Relationship Between Self-esteem And Body Shape Perception

Method

Numerous past theories proposed that an individual’s self-confidence (esteem) is an essential human requirement or inspiration. Abraham Maslow who was an American psychologist, in his hierarchical system of requirement included self-esteem. He looked at two distinct types of human esteem: the first one being respect from other people as well as the self-inflicted respect, or internal identity regard (Maslow, 1987). To be respected by others involves acknowledgment, appreciation, and of course acceptance, and was thought of being more delicate and one that can easily be lost as compared to the inner self-esteem. Maslow indicated that without the self-esteem satisfaction, many people will definitely be attracted to probably search for it and may be unfit to develop and acquire self-completion. The theory of sociometer maintains that self-esteem was developed so as to check an individual’s level of status and acknowledgment that is related to an individual’s social group. As per the theory on terror management, self-esteem serves a defensive capacity and lessens nervousness about existence and demise (Greenberg, 2008). Carl Rogers, the best type of humanistic brain science, uncovered that the source of issues for some individuals is that they scorn themselves and they see themselves as to be invaluable and unworthy of being cherished; thus the significance he provided for acceptance of a customer unconditionally (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003). By virtue of this reason, even the most malice individuals merit a human and considered treatment. This demeanor, in any case, does not put on a show to clash with systems that society has at its attitude to keep people from making harm-of any sort to others (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003). One previous study has found out that blowing up worries without anyone else’s input can really diminish self-esteem (Baumeister, Jennifer, Joachim , & Kathleen , 2005).

Method

Research Design

In this study, a correlational design was conducted to understand the relationship between the self-esteem and the perception on body shape. Pearson correlation statistic was used in analyzing the hypothesis under investigation.

Sample

A total of 221 participants took part in this study with majority being the female participants (58.8%, n = 130) while males were presented by 41.2% (n = 91). The participants were aged between 18 years old and 45 years old. In terms of ethnicity, the participants were drawn across more than 10 ethnic groups with majority being the English/ Welsh/ Scottish/ Northern Irish/ British (25.1%, n = 54) and they were closely followed by the Africans (14.9%, n = 32). Education wise, majority (43%, n = 93) had O’Levels (GCSE) or A’ Levels (Higher) followed by those with university degree (27.1%, n = 60). The least number were those without any qualifications (5%, n = 11).

Measurements or materials

Questionnaires were administered for this study. The questionnaire comprised of demographic questions, questions on body shape and self-esteem questions.

Data was then entered into SPSS where TEN ‘self-esteem’ items/statements from the Self-Esteem Scale were identified and five of them were reverse coded and a mean of the TEN items computed. For the body shape, EIGHT items were identified and their sum obtained.

Research Design

Procedure

For data collection purposes, the questionnaires were administered to the sample participants where the participants were given the questionnaire to fill in then give back to the research assistant who was helping in data collection.

Results

Table 1 below gives the descriptive statistics for the two variables under study. As can be seen, the average sum score for the body shape is 20.58 with a minimum and maximum scores of 8 and 48 respectively. On the other hand, the average for the mean self-esteem was established to be 3.82 with a minimum and maximum mean scores of 1.60 and 5.00 respectively. The number of observations for the sum ‘body shape’ and that of the mean ‘self-esteem’ were 218 and 220 respectively.

Table 1: Descriptive Statistics

Next, the study looked at the normality of the variables. Table 2 below presents the normality tests. As can be seen, none of the two variables is close to being normally distributed (p-value<0.05). The p-values for the Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests in both cases is greater than 5% level of significance leading to the rejection of the null hypothesis for the normality.

Table 2: Test of normality

Histograms

As can be seen from the two histograms, it is clear that they don’t portray a normally distributed data. The histogram for the mean self-esteem shows a skewed-left distribution while that of the sum body shape score shows a skewed-right distribution.

Relationship between ‘self-esteem’ and ‘body shape’

Correlation test

A test to determine the relationship between self-esteem and body shape perception was done. The Pearson correlation coefficient was found to be -0.436 which shows a weak negative relationship between the two variables. The relationship was found to be significant (p-value<0.05).

Table 3: Correlation test

The scatter plot above further confirms the negative relationship that exists between self-esteem and body shape perception.

Discussion

Body shape adds to our view self-view in the general public. Individuals have general feeling of body shape which influences their feelings, emotions and self-esteem and acknowledgment.

A one-time study established that women tend to ponder more in regard to the shape of their body and endorse more slender figures as compared to the men even as they get older (Ferraro, et al., 2008). This is a reasonable sign of the way that women have a feeling of self-perception which additionally impact their self-esteem and regard and furthermore make them to end up recognized.

In another investigation it was established that the yearning to lose weight correspond profoundly with poor body shape, with a bigger number of ladies than men needing to get in shape (Kashubeck & Mintz , 2005). This demonstrates a feeling of worry with self-perception which then again influences one’s feeling of judgment and sentiments about self. This study presents a strong observation which is conforms to many other previous studies. In our results, we found out that individuals who worry a lot about their body shape tend to have lower self-esteem. This study however did not delve into why this is the case but probably future studies should try to find out.

References

Baumeister, R. F., Campbell, J. D., Krueger, J. I., & Vohs, K. D. (2003). Does high self-esteem cause better performance, interpersonal success, happiness, or healthier lifestyles? Psychological science in the public interest, 4(1), 1-44.

Baumeister, R. F., Jennifer, D. C., Joachim , I. K., & Kathleen , D. V. (2005). Exploding the self-esteem myth. Scientific American.

Ferraro, F. R., Muehlenkamp, J. J., Paintner, A., Wasson, K., Hager, T., & Hoverson, F. (2008). Aging, Body Image, and Body Shape. Journal of General Psychology, 135(4), 379-392.

Greenberg, J. (2008). Understanding the vital human quest for self-esteem. Perspectives on psychological science, 3, 48 – 55.

Kashubeck , W. S., & Mintz , L. W. (2005). Separating the effects of gender and weight-loss desire on body satisfaction and disordered eating behaviour. Sex roles, 53(7-8), 505 – 518.

Maslow, A. H. (1987). Motivation and Personality (93rd Ed.). New York: Harper & Row.

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