Is It Me or Is It Mine? Body-self Integration as a Function of Self-esteem, Body-esteem, and Mortality Salience
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2005
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1080/13576500444000254
Abstract
This research was designed to explore the extent to which the physical body is integrated into individuals' conceptualizations of self. We hypothesized that body-self integration would vary as a function of level of general self-esteem, specific self-evaluations for the body, and also mortality salience due to existential implications of the physical body's certainty of eventual death. In a neutral condition (no mortality reminder), individuals with high self-esteem were found to hold conceptualizations of the self that include the body to the extent that they had high body self-esteem, whereas individuals low in self-esteem did not exhibit these self-serving body-self representations. In addition, mortality salience led to a distancing of the self from the body, but only for people lacking the protection provided by high general or body-specific self-esteem. Our discussion focused on individual difference in low and high self-esteem and implications of bodily threats to conceptualizations for self.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Self and Identity, v. 4, issue 3, p. 227-241
Scholar Commons Citation
Goldenberg, Jamie L. and Shackelford, Terresa I., "Is It Me or Is It Mine? Body-self Integration as a Function of Self-esteem, Body-esteem, and Mortality Salience" (2005). Psychology Faculty Publications. 1514.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/psy_facpub/1514
