self-image
Summary
Self-image is a person's description of their own traits, abilities, and roles. Many texts treat it as one component of self-concept, and some use the two terms interchangeably. Testable point: self-image describes, while self-esteem evaluates.
Detail
Meaning: Self-image is the mental picture you hold of yourself: your traits, abilities, appearance, and social roles. It forms partly from experience and partly from feedback from others, as in Cooley's looking-glass self (we imagine how others see us and adjust our view). Many textbooks place self-image inside self-concept, alongside self-esteem (evaluation) and the ideal self (who you want to be). Others use self-image and self-concept almost interchangeably.
On the MCAT: Passages describe a gap between the actual self and the ideal self, as in Rogers's humanistic view (incongruence) or Higgins's self-discrepancy theory, and link such gaps to emotional distress. Questions ask which component is involved: a description of traits is self-image, a feeling of worth is self-esteem, and a belief in one's ability to succeed at a task is self-efficacy.
Common confusion: Self-image is not self-esteem. Self-image describes and can be accurate or distorted; self-esteem is the evaluative judgment attached to it. Two people with the same self-image ("I am average at math") can feel very differently about it.
Sources
- Psychology (Myers)
- Psychology (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner)
Written for the MCAT and checked before it was published. For study reference only. Spotted an error? Let us know.