Four Methods Of Measuring Body Image And Overall Self-esteem, Life Satisfaction Relationship

Using BMI, perceived physical self-worthiness, behavior intention of changing body image, self-esteem and life satisfaction compared four measurement techniques of four body image measure methods (Questionnaire, Image Identification, Image Adjustment and Implicit Experiment). Studied the relationships of body image and self-esteem, life satisfaction. The body image of the college students was also discussed. Figure Selection Scale was made in accordance with the body feature of Chinese adults, Figure Adjustment Technique was made according to the principle of"Distorting Photograph Technique (Glucksman & Hirsch, 1969)", and Body Image IAT was adapted from Implicit Association Test (Greenwald, McGhee & Schwartz, 1998). The range, content and dimension of Body Attractiveness Scale , Figure Selection Scale, Figure Adjustment Technique and Body Image IAT were same. The date was obtained using these four techniques and Body Worthiness Scale (BWS), Self Esteem Scale (SES), General Life Satisfaction Scale (GLSS) after Latin square designed. 160 college students (97 male, 63 female, mean age 21.208) of sports university participated in this study. Factor Analysis indicated that, different from the method of the Implicit Experiment, Questionnaire, Image Identification and Body Adjustment were explicit measure methods of body image. The explicit body image was separated from the implicit. The correlation between the explicit body image and self-esteem are significantly but low. Hierarchical Regression analysis indicated that body image also attributed to prediction on life satisfaction after controlling the attribution of self-esteem. Implicit body image measurement indicated that university students had body self bias and the gender difference is not significant. Explicit measurement indicated that both male and female students were unsatisfied with their true body, and male wished stronger and female wished thinner. The perceived of what's the most attractive image of opponent gender was not balanced. The female students correctly perceived what the male thought, but the male students thought the female prefered stronger male image.