Kinesiology 2276F/G Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Strength Training, Self-Perception Theory, Kinesiology
19 Apr 2019
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KIN 2276F – Post-Midterm
Chapter 8 – Self-Concept, Self-Esteem, Body Image and Exercise
Self-Concept: The way in which we see or define ourselves
- “Who I am”
Self-Esteem: The evaluation or affective consequences of one’s self-concept
- The extent to which one feels positive or negative about one’s self-concept (varies between aspects)
- “How I feel about who I am”
Significance of Self-Esteem:
- Self-esteem tops the list of needs that make people happy
- The greatest potential impact of physical activity → increase of a participant’s self-esteem
- Since many people see self-esteem as a primary psychological need….. Promoting that PA can enhance self-
esteem may be a strategy for improving PA levels
- Other terms focus primarily on judgements of ability and potential success in specific situations, activities/skills,
or domains
o Perceived Competence: “Do I consider myself an athlete?” – Is a psychological need
o Self-Confidence: “While I feel capable of doing this activity, am I as capable doing another activity?” –
Since I can run, can I do resistance training?
o Self-Efficacy: “While I feel capable of doing this activity in this situation, am I as capable doing it in a
different situation?” – I can run a 2k, but can I run a 6k?
Theoretical Foundation of Self-Concept/Self-Esteem
- Self-Concept Model
- Model of Exercise and Self-Esteem, With Hierarchically Organized Constructs
o The model of exercise and self-esteem is not really a model, it is more of a ‘recipe’ for how to run the
research
o This model is more specific to exercise
→ Both models have been used a lot in exercise psychology
1. Self-Concept Model (Shavelson, Hubner, and Stanton, 1976)
- General (overall) self-concept is an aggregate construct determined by judgements of self-concept in a number
of domains
- General self-concept consists of 2 primary categories:
o Academic Self-Concept
o Non-academic Self-concept
- The base level of the hierarchy is defined by one’s behaviour in specific situation (How successful or confident
were you – will feed into your evaluation of your physical ability and possibly physical appearance)
Non-Academic Self-Concept Side…
- Social Self-Concept: Individual’s estimate of their interaction with others, especially family, peers, friends and
partners. Enhanced by positive interactions with others.
o “I am a loner”, and/or “I like being in a relationship”
- Emotional Self-Concept: Individual’s estimate of their own emotional states
o “I am a generally happy person”, and/or “I can get very angry”
- Physical Self-Concept: Individual’s estimate of both general physical abilities & physical appearance
o “I suck at gymnastics”, and/or “I am a skinny person”
o Our estimate of our physical ability is based on our perceptions of successful/unsuccessful performance
in various activities over a period of time
o Activities must be “weighted” according to their value – Bob’s subjective perception of what’s important
has more impact on Bob’s formed self-concept
16 things in this model
11 things in this model
2. Model of Exercise and Self-Esteem
- Is more of a model on how to research physical self-esteem
- The hierarchically organized constructs that lead to predictions of global self-esteem
o Horizontal Axis – Time & repetitions of interventions and measures
o Vertical Axis – Specific self-perceptions (base) and general self-perceptions (top)
o Intervention – (In the middle) Altering physical interventions/measures in order to alter self-perception
and self-esteem
- Both sides need to be included – one side there is a physical measure *
it has to be measurable
Proposed Model for Examining Exercise and Self-Esteem Interactions:
Physical Acceptance: The extent to which an individual accepts who he/she is
physically
- Even without objective indicators of improved fitness → self-esteem & physical acceptance can improve, just
based on the feeling that physical competence has improved (subjective perception of success)
- Even if the baseline measures don’t show an improvement, after intervention it doesn’t change, we may think that
the variables will not change in self-esteem → BUT THAT IS WRONG
o It is the subjective feeling that you are improve – “I am getting better”** key
o As long as the person thinks they are improving, that’s what has a positive impact on their self-esteem
Self-Esteem: Only subjective perceptions of success are relevant to one’s self-esteem
- Sometimes your own perception differs from other’s
How Do We Measure Self-Esteem/Self-Concept?
- Self-esteem + self-concept have traditionally been measured as uni-dimensional, global constructs
- Introduction of 2 physical self-concept measures:
o Physical Self Perception Profile (PSPP)
o Physical Self-Description Questionnaire (PSDQ)
Physical Self Perception Profile (PSPP)
- Valid and reliable instrument containing 5 subscales: (multidimensional)
o Sport Confidence
o Physical Condition
o Body Attractiveness
o Physical Strength
o Physical Self-worth
- Relatively short (30 items), but limitations are that the response format is complex (not user friendly)
Physical Self-Description Questionnaire (PSDQ)
- More comprehensive than PSPP
- Measures 9 physical self-concept subdomains:
o Health
o Coordination
o Physical activity participation
o Body fat
o Sport competence
o Appearance
o Strength
o Flexibility
o Endurance
- Single-statement items (rating scale from 1= false to 6 = true) = MORE SIMPLER
- Very long (70 items)
What is the Effect of Exercise on Self-Esteem and Self-Concept? ** KNOW FOR EXAM
- Approximately 50% of research studies support a positive effect of exercise on self-esteem/self-concept
The left side of the diagram shows the
basics, the right side shows the changes
you are trying to achieve through an
intervention
- The effects are usually small but significant
- No studies have found a negative effect of exercise on self-esteem/self-concept
- Improvements in physical fitness may be necessary to have improvements in self-esteem/self-concept
- May take a long time for exercise to influence self-esteem and self-concept
Body Image: Mental picture we form of our bodies, “What I look like”
- Multidimensional, and includes emotional consequences of body image: “Body Esteem”
- Ex. One’s perception of one’s body elicits either pleasing/satisfying or displeasing/dissatisfying feelings: “How I
feel about what I look like”
* Look at body image separately from physical self-concept
Dimensions of Body Image:
Perceptual Dimension - The picture of our own body that we form in our mind
Cognitive Dimension - How we think about and evaluate our body in terms of appearance & function
Affective of Emotional Dimension - Feeling’s experienced in relation to our body’s appearance & function
Behavioural Dimension - Things that we do that reflect our positive and negative perceptions, thoughts & feelings about
our body
What Influences Body Image: *
- Interpersonal experiences (teasing, praise, and comments from others on body)
- Psychological factors (self-esteem, perfectionism, social support)
- Behaviours (PA, dieting, and grooming)
- Physical characteristics (body fatness, muscularity, height)
- Sociocultural influences (cultural body ideas, television, magazines, and other media influences)
- Physical changes (changes to body during pubertal years, aging, injury, or disease)
Body Image: Reality & Ideals
- Body Reality: Actual physical characteristics
o Certain height, eye colour, and weight
- Body Ideal: How we think our bodies should look
- Healthy Body Image: When body reality and body ideal are similar vs. Body Image Disturbance (if not ideal
people may have a body image disturbance)
Statistics on Body Image:
- 1973: 15% of men, 25% of women dissatisfied with appearance
- 1997: 43% of men, 56% of women dissatisfied with appearance
- 2006: 46% of men, 59% of women feel that their body is just “okay”
Perceptual Measures of Body Image:
- Started with a scale from 1-10 of different body shapes and people had to choose what they though they looked
like (could be different from what they actually look like)
- Morphing software to alter digitally a photographic image of a study participant → ability to distort arms, legs,
torso etc.
- Can look at actual, estimated, and ideal – keep changing things with software
Cognitive Measures for Body Image:
Multidimensional Body- Self Relations Questionnaire
- 10 Sub-scales: Cognitions based on body’s appearance, health, and physical functioning
- Scoring: 1-5 points, Definitely Disagree to Definitely Agree (higher score is a better score)
- Critique: Doesn’t assess men’s body image concerns adequately → most men’s concerns are about not being
sufficiently muscular (compared to being thin for women)
- Drive for Muscularity Scale: Has 7 items to assess male body image cognitions about muscularity
- Today we have pretty good measures for doing cognition and body image
Sometimes there’s a discrepancy between how we look
(body reality) and how we think we should look (body
ideal) = Body Image Disturbance
