong feelings of guilt, shame, self-blame and depression. This way of thinking can lead to hopelessness and despair.

Body image is a term which may refer to a person's perception of his or her own physical appearance, or the interpretation of the body by the brain. Body image can be described as how individuals see themselves when looking in a mirror, or when picturing themselves in their mind, and their ideas about their body, such as height, shape, and weight and age. Essentially, body image describes how one perceives one's appearance to be in relation to others, which in many cases may be dramatically different from one's objective physical condition or how one is actually perceived by others.
A 2007 report by the American Psychological Association found that a culture-wide sexualisation of girls (and women) was contributing to increased female anxiety associated with body image.

Similar findings associated with body image were found by an Australian government Senate Standing Committee report on the sexualisation of children in the media.
Study finds that women are more worried about their body image than men

Overview
From the point of view of psychoanalysis, the French child psychoanalyst Francoise Dolto has developed a theory concerning the unconscious body image. Negative feelings towards a fat person's body can in some cases lead to mental disorders such as depression or eating disorders such as Bulimia nervosa, though there can be a variety of different reasons why these disorders can occur.

There has recently been a debate within the media industry focusing on the potentially negative impact size zero models can have on young people's body image. It has been suggested that size zero models be banned from cat walks, with many celebrities being targeted by the media due to their often drastic weight loss and slender frames; for example, Nicole Richie and British Super Model Kate Moss. Some examples of celebrity woman [Victoria Beckham], regretted in a similar fashion can be found, but the media seem to focus principally on the effect that the Size Zero phenomenon has on young women. Media however, is generally quick to denounce celebrities endorsing fad diets, including pop stars who describe girls who are not under a peer pressurized size, a "social suicide.

Men's body image is a topic of increasing interest in both academic articles and in the popular press. Current research indicates many men wish to become more muscular than they currently perceive themselves to be, often desiring up to 26 pounds of additional muscle mass. According to the study, western men overestimate muscle mass then that of Asian men by as much as 30 pounds.
The desire for additional muscle has been linked to many men's concepts about masculinity.

A variety of research has indicated a relationship between men's endorsement of traditionally masculine ideas and characteristics, and his desire for additional muscle. Some research has suggested this relationship between muscle and masculinity may begin early in life, as boys' action figures are often depicted as super-muscular, often beyond the actual limits of human physiology.

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