Studies of Body Image III: Body Feelings as Measured by the Semantic Differential

Abstract

A semantic differential questionnaire was designed to assess the connotative meanings of the word “head” as an important aspect of body image. The questionnaire was completed by 203 individuals representing varied groups ranging from geriatric patients to university students. The “head” was described in terms of various words representing the evaluative, potency, and activity dimensions. Non-psychiatric patients in a Home and Hospital for the Aged, the oldest group, and university students described the “head” as good, happy, pleasurable, and active more frequently than did the other groups. Geriatric psychiatric patients and middle-aged schizophrenics scored consistently low an all three dimensions, suggesting that they perceived the “head” as bad, passive, and inactive. These results imply that increasing age per se is less disruptive to body image than is mental illness.