Children's constructions of their self-images.
In order to trace the normal development of the self-qua-body image during elementary school age, 250 public school children in that age range were tested. The test devised involved assembling self-replicas from a standard array of 37 jigsaw-like, prefashioned segments representing various body parts. A highly reliable and flexible quantitative scoring scheme was applied to the resulting protocols. Mean performance improved with age until age 10 yr., except for judgments of body proportions. Recurrent error patterns involved omission of arms, hands and feet, underestimation of body size relative to head size, and mislocation of upper and lower extremities. On the basis of the results, it was hypothesized that the arms and hands often are not as integral to the body image as are the head, trunk and legs. In most respects, qualitive performance was not affected by sex or IQ. Performance on the self-image construction test was compared with children's self-drawings and the implications of some commonalities as well as disparities in the two methods were discussed.
D000367:Age Factors; D001132:Arm; D001364:Awareness; D001828:Body Image; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007866:Leg; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D012737:Sex Factors; D012858:Size Perception