Body-Cathexis and Self-Esteem: The Importance of Subjective Importance

Summary

Research investigating the relationship between body-cathexis and self-esteem has frequently dealt with the problem of the use of body-cathexis scores weighted by the S's rating of the personal importance of body aspects. Since the original research in this area, two studies have presented contradictory data testing the hypothesis that the greater the importance of body aspects to the individual, the greater the correlation between self-esteem and body-cathexis. This hypothesis is tested here using several approaches to the question. These data clearly indicate that there is no relationship between Ss' subjectively stated importance of body aspects and statistical importance in the form of correlations between body-cathexis and self-esteem.