Overweight misconceptions and self-concept A psychosocial study of adolescents

Chapter 1

Introduction and Review of Literature

The past century has seen various developments in the area of body image.

Researchers and scholars from psychological, medical and sociological perspectives

have made numerous attempts to theorize and understand the human embodiment

experience of body image from various perspectives. Consequently, body image has

come to be viewed as multidimensional construct, encompassing concepts like body

esteem, body dissatisfaction, body image, weight misperceptions, body distortion, and

many more. Researchers expressed particular interest in body weight estimation and

perception. Weight perception and misperception has been found to be an important

determinant of body dissatisfaction.

The period of adolescence is characterized by major physical and psychological

changes, resulting in identity development and independence (Erikson, 1968; Cheung,

Ip, Lam, & Bibby, 2007). Researchers have found vulnerabilities in identity or selfconcept

during these formative years, predisposes the adolescent to body image

disturbances. The current study makes an attempt to understand the relationship

between these self-concept vulnerabilities, weight perceptions, and body shape

dissatisfaction.

The current chapter makes an attempt to elucidate the various theoretic perspectives

of body image along with various research findings on weight misperception, body

dissatisfaction, and the relationship of self-concept with these two variables.

1.1 A brief history of body image

Dating back to 1903, body image only focused on self-image of individuals with

mental retardation and brain damage. The neuropathological forms of body image

experience were the areas of interest like "phantom limb", "autotopagnosia",

"hemiasomatognosia," and "anosognosia" (Fisher, 1990). Interest in psychology and

sociology of body image only emerged with the works of Paul Schilder in the first

half of the 20th century. He described body image as "picture of our own body which,